NFL Game of the Week

A third straight NFL championship would be awfully hard for Miami to achieve. New England gave them a reason to doubt, as the Pats opened the year at Schafer Stadium in Foxboro, and came out winners. For Miami, that third loss in 35 games was probably the hardest to swallow.

It's the first time a regular-season football game went to overtime. Pittsburgh and Denver learned and taught a lot in the extra fifteen minutes of this September 22 contest. The result, ironically, was a 35-35 stalemate, since neither team could score.

New England, at 2-0, continued their magic carpet ride through the first half of the season. This time, it was the Rams who paid.

Dallas was not enjoying the kind of season you would expect from a club that had yet to be named ""America's Team."" In this Oct. 6 rematch of the teams that had faced off in the 1973 NFC Championship, the Cowboys played the Vikings tougher.

For years, the Cardinals had been a have-not in the NFC. But this season was the first major exception. Tight end Jackie Smith outmuscled the Doomsday defense for a score as St. Louis won, 31-28.

The Bills welcomed the Patriots on October 20, and welcomed the chance to knock the Pats off the unbeaten mountain. Despite the close score, Buffalo more or less had New England's number all day.

When they first met in Cleveland three years before, Denver shut out the Browns. Now, on Oct. 27, their roles were reversed. The Broncos were just starting a winning tradition, while Cleveland was in the start of its first period of dread. But you wouldn't have known it from this game, which the Browns won, 23-21.

The fall of the '74 Patriots began Nov. 3 at Foxboro. New England's injuries really caught up with them. In a fiercely-fought contest, Buffalo held on to a one-point victory.

The Giants' decade of their discontent seemed crystallized at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut. ""Big Blue"" had been forced to play their home games in the Yale Bowl for much of '73 and all of '74, and they won there only once. Perhaps the epitomy of the Giants' pitiful '74 season was this Nov. 10 game with the Jets. Joe Namath was allowed one last glorious game, looking like the Joe of old. He scrambled for the touchdown that tied the game, and his passing produced the first overtime victory in NFL regular-season play.

Buffalo and Miami were tied atop the AFC East by now. Before this game of Nov. 17, Bills head coach Lou Saban told his players, ""You gotta get it done."" But they could not. For the Bills were in the vice grip of two Dolphin laws. They hadn't lost in the Orange Bowl in three years, and all decade long, they never lost to Buffalo. This particular game epitomized Bills' failure at Miami's hot hands.

In 1974, the surest route to victory was playing the New York Giants in the Yale Bowl. St. Louis's ""Cardiac Catds"" were up to their usual tense selves, scratching out a 23-21 triumph. The ninth win of their season, ensured the Cardinals a berth in the playoffs for the first time since they lost the 1948 NFL Championship in snowy Philly.

On Thanksgiving Day 1974, the Dallas Cowboys were desperate for a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Washington Redskins kept up their word to knock Dallas QB Roger Staubach out. But that only produced a golden moment in Cowboys history, and untested rookie quarterback Clint Longley engineered it. Later the NFL would consider this 24-23 Dallas comeback the greatest regular-season game of 1974.

The Steelers and Patriots ended their 1974 season in marked contrast to the way they began. New England had suffered too many costly injuries, which helped bury their 5-0 start. When they hosted Pittsburgh on December 8, the Patriots were lucky to keep the game as close as they did. When the game ended and the Steelers had their 21-17 win, the entire AFC playoff ranking was set.

A great coaching career came to an end as Sid Gillman, now with the Oilers, led Houston to its first .500 finish since the league merger. The groundwork was laid for Houston's love affair with the Oilers.

The AFC Championship game, held on December 29, 1974, featured a highly anticipated matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders. The game was played at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California. The Steelers, led by head coach Chuck Noll, had finished the regular season with a 10-3-1 record and were the AFC Central division champions. The Raiders, coached by John Madden, had an impressive 12-2 record, winning the AFC West division.