1979 Los Angeles Rams season

1979 Los Angeles Rams season
OwnerGeorgia Rosenbloom
Head coachRay Malavasi
Home fieldLos Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Results
Record9–7
Division place1st NFC West
Playoff finishWon Divisional Playoffs
(at Cowboys) 21–19
Won NFC Championship
(at Buccaneers) 9–0
Lost Super Bowl XIV
(vs. Steelers) 19–31
The Rams ended the 1979 season by making it to Super Bowl XIV, where they lost to the Steelers 19-31

The 1979 season was the Los Angeles Rams' 42nd season in the National Football League (NFL), their 43rd overall, and their 34th in the Greater Los Angeles Area. It was the final season for the franchise in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum until 2016, as late owner Carroll Rosenbloom previously announced the Rams would move to Anaheim Stadium for the 1980 season.[1]

The Rams won their seventh-consecutive NFC West title in 1979, and went to the Super Bowl for the first time. It was the team's only Super Bowl appearance during their first stint in Los Angeles, and their first appearance in a league championship game since 1955. It would be the Rams' last division title for six seasons and the last time they would win consecutive division titles until 2017-18. The Rams wouldn't return to the Super Bowl based in Los Angeles until 2018 (their next one as a franchise was in 1999 while based in St. Louis).

The 1979 Rams were the first team in NFL history to have a less than a +50 point differential and make it to the Super Bowl.[2] (The Rams scored only 14 points more than their opponents in 1979.) Thirty-two years later, the 2011 New York Giants, also with a 9–7 record, became the first team to reach the Super Bowl with a negative point differential (−6); unlike the 1979 Rams, the Giants would go on to win the Super Bowl, defeating the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. The 2008 Arizona Cardinals also reached the Super Bowl, but lost in the final moments of Super Bowl XLIII, also to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

  1. ^ "Rams open in 'new' home". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. August 11, 1980. p. 20.
  2. ^ Football Outsiders: Super Bowl XLVI Preview

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