Still in 1979, Vince Ferragamo threw three TD passes to beat the Cowboys 21-19 in the first playoff game. The third was a 50-yard pass to Billy Waddy with under two minutes, perfectly thrown. The Rams never hit a pass like that in previous years. In the NFC Championship game they shut out Tampa Bay 9-0 with three field goals and an almost perfect defensive performance.BD Sullivan wrote:Naturally, '79 was the season they finally reached the Super Bowl.conace21 wrote:The Rams usually had decent QB play in the regular season. 1975 and 1978 are the only years I would say it was below average. Hadl made the Pro Bowl in his up and down 1973 season, and James Harris made it the following year. 1979 was probably the worst QB play by the mid to late 70s Rams.Rupert Patrick wrote:I never understood the Rams issues with QB's in the 70's, this in my opinion was the only reason they did not win a Super Bowl in the 1973-78 window. They had everything else, the defense, a strong rushing game, good receivers, but like the Bears post Super Bowl XX, a "QB of the Month" club. It started with the Gabriel trade, then they brought in a lot of retreads like Hadl and Namath although they were drafting quality talent like Haden and Jaworski. If they would have just stuck with Jaworski and Haden, they would have solved their problems and the two of them would have formed a great combo a la Woodley and Strock or Waterfield and Van Brocklin.
The QB performance during the 1979 regular season left a lot to be desired. Haden was so-so (again) that year and was injured during his best game. They even brought Bob Lee out of retirement to relieve Ferragamo in wins over the 49ers and Vikings.