NFL Super Bowl Winners

Super Bowl VIII played on January 13 1974, was won by the Champions of the AFC the Miami Dolphins who defeated the NFC Champions the Minnesota Vikings at Rice Stadium, Houston, Texas.

The Miami Dolphins coached by Don Shula had won the 1973 AFC East Division in convincing fashion with a regular season record of 12-2-0.

They had obviously done some work defensively throughout the closed season and throughout the 1973 NFL Season opposition found them hard to score against. In regular season they only conceded 150 points registering an average of 10.7 points conceded per game making them first in the NFL for this particular stat.

As regards being a point scoring "machine" in regular season, they did enough to win but had only been fifth best with an average of 24.5 points scored per game.

In the 1973 AFC postseason games the Dolphins beat the Cincinnati Bengals decisively 34 - 16 in the AFC Divisional Playoffs. The Bengals had won the 1973 AFC Central Division but were only 11th in the league for both points scored and points conceded and would not have been strong opposition for the Dolphins. However, drawing a rule of thumb form line through this game, the Bengals during regular season had actually beaten the Minnesota Vikings by 27 points to 0 (the Vikings were to become the Dolphins Super Bowl VIII opponents).

The Dolphins next game was in the AFC Championship Game where they played the Oakland Raiders. The Raiders were the winner of the 1973 AFC West Division and had actually beaten the Dolphins 12 - 7 in week two of the season but that game was a long time ago come Conference Championship day. The Oakland Raiders had not scored points that well throughout regular season only finishing tenth in the league on their point scoring average although they had performed respectably defensively finishing third on averages in the league but on the face of it, over the course of the regular season, had shown an inferior level of form to the Dolphins. The Dolphins won convincingly 27 - 10.

The Dolphins opponents in Super Bowl VIII were the Minnesota Vikings coached by Bud Grant . The Vikings had won the 1973 NFC Central Division with a record of 12-2-0 albeit in a dour fashion. Obviously built on a strong defense, the Vikings had finished second in the NFL on their points conceded average which was 12 per game, only the Dolphins were better. The Vikings had limited the Los Angeles Rams (who had the league′s best goal scoring average) to a low score when defeating that team 10 - 9 in regular season. However, they were only 9th of 26 in the NFL on their point scoring average which was 21.1 per game.

The Minnesota Vikings playoff games started with a 27 - 20 defeat of the Washington Redskins in the NFC Divisional Playoffs. The Redskins had finished joint top of the NFC East Division and would have been a fair test for the Vikings, they had finished sixth in the league on both their point scoring and points conceded averages.

In the NFC Championship the Vikings opponents were the Dallas Cowboys who had finished level top of the NFC East Division with the Washington Redskins. The Cowboys had been good point scorers through regular season finishing second of the league with an average of 27.3 points scored per game although they were only seventh defensively on their points conceded average of 14.5 per game.

A defensively strong team like the Vikings against a strong attacking team such as the Cowboys, which one would prevail? On the day it was the Vikings that got their act together and they won 27 - 10.

In Super Bowl VIII the attacking intentions of the Dolphins were soon apparent when they scored the first two times they had possession and had rattled up 14 points by the end of the first quarter without any reply.

A 28 yard field goal by Kicker Garo Yepremian in the second quarter increased the Dolphins lead to 17 - 0 by half time.

The lead increased to 24 - 0 in the third quarter before the Vikings got some consolation points in the fourth.

Larry Csonka of the Miami Dolphins was named Super Bowl MVP after he rushed 33 times for two touchdowns and 145 yards.

Note
For the 1973 Playoffs the Miami Dolphins must have "let the brakes off" their offense! Over the course of their three playoff games their point scoring average jumped up to 28.3 points scored per game (from 24.5). Something of a rarity in normal playoff seasons. However, their defensive average was slightly worse moving down to 11 points conceded per game (10.7 regular season). They must have adopted the policy for the playoffs that their best form of defense was to be attack!

Not the same story for the Vikings. They had been one of the better defensive sides in regular season but that form nose-dived in the playoffs with their points conceded average being 18 per game (from 12). The Vikings point scoring average decreased slightly to 20.3 per game (from 21.1) which was probably as a consequence of being played off the field in Super Bowl VIII.

In Conclusion
The Dolphins were obviously a very consistent team that held their form well and appeared to up their game for the playoffs in the form of offense. This was probably as a result of being high on confidence and having that winning touch. When teams start winning they like to make it a habit. The playoffs and the Super Bowl held no fears for the Miami Dolphins in 1973, they′d been there before, knew what to do and couldn′t wait for it all to happen again!

Team	1	2	3	4	OT / Overtime	T / Total
Minnesota Vikings (NFC)	0	0	0	7	-	7
Miami Dolphins (AFC)	14	3	7	0	-	24

Larry Csonka