1957 Los Angeles Rams season

1957 Los Angeles Rams season
Head coach Sid Gillman
Home field Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Results
Record 6–6
Division place 4th NFL Western
Playoff finish did not qualify

The 1957 Los Angeles Rams season was the team's 20th year with the National Football League and the 12th season in Los Angeles.

Season highlights

Los Angeles Rams head coach Sid Gillman.
Newspaper headline detailing the Rams' record attendance on November 10, 1957 against the in-state rival San Francisco 49ers.

The Los Angeles Rams set an all-time National Football League attendance record in 1957, playing before a total of 1,051,106 fans in a total of 19 home and away games, including pre-season contests.[1] This attendance total exceeded any previous cumulative total for an American football team at any level of competition, including the college and professional levels.[1] Topping the one game record, the team drew an astounding 102,368 fans to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to see a November 10 contest between the Rams and their in-state rivals, the San Francisco 49ers.[1]

The 1957 season would be the last in a Rams uniform for quarterback and punter Norm Van Brocklin, the team's starting signal caller since 1950.[2] Van Brocklin passed for 20 touchdowns on the year, gaining 2,105 yards in the air, but gave up 21 costly interceptions, contributing to the team's 4th place finish in the Western Conference.[3] The team also parted ways at the end of the 1957 season with top receiver Elroy Hirsch, a veteran of 9 NFL seasons.[2]

Defensively, the Rams limited their opponents to nearly 300 fewer yards on the ground and 75 yards via the pass than the totals put up by themselves.[3] The pass defense was headed by linebacker Les Richter, who lead the team with 4 interceptions.[3]

Schedule

Week Date Opponent Result Attendance
1 September 29, 1957 Philadelphia Eagles W 17–13
62,506
2 October 6, 1957 at San Francisco 49ers L 23–20
59,637
3 October 13, 1957 at Detroit Lions L 10–7
55,914
4 October 20, 1957 at Chicago Bears L 34–26
47,337
5 October 27, 1957 Detroit Lions W 35–17
77,314
6 November 3, 1957 Chicago Bears L 16–10
80,456
7 November 10, 1957 San Francisco 49ers W 37–24
102,368
8 November 17, 1957 at Green Bay Packers W 31–27
19,540
9 November 24, 1957 at Cleveland Browns L 45–31
65,407
10 December 1, 1957 at Baltimore Colts L 31–14
52,060
11 December 8, 1957 Green Bay Packers W 42–17
70,572
12 December 15, 1957 Baltimore Colts W 37–21
52,560

Standings

NFL Western Conference
W L T PCT CONF PF PA STK
Detroit Lions 8 4 0 .667 6–4 251 231 W3
San Francisco 49ers 8 4 0 .667 7–3 260 264 W3
Baltimore Colts 7 5 0 .583 6–4 303 235 L2
Los Angeles Rams 6 6 0 .500 5–5 307 278 W2
Chicago Bears 5 7 0 .417 4–6 203 211 L1
Green Bay Packers 3 9 0 .250 2–8 218 311 L3

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 Charles Genuit, "Magic Million: Rams Rewrote Attendance Figures in 1957 Season," in 1958 Pro Football. Los Angeles, CA: Petersen Publishing Co., 1958; pp. 42-43.
  2. 1 2 Paul Zimmerman, "Rams: Passing and Pass Defense Big LA Question Mark," in 1958 Pro Football. Los Angeles, CA: Petersen Publishing Co., 1958; pp. 24-28.
  3. 1 2 3 Los Angeles Rams' Final Statistics — 1957," in 1958 Pro Football. Los Angeles, CA: Petersen Publishing Co., 1958; pg. 29.
Preceded by
< 1956		 Los Angeles Rams seasons
1957 		Succeeded by
1958 >
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 01, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.