We have completed only five weeks of the regular season and already the 1972 Miami Dolphins can drink champagne to celebrate being the only undefeated team to win a Super Bowl in National Football League history.
The Dolphins of the early 1970’s were a perfect blend of an efficient offense and suffocating defense. They didn’t do it with one unbelievable star attracting all the attention, but rather a team concept led by head coach Don Shula that left opponents out-played, out-witted and out-scored.
Quarterback Bob Griese was efficient and good, not unlike the role Bart Starr served while leading the Green Bay Packers to excellence a decade earlier. The offense had Larry Csonka to gain the tough yards inside, and Mercury Morris to skirt the outside for big gains. The receiving corps included one of the most beautiful athletes to ever watch, wide receiver Paul Warfield.
Then there was Miami’s defense. It didn’t have a sack leader or significantly better linebacker or defensive back. No, this stop unit was orchestrated by defensive coordinator Bill Arnsparger to work in perfect harmony to complement each other's skills. They became, appropriately, known as the “No Name Defense.”
This blend of talent and coaching guided the 1972 Dolphins to a perfect record despite starting quarterback Bob Griese being injured in the fifth week of the season and relieved by backup Earl Morrall until late in the perfect run. After beating the Cleveland Browns to open their postseason, they went into Pittsburgh, this was before home field advantage was determined by regular season records, and downed the Steelers the week after Franco Harris had eliminated the Raiders with the Immaculate Reception.
They were underdogs in the Super Bowl to the Washington Redskins, and the only points scored against them was on an ill-advised pass from kicker Garo Yepremian. The Dolphins completed their perfect season with a 14-7 triumph in Super Bowl VII.
I was involved in that magnificent run by the Dolphins, not from their side, but as a member of the Oakland Raiders organization when we ended their perfect run in 1973 and their quest for a third straight Super Bowl win in 1974. The Dolphins followed up their perfect season with an opening win the next season over the San Francisco 49ers and then met the Raiders in Berkeley.
The Raiders had shifted the game from the Oakland Coliseum to the Cal stadium because of the interest in the matchup that generated selling 20,000 more seats than were available in their home stadium.
“I know selling extra seats is the objective,” NBC Announcer Curt Gowdy said to me on Saturday when I picked him up at the airport, “But I tell you, I would never have moved this game out of the house of miracles.” That is how Gowdy referred to the Oakland Coliseum where he had called a number of wins by the Silver and Black with dramatic late comebacks.
The Raiders ended the Dolphins two years without a loss on that Sunday in 1973 on the Cal campus, 12-7, then met them again in the AFC Championship Game at the Orange Bowl in December. The Dolphins downed the Raiders on their way to a second straight Super Bowl win … beating the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl VIII, 24-7.
The following season, the Raiders and Dolphins met in the playoffs again, this time in Oakland, and in a game that remains the greatest I ever attended the Raiders ended the Dolphins bid for a third straight Super Bowl win with a dramatic comeback on a catch by Clarence Davis on a play that became known as the Sea of Hands.
The Raiders mystique was unique in the NFL. For much of the 70’s they appeared nearly as good as any team in the league, and certainly the most colorful. But there often emerged one team that was better. In the early 70’s it was the Dolphins, later it was the Steelers. The Raiders finally won their first Super Bowl to complete the 1976 season and added Vince Lombardi Trophies to their display case to conclude the 1980 and 1983 seasons.
The last title run in Oakland was in 1980, their victory three years later was after they moved to Los Angeles. They haven’t won a Super Bowl since.
The once proud franchise became a vagabond show with first their 1982 move to Los Angeles, a return to Oakland in 1994, and their second move out of the East Bay to Las Vegas in 2020.
After years of promoting themselves as “Pro Football’s Winningest Team” and a number of other slogans the Raiders today are but a skeleton of the team that once ruled the Bay Area. Today, the only team in the league with a worse record than the Raiders is the woeful New York Jets. The Jets have lost all five of their 2025 games, the Raiders bring a four-game losing streak into action this week after getting blown out in Indianapolis by the Colts last Sunday, 40-6.
This was supposed to be a revival year for the Silver and Black. New head coach Pete Carroll acquired his old quarterback from the Seattle Seahawks, Geno Smith, and the Raiders added what was going to be a dynamic young runner in first round draft choice Ashton Jeanty.
Optimism has been replaced by despair as Smith has become so prone to throwing interceptions that it almost appears that is his objective. Smith’s nine picks is the most surrendered by any quarterback in 2025.
Bring all this apparent chaos into action this week and what do we have … the Raiders favored on the point spread.
What?
The Raiders favored?
Is the other team even showing up?
Yes, and the other team is the Tennessee Titans, who ended their winless streak with rookie quarterback Cam Ward last week with a last-second win over the Arizona Cardinals. In the battle of 1 and 4 teams, one of them is off a satisfying win, the other looking to end a four-game losing streak.
There is only one possible reason for the Raiders to be favored here … they are going to win.
Qoxhi Picks: Las Vegas Raiders (-4½) over Tennessee Titans