The Pats were coming off of being robbed by Ben Dreith. The team returned almost entirely intact in 1977. In the 1st round of the draft, Fairbanks added Stanley Morgan to a receiving corp containing Darryl Stingley and tight end Russ Francis; and Raymond Clayborn to a defensive backfield patrolled by Mike Haynes. Leon Gray and John Hannah were in their prime and were both coming off their first Pro Bowl.
However, with Hannah and Gray holding out due to a needless contract dispute that was entirely Billy Sullivan's fault, the team stumbled out of the gate, with losses to a mediocre Cleveland Browns team followed by what would turn out to be a costly loss to the lowly Jets (the Jets put up back-to-back 3-11 seasons in 1976/77). And just as they started to get untracked, they lost to a really bad Bills team that had already lost OJ Simpson for the season to an injury. And that loss was followed by their annual loss in the Orange Bowl, which left the Pats 5-4, badly trailing both the 7-2 Dolphins and 8-1 Baltimore Colts in the AFC East. And, in even worse news, the AFC West battle was between two 8-1 teams, the Raiders and the Broncos. Which meant that the Pats would have to leapfrog at least 2 teams to win either the division or the wild card.
The Bert Jones led Colts at the time were sort of a measuring stick team for the Patriots. The glory days of Johnny Unitas long a memory, Colts had been awful until Ted Machriboda (and Bill Belichick) arrived in 1975, and the Colts won the first of 3 consecutive divisional titles behind former #2 overall pick Jones. And after seeming to have the division wrapped up again after beating the Jets to go 9-1, things got interesting after consecutive losses to the Broncos and the Dolphins. Suddenly, the 9-3 Colts were tied with the Dolphins, and the Patriots took advantage of their schedule to win 3 in a row and were only a game behind at 8-4. Even the Raiders had slipped back and found themselves at 9-3, and Pats fans started to get their hopes up. The Pats seemingly could control their own destiny, with games remaining against both the Dolphins and Colts. Win both, and they would be 10-4, and more importantly the wins would mean the best the Colts or Dolphins could do would also be 10-4.
Such a 3-way tie for the division would benefit the Pats. As the Pats had already beaten the Colts that season, and the fact that the Dolphins and Colts had already split their 2 games, the Pats would have won the first 3-way tiebreaker, as they would have had the best record in games between the 3 teams (3-1 vs 2-2). On December 11th, despite having lost Russ Francis to injury the prior week, the Pats managed to hold off the Dolphins 14-10. All the Colts had to do was to beat the 5-7 Lions to set up a game against the Pats in which the winner would take the division. By the time the Pats game ended, the Colts were holding a 10-6 lead over the Lions with 4:50 to play. The Colts game had started an hour later than the Pats/Dolphins match, so the Colts knew the stakes by the time the closing minutes of the 4th quarter.
However, there was a problem. Had the Dolphins beaten the Patriots, the Colts would have needed to beat the Lions to stay even with Miami in the playoff race. With the Dolphins loss, the Lions game no longer mattered to Baltimore. They would just have to beat the Patriots the following week to get in. Aided by little known wide receivers coach Bill Belichick, the Lions start to make a nice desperation drive that included a failed option play that would have set up the Lions with first-and-goal. However, the Colts defense stiffened and eventually the Lions were forced to go for it on 4th-and-30 from their own 30 with 1:10 remaining. All the Colts had to do was knock down the desperation heave and the game would be essentially wrapped. Instead, the Colts intercepted it, placing the ball on the Colts 25. Still, with 1:03 left, the Colts just needed to run 3 times and punt. First down goes as planned with a 3 yard run up the middle, forcing the Lions to use a timeout. Another 2 yard run on 2nd down forces the Lions to use their final timeout. The Colts run one more play and take a penalty to run the clock down to 9 seconds with the ball on their own 23.
With nothing to lose the Lions set up to rush 11 at the punter. Had Bill Belichick been special teams coach of the Colts, the play call would have been obvious: take the safety and force the Lions into a Hail Mary situation after the free kick. However, Belichick was now with the Lions, and so Marchriboda ordered the punt. Which, of course, was blocked for a Lions TD. Later that day, the Raiders would blow out the Vikings to go 10-3 and essentially clinch the wild card.
The Dolts play screwed over 2 teams. For the Patriots, it would mean the only chance to for the Pats to make the playoffs would be to hope that Miami would lose to the 3-10 Bills at home on Saturday, and then beat the Colts themselves on Sunday. Under a two-way tie scenario at 10-4, the Patriots would lose out to the Dolphins by virtue of divisional records, those losses to the Jets and Bills looming large. Anyway, the Dolphins took care of business with a 31-14 victory. However, now it would be the Dolphins fans turn to complain. Obviously eliminated from the playoffs, the Patriots would have zero incentive to play hard on Sunday, and a Colts win would knock the Dolphins out, as the Colts held the conference record tiebreaker. Interestingly, things started to look up for Dolphins fans after Raymond Clayborn took a kickoff 101 yards to the house to give the Pats a 21-3 lead. However, a couple of Steve Grogan interceptions and 3 Bert Jones TD passes later, the Colts would have the 30-24 lead when time expired.
Both Pats and Dolphins fans flooded commissioner Pete Rozelle's office with complaints about the playoff tiebreaker format and accusations of the Colts throwing the game for their own benefit. With a 10-4 team and a couple of 9-5 teams missing the playoffs, the NFL owners voted to expand the season to 16 games and add a second wild card for the following year. Meanwhile, the Colts would go on to play their final playoff game in Baltimore, losing a close and entertaining one to the defending champion Raiders 37-31 in double overtime.
Anyway, that disappointing ending to the 1977 season was soon forgotten after the fiasco of 1978 and subsequent disasters. Yes, even when the Pats were good, they were bad.