On one of my recent posts on my Facebook page The NFL in the 1970s, I questioned everyone who follows that page which NFL team from the 1970s won the greatest number of games against their divisional opponents. From 1970 to 1979, which team accumulated more victories over their common foes…. the teams that they would play twice each season on a home and away basis.
I gave those folks who check out that Facebook page several choices, as in a multiple choice quiz. What I discovered was that for many of those folks, sheer logic did not play a part in their answers. Rather, many of them went with a team that they felt possessed more of a winning reputation.
The logic came with basic numbers. For fans who followed the NFL during the 1970s, they knew that there were only six divisions back then. Of those six divisions, only two of them – the AFC East and the NFC East – had five teams in each. In the other four divisions, there were only four teams that comprised those divisions.
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Beating Your Divisional Rivalries
As a result of this, it stands to reason, or at least it was an odds on favorite, that the teams with the most divisional victories in pro football during the 1970s would probably come from either the AFC East or the NFC East. That is exactly what happened.
The Dallas Cowboys – a team from the NFC East — accumulated a league-best 60 wins against their divisional foes in the 1970s. The Miami Dolphins – a team from the AFC East – came in second with 59 victories over their divisional opponents in the 1970s.
Dallas was the only NFC team during the entire decade to win a Super Bowl. They won Super Bowls VI and XII. All the other Super Bowls during the 1970s were won by AFC teams. That’s a pretty good measure of dominance.
The Cowboys’ divisional record of victories was boosted by the fact that they had a pair of weaker teams in the same division in the 1970s, the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles. Dallas played the Giants 20 times from 1970 to 1979. They won 17 of those 20 games. Philadelphia similarly only won three out of 20 games against the Cowboys from 1970 to 1979.
Miami benefitted from weak opposition in their division also. The Dolphins would play divisional doormats such as Buffalo and the New York Jets. Of the 20 times that Miami played the Bills from 1970 to 1979, they won all 20 of those contests. The Dolphins managed to defeat the Jets 14 times in 20 games. The Jets did not experience much success against Miami until 1978 and 1979, when the New Yorkers earned four straight wins over the Dolphins.
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What teams comprised some of the other outstanding records during the 1970s against their divisional opponents, you ask? Two teams tied with 50 victories. They were the Washington Redskins and the Minnesota Vikings. Washington benefitted from playing in the five-team NFC Eastern Division, while Minnesota played some of the weakest teams in the entire NFL during the 1970s.
The Washington team sported winning records in eight of the 10 years in the decade of the 1970s. They beat the Giants 13 times in 20 games in the 1970s. They defeated Philadelphia 15 times during the 1970s. And they won 14 games out of 20 against the Cardinals.
Minnesota, on the other hand, defeated division rival Detroit 17 times in their 20 meetings in the 1970s. They also had few problems in earning 15 wins over Green Bay during the decade. Similarly, the Vikings won 15 games over the division rival Chicago Bears in the 1970s.
Three other top teams also managed to win most of their games against their division rivals. The Los Angeles Rams posted 46 victories over their NFC Western Division rivals in the 1970s.
The Oakland Raiders prevailed 43 times against their AFC Western Division foes in the 1970s. And the Pittsburgh Steelers earned 41 victories over their AFC Central Division opponents during the 1970s.
Divisional rivalries comprised the spice of life in the NFL during the 1970s. Of these rivalries, the Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Dolphins proved to be head and shoulders over all of the other teams in the league when it came to winning games against opponents in their own specific divisions during the 1970s.
Trivia Question:
What NFL team failed to defeat a division rival in each of their first two years of existence during the 1970s?
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Host of Pro Football in the 1970s - Joe Zagorski
Throughout his days, Joe spent some time as a sportswriter and has been a member of the Pro Football Researchers Association since the mid-1980s. Joe is also a proud member of the Pro Football Writers of America.
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