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| Hank Stram and the Kansas City Chiefs were miles ahead of the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. |
Did the NFL learn anything from its ignominious defeat in Super Bowl III? Not really, and neither did the sporting world, judging by the 14 point spread favoring the Minnesota Vikings over the Kansas City Chiefs for Super Bowl IV after the 1969 season.
I continue to be amazed at how many people still make excuses for Baltimore even to this day.
Well, it was that washed up old man Earl Morrall's fault. Really? The NFL Man of the Year, who later would earn 3 Super Bowl rings? He's the reason the Colts lost?
Well, the Colts would have won if they had started Johnny Unitas. So you're 18 point favorites and you have the NFL MVP at quarterback, but you want to bench him for the Super Bowl and start a guy who had 11 completions on the year? Really?
Be that as it may, the sporting world pretty much regarded Super Bowl III as a fluke. Maybe Joe Namath was a sorcerer and cast a spell on Baltimore. But this would all be rectified by the Minnesota Vikings, who--this time--really were the greatest team of all time, or so went the narrative. Hence, the Vikings, aka the Purple People Eaters, were installed as 14 point favorites over the Kansas City Chiefs.
The 1968 Colts had set several defensive NFL records. But all those records were broken by the Purple People Eaters, led by a front four of Alan Page, Jim Marshall, Carl Eller and Gary Larson. All four made the Pro Bowl along with safety Paul Krause. They gave up the fewest points in history, even fewer than the Colts, fewer than 10 points per game. Incredibly, they were the number one defense versus the run, AND the number one defense versus the pass, and it wasn't close. They also let the NFL with 30 INTs.
Quarterback Joe Kapp, who had come to the Vikings from the Canadian Football League, also made the Pro Bowl along with receiver Gene Washington, as the Vikings also led the NFL in points scored.
So, what about the AFL? Well, frankly they were considered to be 14 points worse than the NFL, a scant four points better than the underdog Jets of Super Bowl III. But there would be no Namath to create a miracle for the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs were led by two-time NFL reject Len Dawson at quarterback, who had been traded by Pittsburgh and then cut by the Cleveland Browns. Dawson was another guy who had stats that look silly by today's yardstick, with 9 TDs and 13 INTs. That get's you benched today, but it got Dawson to the AFL Pro Bowl (actually referred to as the AFL All Star game at that time). Weirdly, backup Mike Livingston also made the AFL All Star game after subbing admirably for an injured Dawson for about half the season. Fullback Robert Holmes, who plowed forward for 612 yards, also made the All Star game, even though halfback Mike Garrett actually led the team with 732 rushing yards and another 432 receiving yards. They also had Otis Taylor and Frank Pitts at WR. Defenders who made the All Star game included LBs Willie Lanier and Bobby Bell, CB Jim Marsalis, and S Bobby Bell. Yet despite that impressive list, there was not much question in the minds of most observers that the Chiefs did not match up against the Vikings. Nor for that matter, did any of the other NFL teams. The Vikings were just too good and could not be challenged by any other team on earth. Any hope for another Joe Namath miracle evaporated when the Chiefs beat them in the AFL playoffs. Hence, there could be no stopping the Vikings in Super Bowl IV.
There is only one slight problem with the narrative. The Vikings did not blow away the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Instead, the Chiefs took the Vikings behind the tool shed and beat them up, much worse than the Jets had beaten Baltimore the previous year. And just like the previous year, the NFL turned the ball over repeatedly against the zone defense. Was it just bad luck? Well, how do you explain the utter humiliation of the Vikings Front Four? Remember, all four made the NFL Pro Bowl, but the Chiefs rang up 151 yards on 42 carries. 42 carries? That is an insane total. In 1969, I doubt if there was any team that lost an NFL game with 42 carries. For those who want to blame Super Bowl III on Earl Morrall or Johnny Unitas, neither of those two star players was in Super Bowl IV.
Once again, the AFL won without an aerial bombardment. QB Len Dawson was ruthlessly efficient, but never challenged and did not have to throw much. He threw the ball only 17 times all game long, because the Chiefs were so thoroughly dominant there was no great need.
One of the great things about this game was that Coach Hank Stram was wired for sound, and he is hilariously funny yet also insightful. Some of the best quotes,
"Just keep matriculating the ball down the field, boys!"
"Kassulke (Viking SS Karl Kassulke) was running around there like it was a (foreign) fire drill. They didn't know where Mike (Garrett) was. Didn't know where he was! They look like they're flat as hell."
" Nice going, baby! The mentor! 65 toss power trap! I tell ya that thing was there, yes sir boys!"
In addition to providing entertainment for us fans, Stram's mike conveys the obvious truth that the Vikings could not cope with the Chief's playbook. Dawson would later write, "It was obvious that their offense had never seen a defense like ours.(Len Dawson, "Super Bowl IV," Super Bowl: The Game of Their Lives, Danny Peary, editor. Macmillan, 1997. ISBN 0-02-860841-0)" There were a huge number of innovations that the AFL had, that the NFL was only starting to recognize by 1969. They first of all had the zone defense with the bump and run press coverage. It wasn't really a secret by that time, but the Vikings were not used to playing against it, whereas all of the Chiefs' games used it. The AFL had the hot read, in which the receivers would shorten their routes in the event of a blitz.
Stram had a very complex "Offense of the Future" which used multiple formations, shifts and unorthodox plays. Stram loved to call reverses on overagressive defenses, and speedy Frank PItts ran three of them against the Vikings. It's not so bad if they catch you once with a reverse. But if you get caught three times, that usually means you are slow learners. Stram was able to read the brute-force Vikings like a textbook, whereas the Vikings were still trying to progress from DC Comics to Marvel.
The final score was 23-7, and it could have been much worse. Just like the Jets the previous year, there was little reason to throw the ball, and for the most part Kansas City was willing to grind it out on the ground. So that's what they did.
At some point, you have to admit that the AFL was not so weak after all. One game might be a fluke. But the Jets gained 142 yards on the ground, and the Chiefs gained 151. Thus, these games were won in the trenches, not due to some flukey quarterback play. It would be fair to say that two years in a row, the NFL got pounded into submission. Had the situation demanded more throwing, the AFL passing game would have probably made the statistical difference even worse. John Madden used to say, "the best team really does win the Super Bowl," and I believe he was right. The Chiefs really were that good. Over two games, the NFL had been favored by 32 points, and they lost by 25. That's a 57 point swing in two games. I mean, come on, you have to realize at some point that something was up. In my opinion this probably represents the worst failure of Las Vegas oddsmakers to handicap football games. One game might be a statistical fluke, but two upsets in a row with a combined 57 point swing? They were incredibly off.
In this observer's mind at least, the Jets and Chiefs were playing with significantly better playbooks, and that has a lot to do with their dominant wins in the Super Bowl. Their advantage was lost to some extent in the 1970 off-season, as the leagues merged, and NFL Coordinators were at last obliged to figure out what was in the AFL playbooks. In 1970, the merged leagues saw the old NFL teams generally outplay their AFL counterparts, though the new American Football Conference won the Super Bowl again, with Baltimore now residing in the AFC. Ironically, this time Johnny Unitas started but got injured, and Earl Morrall came in and rang up 10 unanswered points as the Colts eked out a 16-13 victory over the Cowboys, who like the Vikings were an expansion team beginning to flex their muscles. Youth was being served, both inside the NFL as well as the AFL.
There is only one slight problem with the narrative. The Vikings did not blow away the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Instead, the Chiefs took the Vikings behind the tool shed and beat them up, much worse than the Jets had beaten Baltimore the previous year. And just like the previous year, the NFL turned the ball over repeatedly against the zone defense. Was it just bad luck? Well, how do you explain the utter humiliation of the Vikings Front Four? Remember, all four made the NFL Pro Bowl, but the Chiefs rang up 151 yards on 42 carries. 42 carries? That is an insane total. In 1969, I doubt if there was any team that lost an NFL game with 42 carries. For those who want to blame Super Bowl III on Earl Morrall or Johnny Unitas, neither of those two star players was in Super Bowl IV.
Once again, the AFL won without an aerial bombardment. QB Len Dawson was ruthlessly efficient, but never challenged and did not have to throw much. He threw the ball only 17 times all game long, because the Chiefs were so thoroughly dominant there was no great need.
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| Hi Mr. Kapp. Please meet Buck Buchanan and Curly Culp. |
One of the great things about this game was that Coach Hank Stram was wired for sound, and he is hilariously funny yet also insightful. Some of the best quotes,
"Just keep matriculating the ball down the field, boys!"
"Kassulke (Viking SS Karl Kassulke) was running around there like it was a (foreign) fire drill. They didn't know where Mike (Garrett) was. Didn't know where he was! They look like they're flat as hell."
" Nice going, baby! The mentor! 65 toss power trap! I tell ya that thing was there, yes sir boys!"
In addition to providing entertainment for us fans, Stram's mike conveys the obvious truth that the Vikings could not cope with the Chief's playbook. Dawson would later write, "It was obvious that their offense had never seen a defense like ours.(Len Dawson, "Super Bowl IV," Super Bowl: The Game of Their Lives, Danny Peary, editor. Macmillan, 1997. ISBN 0-02-860841-0)" There were a huge number of innovations that the AFL had, that the NFL was only starting to recognize by 1969. They first of all had the zone defense with the bump and run press coverage. It wasn't really a secret by that time, but the Vikings were not used to playing against it, whereas all of the Chiefs' games used it. The AFL had the hot read, in which the receivers would shorten their routes in the event of a blitz.
Stram had a very complex "Offense of the Future" which used multiple formations, shifts and unorthodox plays. Stram loved to call reverses on overagressive defenses, and speedy Frank PItts ran three of them against the Vikings. It's not so bad if they catch you once with a reverse. But if you get caught three times, that usually means you are slow learners. Stram was able to read the brute-force Vikings like a textbook, whereas the Vikings were still trying to progress from DC Comics to Marvel.
The final score was 23-7, and it could have been much worse. Just like the Jets the previous year, there was little reason to throw the ball, and for the most part Kansas City was willing to grind it out on the ground. So that's what they did.
At some point, you have to admit that the AFL was not so weak after all. One game might be a fluke. But the Jets gained 142 yards on the ground, and the Chiefs gained 151. Thus, these games were won in the trenches, not due to some flukey quarterback play. It would be fair to say that two years in a row, the NFL got pounded into submission. Had the situation demanded more throwing, the AFL passing game would have probably made the statistical difference even worse. John Madden used to say, "the best team really does win the Super Bowl," and I believe he was right. The Chiefs really were that good. Over two games, the NFL had been favored by 32 points, and they lost by 25. That's a 57 point swing in two games. I mean, come on, you have to realize at some point that something was up. In my opinion this probably represents the worst failure of Las Vegas oddsmakers to handicap football games. One game might be a statistical fluke, but two upsets in a row with a combined 57 point swing? They were incredibly off.
In this observer's mind at least, the Jets and Chiefs were playing with significantly better playbooks, and that has a lot to do with their dominant wins in the Super Bowl. Their advantage was lost to some extent in the 1970 off-season, as the leagues merged, and NFL Coordinators were at last obliged to figure out what was in the AFL playbooks. In 1970, the merged leagues saw the old NFL teams generally outplay their AFL counterparts, though the new American Football Conference won the Super Bowl again, with Baltimore now residing in the AFC. Ironically, this time Johnny Unitas started but got injured, and Earl Morrall came in and rang up 10 unanswered points as the Colts eked out a 16-13 victory over the Cowboys, who like the Vikings were an expansion team beginning to flex their muscles. Youth was being served, both inside the NFL as well as the AFL.
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