1977 Los Angeles Rams season

1977 Los Angeles Rams season
Head coach	Chuck Knox
Owner	Carroll Rosenbloom
Home field	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Results
Record	10–4
Division place	1st NFC West
Playoff finish	Lost Divisional

The 1977 Los Angeles Rams season was the team's 40th year with the National Football League and the 32nd season in Los Angeles.

Hobbled by chronic knee woes, quarterback Joe Namath was waived by the New York Jets after the 1976 season, after they were unable to trade him. Namath signed with the L.A. Rams in May 1977. Hope of a Rams revival sprung when Los Angeles won two of their first three games, but Namath was hampered by low mobility. After a poor performance in a Monday Night loss to the Bears, Namath never saw NFL game action again.^[1]

After a playoff loss to the Minnesota Vikings, Rams head coach Chuck Knox was fired due to ownership's frustration that Knox had not been able to reach the Super Bowl.

Offseason

NFL Draft

Main article: 1977 NFL Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	School/Club Team

Regular season

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Notes	Attendance
1	September 18, 1977	at Atlanta Falcons	L 17–6	Namath threw a 27-yard TD pass to Harold Jackson early, but then it was all Falcons as their defense totally shut down the running game. Scott Hunter, starting in place of injured Steve Bartkowski, directed a ball-control attack and ran for a touchdown.	55,956
2	September 25, 1977	Philadelphia Eagles	W 20–0	Namath passed for two touchdowns in this game, 14 yards to Lawrence McCutcheon and 2 yards to Terry Nelson.	46,031
3	October 2, 1977	San Francisco 49ers	W 34–14	McCutcheon and John Cappelletti both ran for two touchdowns in this rout. Jim Plunkett was completely ineffective against the Rams defense.	55,466
4	October 10, 1977	at Chicago Bears	L 24–23	Namath's final NFL start and game. He was 16 for 40 and once again victimized by no running game. Rams did get off to a 13–0 lead, but Bears QB Bob Avellini completed two long touchdown passes to James Scott and Walter Payton ran for 126 yards to bring the Bears back.	51,412
5	October 16, 1977	New Orleans Saints	W 14–7	Pat Haden took back over as the starting quarterback and led a ball-control attack with McCutcheon gaining 152 yards and rookie Wendell Tyler scoring his first career NFL touchdown on a 16-yard run.	46,045
6	October 24, 1977	Minnesota Vikings	W 35–3	In a Monday Night blowout, Haden passed for two touchdowns and ran for another. The Rams' defense sacked Fran Tarkenton four times and intercepted him twice, both by rookie Pat Thomas.	61,414
7	October 30, 1977	at New Orleans Saints	L 27–26	In a wild game at the New Orleans Superdome, the Saints won on a 31-yard field goal by Rich Szaro with 16 seconds left.	59,023
8	November 6, 1977	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	W 31–0	Haden continued to roll with two more touchdown passes and Jim Youngblood scored on a 25-yard interception return.	45,493
9	November 13, 1977	at Green Bay Packers	W 24–6	McCutcheon and Tyler each scored running TD's and Haden passed for another.	52,948
10	November 20, 1977	at San Francisco 49ers	W 23–10	Rookie wide receiver Billy Waddy scored his first NFL TD on a pass from Haden and McCutcheon scored on a 42-yard run.	56,779
11	November 27, 1977	at Cleveland Browns	W 9–0	Rams won slug-it-out game in the mud despite Haden throwing 3 INT's. Cappelletti scored on a 7-yard run and Rafael Septien added a field goal.	70,352
12	December 4, 1977	Oakland Raiders	W 20–14	Against the defending Super Bowl champions, the Rams survived a late scoring drive and touchdown pass by Ken Stabler by answering with a 43-yard Haden-to-Harold Jackson touchdown bomb with around two minutes left. The win clinched the Rams' fifth straight division title.	67,075
13	December 11, 1977	Atlanta Falcons	W 23–7	Rams avenged their season-opening loss to the Falcons as Haden ran for a TD and passed for another to Cappelletti.	52,574
14	December 17, 1977	at Washington Redskins	L 17–14	In the cold and rain at RFK Stadium, Redskins quarterback Billy Kilmer threw for two early TD's. Rookie backup quarterback Vince Ferragamo nearly led the Rams back in the second half with two TD's of his own, but Septien missed a potential game-tying FG with no time left. It turned out to be George Allen's final regular season game as an NFL coach.	54,208

Game summaries

Week 3

	1	2	3	4	Total
49ers	7	0	7	0	14
• Rams	3	14	0	17	34

Date: October 2
Location: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California
Game start: 1:00 p.m.
Game weather: 66°F • Wind 8

Scoring summary

1	LA	Rafael Septien 33 yard field goal	Rams 3–0

1	SF	Delvin Williams 17 yard pass from Jim Plunkett (Tom Wittum kick)	49ers 7–3

2	LA	Lawrence McCutcheon 6 yard run (Rafael Septien kick)	Rams 10–7

2	LA	John Cappelletti 1 yard run (Rafael Septien kick)	Rams 17–7

3	SF	Delvin Williams 3 yard run (Tom Wittum kick)	Rams 17–14

4	LA	Rafael Septien 24 yard field goal	Rams 20–14

4	LA	John Cappelletti 1 yard run (Rafael Septien kick)	Rams 27–14

4	LA	Lawrence McCutcheon 1 yard run (Rafael Septien kick)	Rams 34–14

^[2]

Week 12

	1	2	3	4	Total
Raiders	0	7	0	7	14
• Rams	7	0	3	10	20

Date: December 4
Location: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA
Game start: 4:00 p.m.
Game attendance: 67,075
Game weather: Sunny; 57°F; wind 6
TV announcers (NBC): Curt Gowdy

Scoring summary

Q1	LA	Cappelletti 1 yard run (Septien kick)	LA 7–0

Q2	OAK	Banaszak 1 yard run (Mann kick)	Tie 7–7

Q3	LA	Septien 21 yard field goal	LA 10–7

Q4	LA	Septien 44 yard field goal	LA 13–7

Q4	OAK	Casper 21 yard pass from Stabler (Mann kick)	OAK 14–13

Q4	LA	Jackson 43 yard pass from Haden (Septien kick)	LA 20–14

^[3]

Playoffs

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Attendance
Divisional	December 26, 1977	Minnesota Vikings	L 14–7	62,538

Standings

NFC West
	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	CONF	PF	PA	STK
Los Angeles Rams⁽²⁾	10	4	0	.714	4–2	8–4	302	146	L1
Atlanta Falcons	7	7	0	.500	3–3	7–5	179	129	W1
San Francisco 49ers	5	9	0	.357	3–3	5–7	220	260	L3
New Orleans Saints	3	11	0	.214	2–4	3–9	232	336	L4

Awards and records

A football signed by the 1977 Los Angeles Rams, including Tom Mack, Joe Namath, Pat Haden, and Vince Ferragamo.

References

↑ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0808/icons.at.end.of.the.road/content.2.html
↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com
↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2014-Jun-16.

Preceded by < 1976	Los Angeles Rams seasons 1977	Succeeded by 1978 >

Los Angeles Rams

Founded in 1936 Played in Cleveland (1936–1945) and St. Louis (1995–2015) Based in Los Angeles, California Headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California

Franchise	History in Cleveland in St. Louis Coaches Players First-round draft picks Seasons Statistics Starting quarterbacks Awards Broadcasters

Stadiums	Cleveland Municipal Stadium League Park Shaw Stadium Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Anaheim Stadium Busch Stadium Edward Jones Dome City of Champions Stadium (planned)

Culture	Cheerleaders Rampage Heaven Can Wait (film) Melonheads

Lore	The Greatest Show on Turf Bull Elephant backfield Fearsome Foursome

Rivalries	San Francisco 49ers Kansas City Chiefs

Retired numbers	7 28 29 74 75 78 80 85

Division championships (13)	1967 1969 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1985 1999 2001 2003

Conference championships (8)	1945 1949 1950 1951 1955 1979 1999 2001

League championships (3)	1945 1951 1999 (XXXIV)

Current league affiliations	League: National Football League (1937–present) Conference: National Football Conference Division: West Division

Former league affiliation	League: American Football League (1936)

Seasons (79)	1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Championship seasons in bold

Cleveland / St. Louis / Los Angeles Rams seasons

Cleveland 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 Suspended operations 1943 1944 1945 Los Angeles 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 St. Louis 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Los Angeles 2016

Bold indicates NFL Championship (1920–1966) or Super Bowl (1967–) victory Italics indicates NFL Championship (1920–1966) or Super Bowl (1967–) appearance

1977 NFL season

East	Central	West	East	Central	West
Baltimore	Cincinnati	Denver	Dallas	Chicago	Atlanta
Buffalo	Cleveland	Kansas City	NY Giants	Detroit	Los Angeles
Miami	Houston	Oakland	Philadelphia	Green Bay	New Orleans
New England	Pittsburgh	San Diego	St. Louis	Minnesota	San Francisco
NY Jets		Seattle	Washington	Tampa Bay

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