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1978 Denver Broncos season
The 1978 Denver Broncos season was the team's 19th year in professional football and its ninth with the National Football League (NFL). Led by second-year head coach Red Miller, the Broncos were 10–6, repeated as champions of the AFC West, and made the playoffs for the second straight season.
| 1978 Denver Broncos season |
|---|
| Fred Gehrke |
| Red Miller |
| Mile High Stadium |
| 10–6 |
| 1st AFC West |
| Lost Divisional Playoffs(at Steelers) 10–33 |
Broncos 1968-1996 uniforms
The 1978 Denver Broncos season was the team's 19th year in professional football and its ninth with the National Football League (NFL). Led by second-year head coach Red Miller, the Broncos were 10–6, repeated as champions of the AFC West, and made the playoffs for the second straight season.
In the AFC divisional round, Denver lost on the road to the top-seeded Pittsburgh Steelers, 33–10, whom they had lost to two weeks earlier in the regular season finale at Mile High Stadium; Denver had clinched their division title six days earlier with a win over struggling Kansas City, while runners-up Oakland and Seattle both lost and fell to 8–7 with San Diego, two games back with one to play.
The Broncos were fifteenth in the league in scoring offense, while the defense finished second in points allowed and sixth in yards allowed.
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 | Column 5 | Column 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 Denver Broncos draft | |||||
| 1 | 27 | Don Latimer | DT | Miami (FL) | |
| 2 | 55 | Bill Gay * | TE | USC | |
| 8 | 221 | Frank Smith | OT | Alabama A&M | |
| 10 | 277 | Vince Kinney | WR | Maryland | |
| 11 | 305 | Lacy Brumley | OT | Clemson | |
| .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{} Made roster † Pro Football Hall of Fame * Made at least one Pro Bowl during career |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 | Column 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front office |
Owner / Chairman of the Board – Gerald Phipps Team President – Allan Phipps Vice President/General Manager – Fred Gehrke Director of Player Personnel – Carroll Hardy Head coaches
Head Coach – Red Miller Offensive coaches
Quarterbacks – Babe Parilli Offensive Backfield – Paul Roach Wide Receivers – Fran Polsfoot Offensive Line – Ken Gray | | | Defensive coaches Defensive Coordinator – Joe Collier Defensive Line – Stan Jones Linebackers – Bob Zeman Defensive Backs – Richie McCabe Defensive Assistant/Special Teams Assistant – Bill Belichick Special teams coaches
Special Teams – Marv Braden |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 | Column 5 | Column 6 | Column 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quarterbacks (QB) | ||||||
| 7 Craig Morton | ||||||
| 12 Craig Penrose | ||||||
| 14 Norris Weese | ||||||
| Running backs (RB) |
24 Otis Armstrong 35 Larry Canada 32 Jon Keyworth 41 Rob Lytle 33 Lonnie Perrin 46 Dave Preston Wide receivers (WR)
82 Jack Dolbin 84 Vince Kinney 25 Haven Moses 80 Rick Upchurch Tight ends (TE)
87 Bob Moore 88 Riley Odoms | | Offensive linemen (OL) 64 Billy Bryan C 62 Tom Glassic G 60 Paul Howard G 65 Glenn Hyde G/T 50 Bobby Maples C 71 Claudie Minor T 76 Tom Neville T 67 Steve Schindler G Defensive linemen (DL)
77 Lyle Alzado DE 68 Rubin Carter NT 79 Barney Chavous DE 63 John Grant NT 72 Don Latimer NT 66 Brison Manor DE | | Linebackers (LB) 56 Larry Evans OLB 53 Randy Gradishar ILB 57 Tom Jackson OLB 58 Rob Nairne OLB 59 Joe Rizzo ILB 51 Bob Swenson OLB 55 Godwin Turk ILB Defensive backs (DB)
43 Steve Foley CB 27 Maurice Harvey CB 29 Bernard Jackson FS 23 Chris Pane CB/S 36 Bill Thompson SS 40 Charlie West FS 20 Louis Wright CB Special teams (ST)
10 Bucky Dilts P 15 Jim Turner K | | Reserve
85 Ron Egloff TE (IR) 30 Jim Jensen RB (IR) 86 John Schultz WR (IR) -- Gary Silvestri DE (IR) -- Franky Smith T (IR)
Rookies in italics |
Source:
| Week | Date | Opponent | Result | Record | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 3 | Oakland Raiders | W 14–6 | 1–0 | Mile High Stadium | 75,092 | |
| September 11 | at Minnesota Vikings | L 9–12 (OT) | 1–1 | Metropolitan Stadium | 46,508 | |
| September 17 | San Diego Chargers | W 27–14 | 2–1 | Mile High Stadium | 74,983 | |
| September 24 | at Kansas City Chiefs | W 23–17 (OT) | 3–1 | Arrowhead Stadium | 60,593 | |
| October 1 | Seattle Seahawks | W 28–7 | 4–1 | Mile High Stadium | 74,989 | |
| October 8 | at San Diego Chargers | L 0–23 | 4–2 | San Diego Stadium | 50,077 | |
| October 16 | Chicago Bears | W 16–7 | 5–2 | Mile High Stadium | 75,008 | |
| October 22 | at Baltimore Colts | L 6–7 | 5–3 | Memorial Stadium | 54,057 | |
| October 29 | at Seattle Seahawks | W 20–17 (OT) | 6–3 | Kingdome | 62,948 | |
| November 5 | New York Jets | L 28–31 | 6–4 | Mile High Stadium | 74,983 | |
| November 12 | at Cleveland Browns | W 19–7 | 7–4 | Cleveland Stadium | 70,856 | |
| November 19 | Green Bay Packers | W 16–3 | 8–4 | Mile High Stadium | 74,965 | |
| November 23 | at Detroit Lions | L 14–17 | 8–5 | Pontiac Silverdome | 71,785 | |
| December 3 | at Oakland Raiders | W 21–6 | 9–5 | Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum | 53,932 | |
| December 10 | Kansas City Chiefs | W 24–3 | 10–5 | Mile High Stadium | 74,149 | |
| December 16 | Pittsburgh Steelers | L 17–21 | 10–6 | Mile High Stadium | 74,104 | |
| Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text. |
Monday night (September 11, October 16), Thursday (November 23: Thanksgiving), Saturday (December 16) This was the first NFL regular season with 16 games.
| AFC West | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Denver Broncos(3) | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 7–1 | 8–4 | 282 | 198 | L1 |
| Oakland Raiders | 9 | 7 | 0 | .563 | 3–5 | 5–7 | 311 | 283 | W1 |
| Seattle Seahawks | 9 | 7 | 0 | .563 | 4–4 | 6–6 | 345 | 358 | W1 |
| San Diego Chargers | 9 | 7 | 0 | .563 | 5–3 | 7–5 | 355 | 309 | W3 |
| Kansas City Chiefs | 4 | 12 | 0 | .250 | 1–7 | 4–10 | 243 | 327 | L2 |
| Round | Date | Opponent (seed) | Result | Record | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 30 | at Pittsburgh Steelers (1) | L 10–33 | 0–1 | Three Rivers Stadium | 48,921 |
Source:
- Denver Broncos – 1978 media guide
- 1978 Denver Broncos season at jt-sw.com
- 1978 Denver Broncos at Pro-Football-Reference.com
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