1978 St. Louis Cardinals (NFL) season

1978 St. Louis Cardinals season
Head coach	Bud Wilkinson
Owner	Bill Bidwill
Home field	Busch Memorial Stadium
Results
Record	6–10
Division place	4th NFC East
Playoff finish	did not qualify

The 1978 St. Louis Cardinals season was the team’s 59th year with the National Football League and the 19th season in St. Louis. The controversial recruitment of 62-year-old former Oklahoma Sooners coach Bud Wilkinson was a failure, as the team, already affected by becoming the first opponent team to lose visiting the expansion Buccaneers, failed to maintain the standard of the previous four seasons. The team lost its first eight games to be out of the running for the playoffs by midseason, and even a sequence of six wins in eight games failed to move the team beyond equal last in its division.

The last of the Cardinals’ initial eight consecutive losses was the final time they played the New York Jets until 1996,^[1] by which time the franchise was based in Phoenix and provided a notorious Jets’ team with the win needed to avoid the first 0–16 record in NFL history. The reason for this is that before the admission of the Texans in 2002, NFL scheduling formulas for games outside a team’s division were much more influenced by table position during the previous season.^[2]

Offseason

NFL Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	School/Club Team

Personnel

Staff

1978 St. Louis Cardinals staff
	Front office Owner – Bill Bidwill Director of Operations – Joe Sullivan Assistant Director of Operations – Larry Wilson Head coaches Head Coach – Bud Wilkinson Offensive coaches Quarterbacks/Receivers – Harry Gilmer Offensive Backfield – Pete Elliott Offensive Line – Jim Hanifan Special Assistant – Buddy Parker			Defensive coaches Defensive Coordinator – Tom Bettis Defensive Line – Rudy Feldman Defensive Secondary – Fred Glick Special teams coaches Special Teams – Jerry Thompson

Regular season

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Attendance
1	September 3, 1978	at Chicago Bears	L 10–17	52,791
2	September 10, 1978	New England Patriots	L 6–16	48,233
3	September 17, 1978	Washington Redskins	L 10–28	49,282
4	September 24, 1978	at Dallas Cowboys	L 12–21	62,760
5	October 1, 1978	at Miami Dolphins	L 10–24	43,882
6	October 8, 1978	Baltimore Colts	L 17–30	47,479
7	October 15, 1978	Dallas Cowboys	L 21–24	48,991
8	October 22, 1978	at New York Jets	L 10–23	49,244
9	October 29, 1978	at Philadelphia Eagles	W 16–10	62,989
10	November 5, 1978	New York Giants	W 20–10	48,820
11	November 12, 1978	at San Francisco 49ers	W 16–10	33,155
12	November 19, 1978	at Washington Redskins	W 27–17	52,460
13	November 26, 1978	Philadelphia Eagles	L 10–14	39,693
14	December 3, 1978	Detroit Lions	W 21–14	39,200
15	December 10, 1978	at New York Giants	L 0–17	52,226
16	December 17, 1978	Atlanta Falcons	W 42–21	40,022

Standings

NFC East
	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	CONF	PF	PA	STK
Dallas Cowboys^(2)	12	4	0	.750	7–1	9–3	384	208	W6
Philadelphia Eagles^(5)	9	7	0	.563	4–4	6–6	270	250	W1
Washington Redskins	8	8	0	.500	4–4	6–6	273	283	L5
St. Louis Cardinals	6	10	0	.375	3–5	6–6	248	296	W1
New York Giants	6	10	0	.375	2–6	5–9	264	298	L1

References

1. Arizona Cardinals v New York Jets
2. History of the NFL’s Structure and Formats

• Cardinals on Pro Football Reference
• Cardinals on jt-sw.com