1997 Season Recappppp

PFL HISTORY
	PFL History
1997 SEASON
	1997 Playoff Brackets 1997 All Pro Team 1997 Final Standings
INTERACT
	PFL MADDEN FORUM MADDEN DATABASE
SITE UTILITIES
	HELP CONTACT EMAIL the Commish!!! Send Commissioner Allen all of your questions or comments concerning the PFL.

Kevin Fox won the exhibition title in 1997. SEATTLE WINS IT ALL Fox makes true on promise blowing out the Bengals in PFL SuperBowl II. The Seattle Seahawks backed up every word of trash talk that occurred during the 1997 PFL season, and they did it convincingly. With shocking upsets occurring at the conference championships, it was somewhat of a surprise to see the Seahawks and Bengals in the Super Bowl. After winning their conference and posting the top two records in the league, both Dallas and San Francisco fell in the championship games. Both Seattle and Cincinnati dominated from theng kickoff stunning the PFL giants and upsetting what everyone thought would be a Dallas/San Francisco Super Bowl showdown. Everyone except the Seahawks and the Bengals that is. Seattle finished second in the AFC to San Fran and went on to post decisive victories over Oakland and St.Louis in the playoffs before doing away with San Fran. Cincinnati was nearly disqualified from league play because of incidents occurring at the end of the post season. After paying the fine that was levied by the PFL office, the Bengals shook off the controversy and promptly disposed of Detroit and Carolina before whipping up on Dallas. The stage was set for game everyone had anticipated. Unfortunately the game did not live up to its anticipated hype as Seattle blew away Cincinnati. Brown conceded the game at half-time after Seattle had amassed a ridiculous 136 - 56 lead....AT HALF-TIME!!! It was evident that playing 15 minute quarters would mean the scoring would escalate to absurd numbers. Both teams were averaging over 40 pts... a game during the regular season. These games were all played in 5 minute quarters. AFC Recap After starting the season 2-3, Seattle won 9 of its last 10, the only loss being a controversial defeat to San Francisco in week 16. As the Seahawks began to gain momentum, Fox proclaimed he would go undefeated after week 6 and would win the Super Bowl. Although he did lose one game he was nearly perfect on his prognostication as he was victorious in the big game. San Francisco got off to a 6-0 start as everyone expected before falling to Dallas in week 7. The Niners at one point were considered unbeatable. But after struggling against Seattle early in the season and losing to the Dallas and Carolina, everyone felt the Niners were vulnerable and could be beat. However, San Fran rolled through the majority of the league blowing out most of their opponents and earning a first round bye. St. Louisd the season with a blowout win over Carolina and sort of alternated wins and losses until mid season. Towards the end of the season the Rams caught fire with upsets over both Dallas and San Fran and headed into the playoffs with momentum. However, as good and as potent as the St. Louis offense was, they could not handle Seattle. Fox had Gresham's number all season blowing him out twice in the regular season and in the playoffs. Gresham, the master of the on side kick, got beat at his own game when he faced Fox and the Seahawks. Nevertheless, St. Louis was an opponent that you all teams respected and had to be ready to play. Miami struggled through a season of closes losses. With one of the top defenses in the league, the Dolphins problems were on offense. The run game struggled and that left Womack relying on his passing game to often. The Dolphins were known as a great first half team but lacked the mental toughness to hold a lead or put the game away in the second half. Most of the Dolphins losses were by a touchdown or less. Even though the Fins backed their way into the playoffs, they were not considered to be a team that would go very far in the playoffs. After being picked as 5:1 odds to win the Super Bowl, third only to Dallas and San Francisco, the Dolphins finished a disappointing 6-10 and barely made the playoffs. The Raiders probably suffered he worst mid season slump in the history of sports. After surprising the league with a week one upset of Seattle and winning five of their first seven, the Raiders looked for real sitting atop the AFC with a 5-2 record before the bottom fell completely from underneath them. Oakland lost 8 of their last 9 games winning against only the lowly Broncos who finished 0-16. After such a disappointing season, Alvin Barrow has expressed reservations about returning to coach the Raiders next season. Also dwelling at the bottom of the AFC cellar form the entire year was the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eaglesthe year 0-7, prompting everyone to refer to Joe Hilton as Owen. (as in Owen-7) But the Eagles slowly got there game together and by mid season pulled upsets over the Raiders and Dolphins. Though they only finished 5-11 and missed the playoffs, the Eagles are going to be a team to reckon with in 1998. NFC Recap After losing twice to Dallas in the regular season, the Bengals pulled the second upset of the championship games, dismissing Dallas from an opportunity to play for their first Super Bowl Title. Cincy had the league's most prolific scoring machine. All pro Jeff Blake threw for over 400 yards a game and Darnay Scott and Carl Pickens amassed ridiculous yards receiving in the potent Bengal attack. The Bengals started out strong and many believed Cincy was probably one of the top three teams in the league. But after some midseason defeats by Seattle and St. Louis, the Bengals had fallen behind Dallas by three games in the race for home field and the first round bye. Nevertheless, they need any byes as they breezed through the playoffs and onto to the Super Bowl before being annihilated by Seattle. The Bengal franchise was in jeopardy towards the close of midseason for several PFL violations. But the Bengals shrugged off the controversy and hammed into the playoffs. The Dallas loss to the Bengals was probably the biggest upset of the season in the PFL. The Cowboys seemed a cinch to go all the way before choking to the Bengals. It was a game the pokes were never in from the beginning after falling behind by three touchdowns early. Dallas had a very successful regular season finishing with a league best 14-2 record. But that means nothing if you can't finish the job. Even though the boys were a mighty 14-2, most of those wins were very close games. Many thought the boys could have easily loss to Seattle, San Francisco, New England and Detroit. There were very few blowouts by Dallas. Nevertheless, the pokes secured home field and a first round bye, by winning the conference. Dallas two losses came at the hands of St. Louis in week 8 and Carolina in week 15. Speaking of Carolina, they really finished season strong after an inconsistent start. The Panthers would upset teams like San Francisco but lose badly to Seattle or St. Louis. However, the Panthers finished strong winning 6 of their last 8 including a big upset over Dallas and finishing with a 11-5 record and a second seed in the playoff tournament. New England was another good team with a disappointing season. The Pat's had some gig upsets, but then loss some games by huge margins. Alex Smolka was really criticized by many for his failure to put teams away at the end of the game. This really started in week 5 with an overtime loss to Dallas where after some questionable play calling, the Cowboys escaped with an overtime field goal for the win. Though a very talented team, the Pats didn't live up to their 12:1 Odds to win the Super Bowl. There isn't much to say about Detroit. They finished the season with an embarrassing 3-13 record. Both Detroit and Miami figured to give Dallas or San Francisco a run for the title early in the season because both teams were playing well in the "Sega" league. But the new members to the PFL initiated Rubio and the Lions well. So well that by midseason Lion fans were chanting, "Rubio must go!" during the games. The Lions were installed as 10:1 odds to win the Super Bowl, and they didn't even make the playoffs. The Denver franchise was a troubled one from the start. John Rusnak, after week 5 resigned from the league and relinquished his rights to the Denver franchise. Rusnak stated that competition was to intense and too fierce for him, so he resigned. This left the league in an extremely uncomfortable situation. Each team that faced Denver, had to play the computer as its opponent. With these highly skilled players, the computer never had a chance and thus Denver finished the season 0-16. Rusnak only played four games losing all four. 1997 Playoff Brackets | 1997 Final Standings | Archives Home