1971 Baltimore Colts season

The 1971 Baltimore Colts season was the 19th season for the team in the National Football League. Led by second-year head coach Don McCafferty, the Colts appeared to be on the verge of winning the AFC East again after beating the Miami Dolphins 14–3 in the penultimate game of the regular season. However, the Colts lost the final game of the season at home to the New England Patriots, dropping them to 10–4 and the wild card berth.^[1] They lost to the Dolphins in the AFC Championship game. The Baltimore defense gave up a total of 140 points for 14 regular season games, an average of ten points a game. In their four defeats, they lost by a combined total of 15 points. Only the Vikings had a better defense in football that year, giving up only 139 points.

1971 Baltimore Colts season
Owner	Carroll Rosenbloom
General manager	Don Klosterman
Head coach	Don McCafferty
Home stadium	Memorial Stadium
Results
Record	10–4
Division place	2nd AFC East
Playoffs	Won Divisional Playoffs (at Browns) 20–3 Lost AFC Championship (at Dolphins) 0–21
← 1970 Colts seasons 1972 →

The Colts playing against the Browns in the 1971 AFC Divisional Playoffs Game.

This was the final season under the ownership of Carroll Rosenbloom, who traded franchises with the Los Angeles Rams in July 1972, with players and coaching staffs remaining intact.^[2][3][4] The Colts divisional round win against Cleveland would ultimately be their final playoff victory as a Baltimore franchise. It would be another 24 years before the team, now based on Indianapolis, won another postseason game.

Offseason

NFL draft

Main article: 1971 NFL draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	School/Club Team

Personnel

Staff/coaches

1971 Baltimore Colts staff
Front office Owner/president and treasurer – Carroll Rosenbloom General manager – Don Klosterman Coaching staff Head coach – Don McCafferty Offensive coaches Receivers/offensive ends – Dick Bielski Offensive coordinator – John Idzik Offensive line coach – Red Miller		Defensive coaches Defensive coordinator/defensive line – John Sandusky Defensive backfield – Bobby Boyd Linebackers coach – Hank Bullough

Roster

1971 Baltimore Colts roster

Quarterbacks (QB) 15 Earl Morrall 19 Johnny Unitas Running backs (RB) 41 Tom Matte 23 Don McCauley 48 Don Nottingham 42 Charlie Pittman Wide receivers (WR) 17 Sam Havrilak 33 Eddie Hinton 27 Ray Perkins 87 Willie Richardson Tight ends (TE) 88 John Mackey 84 Tom Mitchell

Offensive linemen (OL) 50 Bill Curry C 61 Cornelius Johnson G 67 Lynn Larson T 57 Ken Mendenhall C 68 Dennis Nelson T 62 Glenn Ressler G 72 Bob Vogel T 65 John Williams G Defensive linemen (DL) 79 Jim Bailey DT 85 Roy Hilton DE 76 Fred Miller DT 81 Billy Newsome DT 78 Bubba Smith DE 74 George Wright DT

Linebackers (LB) 53 Tom Beutler MLB 32 Mike Curtis MLB 83 Ted Hendricks OLB 51 Bill Laskey OLB 56 Ray May OLB 34 Tom Nowatzke OLB Defensive backs (DB) 25 Tom Curtis FS 43 Lonnie Hepburn CB 44 Rex Kern CB 20 Jerry Logan SS 47 Charlie Stukes CB 21 Rick Volk FS Special teams (ST) 49 David Lee P 80 Jim O'Brien K

Practice squad 86 John Andrews TE 19 Karl Douglas QB 69 Rusty Ganas DT Reserve 36 Norm Bulaich RB (IR) 35 Jim Duncan CB (IR) 46 Lenny Dunlap CB (IR) 52 Robbie Nichols LB (IR) 28 Cotton Speyrer WR (IR) 71 Dan Sullivan T (IR) 63 Bobby Wuensch G (IR) Rookies in italics

Regular season

Main article: 1971 NFL season

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Venue	Attendance
1	September 19	New York Jets	W 22–0	1–0	Memorial Stadium	56,458
2	September 26	Cleveland Browns	L 13–14	1–1	Memorial Stadium	56,837
3	October 3	at New England Patriots	W 23–3	2–1	Schaefer Stadium	61,232
4	October 10	at Buffalo Bills	W 43–0	3–1	War Memorial Stadium	46,206
5	October 17	at New York Giants	W 31–7	4–1	Yankee Stadium	62,860
6	October 25	at Minnesota Vikings	L 3–10	4–2	Metropolitan Stadium	49,784
7	October 31	Pittsburgh Steelers	W 34–21	5–2	Memorial Stadium	60,238
8	November 8	Los Angeles Rams	W 24–17	6–2	Memorial Stadium	57,722
9	November 14	at New York Jets	W 14–13	7–2	Shea Stadium	63,947
10	November 21	at Miami Dolphins	L 14–17	7–3	Miami Orange Bowl	75,312
11	November 28	at Oakland Raiders	W 37–14	8–3	Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum	54,689
12	December 5	Buffalo Bills	W 24–0	9–3	Memorial Stadium	58,476
13	December 11	Miami Dolphins	W 14–3	10–3	Memorial Stadium	60,238
14	December 19	New England Patriots	L 17–21	10–4	Memorial Stadium	57,942
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game summaries

Week 1

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Jets	0	0	0	0	0
• Colts	10	9	0	3	22

• Date: September 19
• Location: Memorial Stadium
• Game start: 4:00 p.m. EDT
• Game attendance: 56,458
• Game weather:
  72 °F (22 °C); wind 8 mph (13 km/h)

Scoring summary

Q1		BAL	O'Brien 38 yard field goal	BAL 3–0
Q1		BAL	Matte 1 yard run (O'Brien kick)	BAL 10–0
Q2		BAL	O'Brien 21 yard field goal	BAL 13–0
Q2		BAL	Bulaich 67 yard run (kick failed)	BAL 19–0
Q4		BAL	O'Brien 21 yard field goal	BAL 22–0

^[5]

Standings

AFC East
view talk edit	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	CONF	PF	PA	STK
Miami Dolphins	10	3	1	.769	5–3	7–3–1	315	174	W1
Baltimore Colts	10	4	0	.714	6–2	8–3	313	140	L1
New England Patriots	6	8	0	.429	4–4	6–5	238	325	W1
New York Jets	6	8	0	.429	4–4	6–5	212	299	W2
Buffalo Bills	1	13	0	.071	1–7	1–10	184	394	L3

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

^[6]

Postseason

Main article: 1971–72 NFL playoffs

The team made it to the playoffs as a No. 4 seed and traveled to Cleveland to play the Cleveland Browns in the divisional round. The Colts led 14–0 at the half and would cruise to a 20–3 win. They then traveled south to play the Miami Dolphins and tried to make it to their second consecutive Super Bowl. Colts QB Johnny Unitas was intercepted three times as they were shut out 21–0.

Round	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Venue	Attendance
Divisional	December 26	at Cleveland Browns	W 20–3	1–0	Cleveland Municipal Stadium	70,734
AFC Championship	January 2, 1972	at Miami Dolphins	L 0–21	1–1	Miami Orange Bowl	76,622

See also

• History of the Indianapolis Colts
• Indianapolis Colts seasons
• Colts–Patriots rivalry