1970_Oakland_Raiders_season

1970 Oakland Raiders season

1970 Oakland Raiders season

NFL team season


The 1970 Oakland Raiders season was the team's 11th season in Oakland. It was also their first season as members of the NFL. The Raiders would ultimately win their fourth consecutive division title (as well as their first AFC West title). They advanced to the AFC Championship Game, where they lost to the Baltimore Colts.

Quick Facts Oakland Raiders season, Owner ...

The Raiders' 1970 season is best remembered for a series of clutch performances by veteran placekicker/quarterback George Blanda. Blanda, despite being cut during the 1970 preseason, eventually re-joined the Raiders' roster. His ensuing season (the twenty-first of his professional career) ranked as one of the more dramatic comebacks in sports history. Over a span of five consecutive games, Blanda came off the bench to spark a series of dramatic rallies. The Raiders went an impressive 4–0–1 over this span.

Blanda's five-game "streak" began on October 25, 1970. In a home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Blanda threw for two touchdowns in relief of an injured Daryle Lamonica. One week later, his 48-yard field goal (with three seconds remaining on the clock) salvaged a 17–17 tie with the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs. One week later, on November 8, Blanda came off the bench against the Cleveland Browns. His late touchdown pass (with 1:34 remaining in the game) tied the game at 20–20. He ultimately kicked a 53-yard field goal, as time expired, to give the Raiders a stunning 23–20 victory. The following week, against the Denver Broncos, Blanda again replaced Lamonica in the fourth quarter. His touchdown pass to Fred Biletnikoff, with 2:28 left in the game, gave the Raiders an unlikely 24–19 win. The incredible streak concluded one week later against the San Diego Chargers. The Raiders managed to drive deep into Chargers territory in the game's final seconds. Blanda's last-minute 16-yard field goal sealed a dramatic 20–17 triumph.

Blanda's streak played a huge role in the Raiders' 1970 division title, as the team went a mediocre 4–4–1 in "non-streak" games. Indeed, their final record of 8–4–2 (itself a four-win drop from a 12–1–1 finish in 1969) placed them only one game ahead of the Chiefs at season's end.

The Raiders ultimately advanced to the 1970 AFC Championship Game, where they met the heavily favored 11–2–1 Baltimore Colts. During this game, Blanda again came off the bench in relief of an injured Lamonica. Blanda's solid play (17 of 32 passes for 217 yards, two touchdowns, and a 48-yard field goal) kept the Raiders in the game until the final quarter, when he was intercepted twice. At age 43, Blanda became the oldest quarterback to ever play in a championship game.

Blanda's eye-opening achievements resulted in his winning the Bert Bell Award. Chiefs' owner Lamar Hunt quipped that "...this George Blanda is as good as his father, who used to play for Houston." While he never again played a major role at quarterback, Blanda served as the Raiders' kicker for five more seasons.

Offseason

Draft

More information Round, Pick ...

[1]

Roster

1970 Oakland Raiders roster
Quarterbacks

Running backs

Wide receivers

Tight ends

Offensive linemen

Defensive linemen

Linebackers

Defensive backs

Special teams

Reserve lists


Practice squad



Rookies in italics

Regular season

Schedule

More information Week, Date ...

Game summaries

Week 1 at Bengals

More information Period, Total ...
More information Game information ...
Week One: Oakland Raiders (0–0) at Cincinnati Bengals (0–0)

at Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio

Week 2 at Chargers

Week 3 at Dolphins

Week 4 vs Broncos

More information Period, Total ...
More information Game information ...
Week Four: Denver Broncos at Oakland Raiders

at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, California

  • Date: October 11
  • Game weather: 60 °F (16 °C)
  • Referee: John McDonough
  • Box Score

Week 5

More information Total, Scoring summary ...

[2]

Week 6

More information Total, Scoring summary ...

[3]

Week 7 at Chiefs

More information Period, Total ...
More information Game information ...
Week Seven: Oakland Raiders (3–2–1) at Kansas City Chiefs (3–3)

at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri

  • Date: November 1
  • Game time: 3:00 p.m. CST
  • Game weather: 40 °F (4 °C)
  • Game attendance: 51,334
  • Referee: Bob Finley
  • Box Score

Ben Davidson speared Len Dawson causing a massive brawl between the two teams.

Week 8

More information Total, Scoring summary ...

[4]

Standings

More information AFC West, W ...
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

Playoffs

AFC Divisional Playoffs

More information Period, Total ...
More information Game information ...

at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, California

  • Date: December 27
  • Game time: 4:00 p.m. EST/1:00 p.m. PST
  • Game weather: 45 F, wind 8 mph (13 km/h)
  • Game attendance: 52,594
  • Referee: John McDonough
  • TV announcers (NBC): Curt Gowdy and Kyle Rote
  • Box Score

AFC Championship Game

More information Period, Total ...
More information Game information ...

at Memorial Stadium, Baltimore, Maryland

Awards and honors


References

  1. 1970 NFL Draft on databaseFootball.com Archived March 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine "1970 NFL Draft on databaseFootball.com". Archived from the original on March 27, 2008. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  2. Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2014-Jul-28.
  3. "Maxwell Football Club - Bert Bell Award Past Recipients". Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved June 28, 2010.

Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article 1970_Oakland_Raiders_season, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.