Pride and Prejudice -- an FOF9 Lions dynasty, starting 1966

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Thursday, August 15, 1968

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Thursday, August 22, 1968



So while this song charted in Detroit, I'm not positive if the version had any particular local interest. The band wasn't from Detroit, and the writers weren't, but the song was about to become a hit with the Supremes and the Temptations singing it together.

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Sunday, August 25, 1968

Trip to Denver today!

We're at 61 players, so cutting to 60 is easy. Our 4th TE, Gary Houser, gets it.

We tie Denver 19-19. Not even worth a boxscore, who cares.

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Monday, August 26, 1968

LICKING OUR WOUNDS



Well it's a good thing we kept 4 QBs, if Parilli is going to be out.

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Thursday, August 29, 1968



Parilli is back to full health! Now when we go down to 53, we can cut Shaw and not worry about needing 3 healthy QBs!

Oh, but I forgot it's just the AFL this week. Well we're down to 53 anyway.

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Friday, August 30, 1968

Opening day!



Ken Stabler almost leads the Dolphins to a 4th quarter comeback in his debut.



Still wins player of the game, too.

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Saturday, August 31, 1968



Patriots manage to win this one in OT with no offensive touchdowns.



We were there when the Broncos signed Cuozzo in 1967. Jack Ankerson is a 40/54 QB who's bounced around -- he signed with the Packers in 1966, after the universe started, then the Redskins in 1967, and now he's on his first multi-year contract with Boston. He's in his 5th year, so it's going to be a question whether he can reach that 54.

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Sunday, September 1, 1968

Chargers and Jets replay the AFL Championship game!



And the Chargers win it again. Jets were at the Chargers 24 on the last play, but Taliaferro, whose holdout must be over, got sacked by Earl Faison.



Chargers get 2.5 sacks from OLB Rod Breedlove, and 2 sacks from DE Earl Faison.

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Thursday, September 5, 1968



I feel like the Temptations version we heard in January is better.

The NFL has started off with 1 vs 2 in the West, and both years we've been playing, that's meant the Packers and the Colts. Here we are in 1968, and it means the Lions and the Vikings! Here's the Vikings for you:

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Friday, September 6, 1968



Stabler and the Dolphins lose another close one.



4 picks for Stabler, including the game-loser.

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Saturday, September 7, 1968



Nice win to start the season for the Lions! It ended with just one score, but in the 4th quarter, once they pulled within a score, we'd either score or run out the clock to end the game. I was more concerned with rushing and receiving stats as I watched.



Marsh and Mason both over 5 YPC, which I like. Marsh was at 6 when the 4th quarter started, and Mason was well below. Mason was definitely more of the grind-it-out back.

First glimpse of data on YPR!

Bass -- 20 routes, 126 yards
Flatley -- 10 routes, 22 yards
Coia -- 6 routes, 17 yards
Moses -- 21 routes, 0 yards
Malinchak -- 5 routes, 0 yards (he got hurt during the game)

So Bass killed it, over 6 YPR. Coia didn't have his average game of like 7 catches for 100 yards, but we also didn't start him. Still got almost 3. Flatley had a little over 2, fine I guess. Haven Moses, what the hell are you doing out there??

Oh, and Griese has negative chemistry with all our new WRs -- Coia, Flatley, Moses, and Elwell. Fun times.

Check out Jim Lynch!! He goes from being inactive pretty much all last year, to player of the game in his first start!! 1.5 sacks and a pick.

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Sunday, September 8, 1968

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Monday, September 9, 1968

LICKING OUR WOUNDS

We already mentioned it, but Malinchak is hurt now. He and Kocourek are both questionable, full health in 3 weeks.

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Tuesday, September 10, 1968

This week's games:

Friday -- 0-1 Packers at 1-0 Rams
Saturday -- 1-0 Raiders at 1-1 Chiefs

We play the 0-1 Cowboys on Sunday.

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Thursday, September 12, 1968

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Friday, September 13, 1968



Packers get back to winning form.



Bart Starr gets MVP, but what's up with this MacArthur Lane dude? I called him a 1st round bust, but he's trying to prove me wrong. He didn't play in their first game, so this 15 carry, 104 yard effort is his debut.

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Saturday, September 14, 1968





Looks like Milt Plum beat Tom Flores for the starting job. It's an upgrade from 55/55 to 58/58, but is it worth the cap hit? I guess since the Raiders have $1.67M in cap room, it is, because there's no one else to get anyway. But is it even worth the hit in cohesion? The Raiders have no division titles, but they have winning records both years, and the passing attack seemed to be doing well. Flores has better chemistry with everyone except Biletnikoff. but Plum's isn't bad, either. I dunno. It's not a move I would have made -- although maybe that's obvious since I didn't start Plum in 1967.

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Sunday, September 15, 1968



Big win despite being down by 10 late in the 2nd, nice. Although, a lot of TD passes for Babe Parilli. And not just during garbage time. Uh oh.



Well, at least he did really well coming in.

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Monday, September 16, 1968

LICKING OUR WOUNDS

Well, let's see the damage...



7 weeks? Man. But at least he's just Questionable. We're leaving him active. The assistant recommendation has Parilli starting, and we're going to go with that. I've found that when I don't, FOF has him start for like a series or two, then decide he's too hurt to play -- not very realistic. I know I could change a setting for that, but then you have to change the whole game plan, and it's a whole thing. We're just going to say he's hurt.

Haven Moses is hurt, too. How are we going to replace his 0 catches?

Good time to look at how we are doing with YPR.

Bass -- 38 routes, 163 yards -- 4.3
Flatley -- 37 routes, 49 yards -- 1.3
Coia -- 15 routes, 64 yards -- 4.3
Moses -- 21 routes, 0 yards (no routes this game)

We need to getting Coia more routes.

Good time to talk chemistry again.





We already talked about how the new WRs don't get along with Griese. Coia and Parilli get along, though. I'm actually excited to see if the old man can do it, with Coia on the field more.

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Tuesday, September 17, 1968

Saturday we have the 2-0 Oilers at the 0-2 Broncos.
And our first Monday night game! The 2-0 Redskins at the 1-1 Falcons.

We host the 1-1 Rams on Sunday.

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Thursday, September 19, 1968



Haven Moses is fine now. But we've still taken him out a lot to give Coia more PT -- Moses can work his way up by getting a catch and passing Flatley in YPR.

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Saturday, September 21, 1968



Big comeback win for the Broncos in OT! This game was the first Saturday pull-out game for the AFL, and based on records, it seemed like it would be a boring one, but ended up fun!

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Sunday, September 22, 1968





Another good game in relief for Babe Parilli.

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Monday, September 23, 1968



Falcons almost pull off the comeback, despite Donna Reed getting injured.

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Tuesday, September 24, 1968

LICKING OUR WOUNDS



Losing two linebackers for the season, that's annoying.



Bass is still way on top here with 4.43, Coia with 3.48, Flatley with 1.89. And Moses finally gets out there, but he's down at 1.25. We should get Malinchak in now, also.

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Wednesday, September 25, 1968



Looks like our offense is taking off, despite the injury to Griese. I've been feeling like based on my YPR studies, we haven't been doing well, but overall I guess you can't argue with the results.

Some familiar names here -- our WR target Rentzel is doing well, Milt Plum is up there in passing yards.

We've got 49ers at Rams on Friday, Dolphins at Chargers on Saturday. We host the Bears on Sunday.

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Thursday, September 26, 1968



Malinchak is back, and comes in for Elwell. Kocourek is back, too, we'll get him in at TE sometimes. And we did a lot to replace Hilgenberg and Burrell.

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Friday, September 27, 1968

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Saturday, September 28, 1968

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Sunday, September 29, 1968





Another big game for Babe Parilli. Almost perfect, really!



We move to 4-0, and the Colts are the closest challenger to us at 3-1.

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Monday, September 30, 1968

LICKING OUR WOUNDS

No new injuries this week! Still waiting for Griese to come back.

I also had some time with spotty internet access, so I moved on to the next game without uploading screenshots of the overview and YPR stuff. Probably not a huge deal. Parilli was actually #1 in QB Rating -- I think he didn't qualify as of the game before and now he does, because his rating was already pretty high. FOF doesn't store "routes" in the game log, so I don't have that. I don't think there was much change in YPR, though.

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Tuesday, October 1, 1968

Two Saturday games this week:

2-2 Broncos at 2-2 Raiders
2-2 Eagles at 1-3 Cowboys

We go to San Francisco to play the 0-3 49ers on Sunday.

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Thursday, October 3, 1968

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Saturday, October 5, 1968









Who the heck is Charlie Green and why is he starting over both Milt Plum and Tom Flores? After some investigating, it looks like both of them were injured in their 20-14 win over the Jets. Flores was hurt with 5:14 left in the game and the Raiders ahead 17-14. The Raiders ran the ball 9 times in a row, Charlie Green dropped to a knee at the Jets 13, and the Raiders kicked a field goal right after. They did have to kickoff with 4 seconds left, but that was basically the game, with Green getting no pass attempts. Looks like he did really well this week, too!

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Sunday, October 6, 1968





No idea what happened here. Did Babe's luck run out? Have teams figured out how to stop him? I'm wondering if we fell behind in a way that made the 49ers expect the pass (EDIT -- No, we were actually ahead at halftime). Who knows. We still seemed in it for most of the game, but also, we didn't score in the 2nd half, which I don't like.



Colts were off, so we're still ahead of them, 4-1 to 3-1. We play them Weeks 10 and 13.

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Monday, October 7, 1968

LICKING OUR WOUNDS

Only one new injury -- CB John Griffin, who should miss a week.

Really seems like we need Griese back.

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Tuesday October 8, 1968

I think this is the first week where the 1966 schedule has all games in both leagues on Sunday, so we add the Saturday and Monday games ourselves.

On Saturday, we have the 2-3 Oilers at the 3-2 Patriots.
on Monday, we have the 3-2 Giants at the 4-1 Redskins.

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Thursday, October 10, 1968



I'm including this here, since the original was "by" Erma Franklin, although she just sang it, and the writers were not from Detroit. So it's a very weak connection, but whatever, it's a good song.

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Saturday, October 12, 1968



Pretty boring defensive game.

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Sunday, October 13, 1968



That's a fun win -- going in to Green Bay and winning like it's nothing. This pleases me as a 90s Lions fan, and as a fan of this 60s Lions team, to see that the Packers are definitely not the mythical beasts they've been made out to be in the real NFL.



Huge bounce back game for Babe. Bass, too, with his first 100+ yard game since the opener.

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Monday, October 14, 1968



Redskins with the win!

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Tuesday, October 15, 1968

LICKING OUR WOUNDS

No new injuries to report.

YPR UPDATE

Bass, 403/99 = 4.07
Coia, 234/99 = 2.36
Flatley, 92/84 = 1.09
Malinchak, 75/38 = 1.97
Moses, 40/59 = we're building for the future here I guess

Coia and Flatley aren't bringing the YPR that they had coming in. Maybe that's because we have Griese hurt? I can't say that it's just a new QB, at least for Coia, since he was getting it done on different teams. Maybe it's just that Bass is sucking all the targets? Speaking of Bass, I was looking at his game log, since it was his first 100+ game in a while.



First off, he didn't have a 100-yard game in the 2nd half of 1967 at all. I'm not sure what to think about his performances. If he does well, it's obviously good, but if he doesn't get a lot of yards, I usually just think that we must be spreading the ball around more, and that's good, too. Since we were 12-2 last year and 5-1 so far this year, I think I can afford that optimistic outlook.

Also, I can't believe I didn't register his performance during the Super Bowl, even though we lost -- 16 catches, 208 yards? Wow. Although, I just looked it up and apparently that would not be a record -- Jerry Rice had 215 yards in Super Bowl XXIII.

Anyway, I'm not going to sweat the YPR too much since we're doing well, but it's something to keep an eye on. Especially Flatley, since we gave him some huge money to come here.

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Wednesday, October 16, 1968



The Colts needed an amazing 4th quarter to beat the Rams, and they're still a half game behind us.
Redskins stay on top of the NFL East.
What the hell happened to the Jets? From AFL East winners to 0-7!
And the AFL West is looking like a Chiefs-Chargers battle. I still say signing Plum was a mistake for the Raiders, though since both Plum and Flores have been hurt, maybe it's justified? But no.

Based on team statistics, it's looking like our defense that's carrying us -- #3 in opponent rush yards per game, and #2 in opponent yards per play.

Parilli still #2 in INTs, and he hasn't even played every game. We just need to make sure he doesn't have any 3 INT games like he did in San Francisco.

We've got a good AFL game on Saturday, the 5-1 Chargers at the 4-1 Bills.
And we get to play on Monday! Hosting the 2-4 Steelers.

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Thursday, October 17, 1968



We get John Griffin back! Griese is still 2 weeks to full health. He's at 96%, but the coordinators still want Babe to start.

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Saturday, October 19, 1968



Exciting 4th quarter, and a comeback win for the Chargers!

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Sunday, October 20, 1968



Chargers and the Chiefs with wins, giving us a similar West-over-East pattern in the AFL.
Redskins with an easy win over the Falcons to stay on top in the NFL East.
Colts hold off a 4th quarter rally from the Vikings, and they are right there with us in the NFL West.

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Monday, October 21, 1968





Nice, comfortable win, with two 100-yard rushers. Parilli efficient, and I guess we only needed 162 yards passing, and ran the rest of the way.

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Tuesday, October 22, 1968

LICKING OUR WOUNDS



Griese looking like he might be back for the Baltimore game in a couple weeks, we'll see. Hudson is out, but just 1 week -- he could flip to full health this Thursday. McLeod a little hurt, but he'll be fine.

YPR UPDATE



Bass still killing it at 4.04
Coia went down, but doing okay at 2.32
Malinchak moving up at 2.19!
Flatley also moves up, to 1.31!
Moses is still a work in progress.

I don't know how this was not the case before, but I was able to make it so that Moses is only coming in for the 5WR package, replacing him with Bass for 014 and 104, and replacing him with Malinchak on the 122.

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Wednesday, October 23, 1968



Not much new here. Tommy Mason's two rush TDs put him at #2 with 6. Doug Van Horn is at #2 in key run blocks, too. And we've moved up to #2 in opponent rush yards per game.

The Saturday AFL game is 3-4 Patriots at 4-3 Raiders.
Monday night the NFL gives us the 3-3 Packers at the 4-3 Browns. This is actually an East-West game that was Monday night in 1966, so it's a "true to schedule" game, not an "added Monday night game" fyi.
We go to Chicago on Sunday.

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Thursday, October 24, 1968



No real local significance here, except for me personally. Some kids that went to the same high school as me had a jam band called Avant Garde, and at some point I bought a book of billboard top 40 hits, which said there was already a band called Avant Garde in the 60s, that had Chuck Woolery (the dude from Love Connection) in it, which I thought was pretty funny. My high school was in Michigan, so I guess that makes it somehow local? Whatever, no one is reading this anyway.

Hudson is fine! And Griese 1 week to go!