1973 Detroit Lions season

1973 Detroit Lions season
Head coach	Don McCafferty
Owner	William Clay Ford, Sr.
Home field	Tiger Stadium
Results
Record	6–7–1
Division place	2nd NFC Central
Playoff finish	did not qualify

The 1973 Detroit Lions season was their 44th in the league. Don McCafferty, who served as an assistant under Don Shula during Shula's stint as head coach of the Baltimore Colts, and whom as head coach himself coached the Colts to a Super Bowl V victory over the Dallas Cowboys, would replace Joe Schmidt as head coach. However the team would still fail to improve on their previous season's output of 8–5–1, finishing a mediocre 6–7–1.^[1] The team missed the playoffs for the third straight season.

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Attendance
1	September 16, 1973	at Pittsburgh Steelers	L 24–10	48,913
2	September 23, 1973	at Green Bay Packers	T 13–13	55,495
3	October 1, 1973	Atlanta Falcons	W 31–6	45,599
4	October 7, 1973	Minnesota Vikings	L 23–9	49,549
5	October 14, 1973	at New Orleans Saints	L 20–13	57,810
6	October 21, 1973	Baltimore Colts	L 29–27	48,058
7	October 28, 1973	Green Bay Packers	W 34–0	43,616
8	November 4, 1973	San Francisco 49ers	W 30–20	49,531
9	November 11, 1973	at Minnesota Vikings	L 28–7	47,911
10	November 18, 1973	at Chicago Bears	W 30–7	48,625
11	November 22, 1973	Washington Redskins	L 20–0	46,807
12	December 2, 1973	at St. Louis Cardinals	W 20–16	44,982
13	December 9, 1973	Chicago Bears	W 40–7	41,729
14	December 15, 1973	at Miami Dolphins	L 34–7	53,375

Standings

NFC Central
	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	CONF	PF	PA	STK
Minnesota Vikings	12	2	0	.857	6–0	10–1	296	168	W2
Detroit Lions	6	7	1	.464	3–2–1	6–4–1	271	247	L1
Green Bay Packers	5	7	2	.429	1–4–1	4–6–1	202	259	W1
Chicago Bears	3	11	0	.214	1–5	1–9	195	334	L6

Game summaries

Week 14

Week Fourteen: Detroit Lions (6–6–1) at Miami Dolphins (11–2)

	1	2	3	4	Total
Lions	0	0	0	7	7
Dolphins	14	17	3	0	34

at Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida

• Date: Saturday, December 15
• Game time: 1:00 p.m. EDT
• Game weather: 69 °F, wind 7 mph
• Pro-Football-Reference.com

Game information

First Quarter MIA – Paul Warfield 21-yard pass from Bob Griese (Garo Yepremian kick) – Dolphins 7–0 MIA – Paul Warfield 7-yard pass from Bob Griese (Garo Yepremian kick) – Dolphins 14–0 Second Quarter MIA – Garo Yepremian 27-yard field goal – Dolphins 17–0 MIA – Paul Warfield 16-yard pass from Bob Griese (Garo Yepremian kick) – Dolphins 24–0 MIA – Paul Warfield 4-yard pass from Bob Griese (Garo Yepremian kick) – Dolphins 31–0 Third Quarter MIA – Garo Yepremian 28-yard field goal – Dolphins 34–0 Fourth Quarter DET – Steve Owens 5-yard run (Errol Mann kick) – Dolphins 34–7 Lions Bill Munson 8/17, 73 Yds, INT Steve Owens 27 Rush, 113 Yds, TD 6 Rec, 56 Yds Dolphins Bob Griese 11/15, 141 Yds, 4 TD Larry Csonka 10 Rush, 51 Yds Paul Warfield 6 Rec, 103 Yds, 4 TD

References

1. 1973 Detroit Lions