St Louis Cardinals Football

It doesn’t really have a special name, but it has a distinction: the lowest scoring playoff game in NFL history, a 5-0 victory for the Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl.

The Cowboys were the NFC East Champions with a record of 10-4, going 7–1 at home, with their only loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, who swept them.  There was also a quarterback controversy between Roger Staubach and Craig Morton.  Morton had the better season, with a QB rating of 89.8 with 1,819 yards, 15TDs and 7 INTs, while Staubach’s rating was 42.9 with 549 yards, 2 TDs and 8 INTs in three of the 14 games.  CB Mel Renfro was the team’s only Pro Bowler that season.

The Lions also came into the game as a 10-4 wild card, having finished second to the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Central.  The Lions also went 7-1 at home that season, with their only loss coming to the Vikes, who swept them.  Bill Munson and Greg Landry were the two starting QBs.  Munson played eight games, Landry six, throwing for 1,049 yards, 10 TDs and 7 INTs and 1,072, 9 TDs and 5 INTs respectively.  FB Mel Farr, TE Charlie Sanders, C Ed Flanagan, and LB Paul Naumoff were all Pro Bowl starters.

Other than the yawn-inducing score, it’s perhaps a good indicator of how bad Super Bowl V was going to be.  The two teams combined for an awful 102 net passing yards.  Although Dallas’ ground game with Duane Thomas and Walt Garrison did account for an impressive 209 yards, they only amassed 231 total yards, so you do the math on the kind of day Dallas QB Craig Morton had.  The story was even worse on the Lions sideline, with 156 total yards amassed, including 80 passing, and three turnovers.  The only scores were a Mike Clark 26-yd field goal and a safety in the 4th Q.  If you loved defensive struggles, you were all over this game.  If you liked exciting football, though, you were probably at the stores returning bad Christmas gifts.