1970 NFC Championship Game
The 1970 NFC Championship Game was the inaugural title game[lower-alpha 1] of the National Football Conference. Played on January 3, 1971, the game was hosted by the NFC West champion San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers played the NFC East champion Dallas Cowboys at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco, California. Along with the 1970 AFC Championship Game played on the same day, this game constituted the penultimate round of the 1970-71 NFL playoffs which had followed the 1970 regular season of the National Football League.
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| Date | January 3, 1971 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Stadium | Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, California | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Tommy Bell | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 59,364 | ||||||||||||||||||
| TV in the United States | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | CBS | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Ray Scott and Pat Summerall | ||||||||||||||||||
Dallas defeated San Francisco 17-10[1] to earn the right to represent the NFC in Super Bowl V.
Background
1970 NFL-AFL merger
Following Super Bowl IV, the NFL and rival American Football League completed their planned merger into a single league, which retained the NFL's established name and logo. As per the terms of the merger, three "old guard" NFL teams (the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers) agreed to join the ten AFL teams to form the American Football Conference. The other thirteen teams that contested the 1969 NFL season formed the National Football Conference.
The merger meant that the Super Bowl, originally established an interleague World Championship Game between the champions of the NFL and AFL, became the championship game of the NFL. However, from a mathematical perspective and in particular considering that the conference title games were now the games being contested for berths in the Super Bowl, the 1970 NFC Championship game could be described as the closest thing to a successor contest to the pre-merger 1969 NFL Championship Game, in contrast to Super Bowl V.
Both conferences were aligned into three divisions each and a new playoff format was established for both new conferences. Under the new format, the division champions qualified in addition to the Best Second Placed Team (which was quickly shortened, first informally and then officially, to wild card) to form a four team bracket in each conference. The home teams were determined at this time by an annual rotation between the three divisions, with the provision that wild card teams would neither host a playoff game, nor face their own division champion prior to the title game. The winners of the Divisional Round would contest the conference championship games, with the winner of the Divisional Round game involving two division winners hosting the game.
The teams
In addition to being the inaugural NFC title game, this was the first playoff meeting between Dallas and San Francisco.
This was the 49ers' first appearance in a title game since joining the NFL in 1950.[lower-alpha 2] San Francisco won the NFC West with a 10–3–1 regular season record and defeated the NFC Central champion and defending (pre-merger) NFL champion Minnesota Vikings 17–14 at Metropolitan Stadium to advance to the NFC Championship game. Overall, the 1970 NFC title game was only the third NFL playoff game in 49ers' history. The team's only NFL postseason game prior to 1970 was a tiebreaker loss to the Detroit Lions at Kezar Stadium in 1957.
The Cowboys had previously appeared in the first two NFL title games of the Super Bowl era, losing both times to the Green Bay Packers. Dallas won the NFC East with a 10–4 regular season record and defeated the NFC Central runners-up Detroit Lions 5–0 at the Cotton Bowl to reach the NFC title game.
These teams did not play each other during the 1970 regular season. Their most recent game was during the previous season on November 27, 1969, at the Cotton Bowl. That game ended in a 24–24 tie.
Game summary
Although Dallas quarterback Craig Morton only completed 7 out of 22 passes for 101 yards, rookie halfback Duane Thomas rushed for 143 yards and caught 2 passes for 24 as Dallas converted two third quarter interceptions into 14 points to defeat the 49ers.
On the second drive of the game, 49ers quarterback John Brodie's 42-yard completion to Gene Washington at the Cowboys 9-yard line set up Bruce Gossett's 16-yard field goal to give the team a 3–0 lead, but only after Brodie misfired on a pass to fullback Ken Willard, who was open in the end zone. This would be the only score of the half for San Francisco. Dallas fared little better, with Mike Clark missing a field goal from 40 yards out, and later kicking a 21-yard field goal to tie the game at 3.
After each team punted once in the second half, San Francisco had the ball on their own 21-yard line. On the first play, Brodie was sacked by linebacker Dave Edwards for a 7-yard loss. Then on second down, Lee Roy Jordan intercepted Brodie's pass and returned it 4 yards to the 13, where Thomas scored a touchdown run for Dallas on the next play, breaking three tackles en route to the end zone. On San Francisco's next series, defensive back Mel Renfro picked off a pass from Brodie and returned it 19 yards to the Cowboys 38-yard line, setting off a 62-yard scoring drive for his team. The key player on the drive was fullback Walt Garrison, who had a 12-yard carry, gained 24 yards on a screen pass, and finished it off with a 5-yard touchdown catch from Morton to give the Cowboys a 17–3 lead.
San Francisco responded with an 8-play, 72-yard drive to score on Brodie's 26-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dick Witcher and cut the score to 17–10 going into the fourth quarter, but they were shut out for the rest of the game. They nearly got a big scoring chance when Thomas fumbled the ball, but receiver Reggie Rucker recovered it, allowing Dallas to keep possession and take a lot of time off the clock with a drive to the 49ers 17-yard line. Clark missed a field goal attempt from there, giving San Francisco a chance to drive for the tying touchdown, but the farthest they could make it was to the Dallas 39, and after Renfro broke up a third down pass, Gossett missed a field goal from 47 yards out, and 49ers would not threaten to score again.
Johnny Mathis sang the national anthem, and Tony Bennett performed his signature song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" at halftime.
Scoring
- First quarter
- SF – field goal Gossett 16, SF 3–0
- Second quarter
- DAL – field goal Clark 21, Tied 3–3
- Third quarter
- DAL – Thomas 13 run (Clark kick), DAL 10–3
- DAL – Garrison 15 pass from Morton (Clark kick), DAL 17–3
- SF – Witcher 26 pass from Brodie (Gossett kick), DAL 17–10
- Fourth quarter
- no scoring
Aftermath
The NFC champion Cowboys made their first Super Bowl appearance. Dallas lost 16-13 to the Baltimore Colts of the American Football Conference in Super Bowl V.
This was the last NFL game played at Kezar Stadium. The 49ers moved to Candlestick Park the following season.
The Cowboys also moved in middle of the following season to the new Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving. The same two teams would meet in the 1971 NFC Championship Game, with the rematch being the first playoff game at Texas Stadium. Dallas repeated as NFC champions en route to their first Super Bowl victory. The Cowboys would ultimately contest the first four NFC title games, and five out of the first six of which they won three.
Notes
- In this series of articles, title game refers to pre-merger AFL and NFL Championship Games up to and including the 1969 season as well as post-merger AFC and NFC Championship Games from the 1970 season onward.
- The San Francisco 49ers appeared in (and lost) the final championship game of the All-America Football Conference, which San Francisco played in from 1946-49 prior to joining the NFL. The NFL does not recognize AAFC records as part of its own.