1979 Denver Broncos season

1979 Denver Broncos season
Owner	Gerald Phipps
General manager	Fred Gehrke
Head coach	Red Miller
Home stadium	Mile High Stadium
Results
Record	10–6
Division place	2nd AFC West
Playoffs	Lost Wild Card Playoffs (at Oilers) 7–13
←  1978 Broncos seasons 1980  →

The 1979 Denver Broncos season was the team's 20th year in professional football and its 10th with the National Football League (NFL). Led by third-year head coach Red Miller, the Broncos were 10–6, second in the AFC West, and made the postseason a third consecutive year. ^[1] In the Wild Card round the Broncos lost to the Houston Oilers 13–7.

Offseason

NFL draft

Main article: 1979 NFL draft

1979 Denver Broncos draft
Round	Pick	Player	Position	College	Notes
1	22	Kelvin Clark	Tackle	Nebraska
3	77	Bruce Radford	NT	Grambling State
4	105	Charles Jefferson	DB	McNeese State
5	132	Rick Leach	QB	Michigan
6	148	Jeff McIntyre	LB	Arizona State
7	188	Luke Prestridge *	P	Baylor
9	242	Charlie Taylor	WR	Rice
11	297	Zach Dixon	RB	Temple
12	325	Dave Jacobs	K	Syracuse
Made roster    †    Pro Football Hall of Fame     *   Made at least one Pro Bowl during career

Undrafted free agents

1979 undrafted free agents of note

Player	Position	College
Wylie Turner	Defensive Back	Angelo State

Personnel

Staff

1979 Denver Broncos staff

Front office Chairman of the Board – Gerald Phipps President – Allan Phipps Vice President/General Manager – Fred Gehrke Director of Player Personnel – Carroll Hardy Pro Scouting – John Beake Head coaches Head Coach – Red Miller Offensive coaches Quarterbacks – Babe Parilli Offensive Backfield – Paul Roach Wide Receivers – Fran Polsfoot Offensive Line – Whitey Dovell

Defensive coaches Defensive Coordinator – Joe Collier Defensive Line – Stan Jones Linebackers – Bob Zeman Defensive Backs – Richie McCabe Special teams coaches Special Teams – Marv Braden

Roster

1979 Denver Broncos roster

Quarterbacks (QB)  7 Craig Morton 12 Craig Penrose 14 Norris Weese Running backs (RB) 24 Otis Armstrong 35 Larry Canada 30 Jim Jensen 32 Jon Keyworth 46 Dave Preston Wide receivers (WR) 84 Vince Kinney 25 Haven Moses 80 Rick Upchurch 81 Steve Watson Tight ends (TE) 85 Ron Egloff 88 Riley Odoms

Offensive linemen (OL) 55 Ken Brown C 64 Billy Bryan C 73 Kelvin Clark T 62 Tom Glassic G 65 Glenn Hyde G/T 60 Paul Howard G 71 Claudie Minor T 70 Dave Studdard T Defensive linemen (DL) 68 Rubin Carter NT 79 Barney Chavous DE 63 John Grant DE 72 Don Latimer NT 66 Brison Manor DE 78 Bruce Radford DE

Linebackers (LB) 56 Larry Evans OLB 53 Randy Gradishar ILB 57 Tom Jackson OLB 58 Rob Nairne ILB 59 Joe Rizzo ILB 50 Jim Ryan OLB 51 Bob Swenson OLB Defensive backs (DB) 47 George Atkinson SS 43 Steve Foley CB 29 Bernard Jackson FS 23 Chris Pane CB 36 Bill Thompson SS 40 Charlie West FS 20 Louis Wright CB Special teams (ST) 11 Luke Prestridge P 19 Fred Steinfort K 15 Jim Turner K

Reserve 82 Jack Dolbin WR (IR) -- Cyril McFall K (IR) 27 Maurice Harvey S (IR) -- Richard Keys C (IR) 41 Rob Lytle RB (IR) -- Tony Stephens WR (IR) -- Keith Uperesa G (IR) Rookies in italics

Source:

Regular season

Main article: 1979 NFL season

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Venue	Attendance
1	September 2	Cincinnati Bengals	W 10–0	1–0	Mile High Stadium	74,788
2	September 6	Los Angeles Rams	L 9–13	1–1	Mile High Stadium	74,884
3	September 16	at Atlanta Falcons	W 20–17OT	2–1	Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium	57,677
4	September 23	Seattle Seahawks	W 37–34	3–1	Mile High Stadium	74,879
5	September 30	at Oakland Raiders	L 3–27	3–2	Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum	52,632
6	October 7	San Diego Chargers	W 7–0	4–2	Mile High Stadium	74,997
7	October 14	at Kansas City Chiefs	W 24–10	5–2	Arrowhead Stadium	74,292
8	October 22	at Pittsburgh Steelers	L 7–42	5–3	Three Rivers Stadium	49,699
9	October 28	Kansas City Chiefs	W 20–3	6–3	Mile High Stadium	74,908
10	November 4	New Orleans Saints	W 10–3	7–3	Mile High Stadium	74,482
11	November 11	New England Patriots	W 45–10	8–3	Mile High Stadium	74,379
12	November 18	at San Francisco 49ers	W 38–28	9–3	Candlestick Park	42,910
13	November 25	Oakland Raiders	L 10–14	9–4	Mile High Stadium	74,186
14	December 2	at Buffalo Bills	W 19–16	10–4	Rich Stadium	37,886
15	December 8	at Seattle Seahawks	L 23–28	10–5	Kingdome	60,038
16	December 17	at San Diego Chargers	L 7–17	10–6	San Diego Stadium	51,906
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game summaries

Week 1

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Bengals	0	0	0	0	0
• Broncos	0	3	7	0	10

• Date: September
• Location: Mile High Stadium, Denver, Colorado
• Game start: 2:00 p.m.
• Game weather: 69 °F (21 °C), wind 6 mph (10 km/h)
• Referee: Dick Jorgensen

Scoring summary

2		DEN	Jim Turner 37 yard field goal	Broncos 3–0
3		DEN	Dave Preston 6 yard pass from Norris Weese (Jim Turner kick)	Broncos 10–0

^[2]

Week 5

• Date: September 30, 1979
• Network: NBC
• Announcers: Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen

All-Pro Dave Casper returns to Oakland's starting lineup after four weeks as a second stringer, caught a 28-yard touchdown pass from Ken Stabler to open the scoring as the Oakland Raiders upset the Denver Broncos, and ending their three-game losing streak. The Raiders used a two tight end formation throughout most of this game. Casper who reported late to training camp following a contract dispute caught four passes for 92 yards. Casper's final catch of the day was a 42-yard bomb from Stabler which set up one of two Jim Breech field goals in the final period. The Raiders drove 81 yards for their first touchdown late in the first quarter. Denver's Jim Turner made the score 7-3 late in the second period with a 19-yard field goal, but Larry Brunson's 50-yard kickoff return put the Raiders in scoring position and Mark Van Eeghen ran one yard for a touchdown 16 seconds before halftime. The Raiders, 2-3 used a four-man defensive line. It was a switch from their usual three-man front, and Ray Guy of Oakland contribute to the offensive frustrations of 3-2 Denver with some great punting. Guy's last punt pinned the Broncos near their goal line and linebacker Monte Johnson fell on the fumble in the end zone late in the game for the Raiders' final touchdown.

Week 12 (Sunday, November 18, 1979): at San Francisco 49ers

Week 12: Denver Broncos at San Francisco 49ers – Game summary

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
Broncos (9–3)	3	14	21	0	38
49ers (1–11)	0	21	0	7	28

at Candlestick Park • San Francisco, California

• Date: November 18
• Game time: 2:00 p.m. MST
• Game attendance: 42,910
• Referee: Gene Barth
• TV announcers (NBC): Sam Nover (play–by–play) and Bob Trumpy (color commentator)
• ^{[3] [4]}

Team	Category	Player	Statistics
DEN	Passing
	Rushing
	Receiving
SF	Passing
	Rushing
	Receiving

Scoring summary
Quarter Time Drive Team Scoring information Score Plays Yards TOP DEN SF "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. 38 28

• Point spread: Broncos —9
• Over/Under: 39.0 (over)
• Time of Game:

Broncos	Game Statistics	49ers
22	First downs	18
28–144	Rushes–yards	34–74
225	Passing yards	166
19–35–1	Passes	23–41–0
0–0	Sacked–yards	0–0
225	Net passing yards	166
369	Total yards	240
109	Return yards	239
6–38.5	Punts	6–45.2
1–1	Fumbles–lost	4–2
11–90	Penalties–yards	9–75
	Time of possession

Individual stats

Standings

AFC West
view talk edit	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	CONF	PF	PA	STK
San Diego Chargers (1)	12	4	0	.750	6–2	9–3	411	246	W2
Denver Broncos (5)	10	6	0	.625	4–4	7–5	289	262	L2
Seattle Seahawks	9	7	0	.563	3–5	6–6	378	372	W2
Oakland Raiders	9	7	0	.563	3–5	5–7	365	337	L1
Kansas City Chiefs	7	9	0	.438	4–4	7–7	238	262	L1

Playoffs

Main article: 1979–80 NFL playoffs

Round	Date	Opponent (seed)	Result	Record	Venue	Attendance
Wild Card	December 23	at Houston Oilers (4)	L 7–13	0–1	Astrodome	48,776

Source: ^{[5] [6]}

Game summary

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
Broncos	7	0	0	0	7
Oilers	3	7	0	3	13

at Astrodome, Houston, Texas

• Game time: 3:00 p.m. CST
• Game attendance: 48,776
• Referee: Gene Barth
• TV announcers (NBC): Charlie Jones and Len Dawson

Game information
Scoring HOU – field goal Fritsch 31 HOU 3–0 DEN – Preston 7 pass from Morton (Turner kick) DEN 7–3 HOU – Campbell 3 run (Fritsch kick) HOU 10–7 HOU – field goal Fritsch 20 HOU 13–7

The Oilers managed to shut down the Broncos offense for most of the game en route to a 13–7 win, holding the Broncos to 216 yards and recording six sacks.

After Toni Fritsch kicked a 31-yard field goal on Houston's first drive, Denver marched 80 yards in 13 plays to score on quarterback Craig Morton's 7-yard touchdown pass to running back Dave Preston. From that point on, the Oilers controlled the rest of the game. With less than 3 minutes left in the first half, Houston advanced 74 yards to score on running back Earl Campbell's 3-yard touchdown run. Although Campbell and starting quarterback Dan Pastorini both missed the second half with injuries, the Oilers defense continued to dominate. In the fourth quarter, a 15-yard interception return by linebacker Gregg Bingham set up Fritsch's 20-yard field goal with 4:18 left in regulation. ^{[5] [6]}

References

1. "Denver defense gives Campbell premier test". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. December 23, 1979. p. 2B.
2. Pro-Football-Reference.com
3. Pro Football Reference ; Denver Broncos at San Francisco 49ers – November 18, 1979
4. The Football Database; Denver Broncos at San Francisco 49ers – November 18, 1979
5. "Houston wins without Earl or Pastorini". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. wire service reports. December 24, 1979. p. 1B.
6. "A Wild Card day". Lewiston Morning Tribune. Idaho. Associated Press. December 24, 1979. p. 1C.

External links

• Denver Broncos – 1979 media guide
• 1979 Denver Broncos season at jt-sw.com
• 1979 Denver Broncos at Pro-Football-Reference.com