1977 Los Angeles Rams season

1977 Los Angeles Rams season
Head Coach	Chuck Knox
Home Field	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Results
Record	10-4
Place	1st NFC West
Playoff Finish	Lost Divisional
Timeline
Previous season	Next season
1976	1978

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, Joe Namath was waived by the New York Jets, who were unable to trade him. Namath signed with the L.A. Rams in May 1977. Hope of a revival was stirred when they 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. Head coach Chuck Knox was fired after a playoff loss to the Minnesota Vikings due to frustration by the ownership of him not being 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 and O.J. Simpson were 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 WR 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 QB Billy Kilmer threw for two early TD's. Rookie backup QB 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.	54,208

Playoffs

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

This was the famous "mudbowl" that the Rams lost due to the unlikely rain, spoiling their chance to go to the Superbowl once again.

Standings

NFC West
	W	L	T	PCT	PF	PA	STK
Los Angeles Rams	10	4	0	.714	302	146	L-1
Atlanta Falcons	7	7	0	.500	179	129	W-1
San Francisco 49ers	5	9	0	.357	220	260	L-3
New Orleans Saints	3	11	0	.214	232	336	L-4