# 1976 St. Louis Cardinals (NFL) season

The 1976 St. Louis Cardinals season was the 57th season the franchise was in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 11–3, instead regressing by one win. This was the first time in three seasons the team did not qualify for the playoffs. The Cardinals finished tied with the Washington Redskins for 2nd place in the NFC East, but they lost the tiebreaker due to Washington winning both matchups during the season.
Ultimately, the Cardinals became the only NFC team to win ten games without making the playoffs under a 14-game schedule.
Notably, they took on the San Diego Chargers in a preseason game in the first NFL game to take place in Japan.

## Offseason
### 1976 Expansion Draft

St. Louis Cardinals selected during the Expansion Draft :
| Round | Overall | Name | Position | Expansion Team |
| 0 | 0 | Dwayne Crump | Cornerback | Seattle Seahawks |
| 0 | 0 | Gary Keithley | Quarterback | Seattle Seahawks |
| 0 | 0 | Council Rudolph | Defensive end | Tampa Bay Buccaneers |

### NFL Draft

1976 St. Louis Cardinals draft :
| Round | Pick | Player | Position | College |
| 1 | 22 | Mike Dawson | Defensive tackle | Arizona |
| 3 | 65 | Brad Oates | Offensive tackle | BYU |
| 4 | 114 | Pat Tilley * | Wide receiver | Louisiana Tech |
| 5 | 141 | Wayne Morris | Running back | SMU |
| 7 | 203 | Phil Rogers | Running back | Virginia Tech |
| 8 | 233 | Randall Burks | Wide receiver | Southeastern Oklahoma State |
| 10 | 285 | Randy Walker | Linebacker | Bethune–Cookman |
| 11 | 315 | Marty Akins | Defensive back | Texas |
| 13 | 369 | Greg Brewton | Defensive tackle | Michigan State |
| 14 | 399 | Raymond Crosier | Defensive end | Abilene Christian |
| 15 | 420 | Lee Nelson | Safety | Florida State |
| 16 | 453 | Cecil Beaird | Wide receiver | Fisk |
| 17 | 483 | Dan Myers | Defensive back | Georgia Tech |
| Made roster * Made at least one Pro Bowl during career ||||||

## Schedule

| Week | Date | Opponent | Result | Record | Venue | Attendance |
| 1 | September 12 | at Seattle Seahawks | W 30–24 | 1–0 | Kingdome | 58,441 |
| 2 | September 19 | Green Bay Packers | W 29–0 | 2–0 | Busch Memorial Stadium | 48,842 |
| 3 | September 26 | at San Diego Chargers | L 24–43 | 2–1 | San Diego Stadium | 40,212 |
| 4 | October 3 | New York Giants | W 27–21 | 3–1 | Busch Memorial Stadium | 48,039 |
| 5 | October 10 | Philadelphia Eagles | W 33–14 | 4–1 | Busch Memorial Stadium | 44,933 |
| 6 | October 17 | Dallas Cowboys | W 21–17 | 5–1 | Busch Memorial Stadium | 50,317 |
| 7 | October 25 | at Washington Redskins | L 10–20 | 5–2 | RFK Stadium | 48,325 |
| 8 | October 31 | San Francisco 49ers | W 23–20 | 6–2 | Busch Memorial Stadium | 50,365 |
| 9 | November 7 | at Philadelphia Eagles | W 17–14 | 7–2 | Veterans Stadium | 65,505 |
| 10 | November 14 | at Los Angeles Rams | W 30–28 | 8–2 | Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum | 64,698 |
| 11 | November 21 | Washington Redskins | L 10–16 | 8–3 | Busch Memorial Stadium | 49,833 |
| 12 | November 25 | at Dallas Cowboys | L 14–19 | 8–4 | Texas Stadium | 62,498 |
| 13 | December 4 | Baltimore Colts | W 24–17 | 9–4 | Busch Memorial Stadium | 48,282 |
| 14 | December 12 | at New York Giants | W 17–14 | 10–4 | Giants Stadium | 60,553 |
| Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text. |||||||

## Game summaries
### Week 1: @ Seattle Seahawks

| Quarter | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Cardinals | 3 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 30 |
| Seahawks | 3 | 0 | 7 | 14 | 24 |
at Kingdome, Seattle, Washington
* Date: September 12
* Game time: 1:09 pm local
* Game weather: indoors
* Game attendance: 58,441
* Referee: Tom Bell
* TV announcers (CBS): Jim Thacker and Alex Hawkins
* Gamebook
Game information :
First quarter
STL – Jim Bakken 28-yard field goal, 6:22 (STL 3–0)
SEA – Don Bitterlich 27-yard field goal, 1:15 (Tied 3–3)
Second quarter
STL – Ike Harris 12-yard pass from Jim Hart (Jim Bakken kick), 13:05 (STL 10–3)
STL – Jim Bakken 22-yard field goal, 0:21 (STL 13–3)
Third quarter
STL – Pat Tilley 27-yard pass from Jim Hart (Jim Bakken kick), 12:51 (STL 20–3)
STL – Jim Bakken 26-yard field goal, 5:47 (STL 23–3)
SEA – Sam McCullum 15-yard pass from Jim Zorn 3:52 (Don Bitterlich kick), (STL 23–10)
Fourth quarter
STL – Jim Otis 1-yard run (Jim Bakken kick), 14:10 (STL 30–10)
SEA – Sam McCullum 72-yard pass from Jim Zorn 13:50 (Don Bitterlich kick), (STL 30–17)
SEA – Jim Zorn 8-yard run (Don Bitterlich kick), 5:09 (STL 30–24)
Top passers
STL – Jim Hart: 15/23, 180 yds, 2 TD, 1 INT
SEA – Jim Zorn: 17/37, 292 yds, 2 TD, 2 INT
Top rushers
STL – Jim Otis: 27 car, 140 yds, 1 TD
SEA – Andy Bolton: 12 car, 37 yds
Top receivers
STL – Steve Jones: 3 rec, 59 yds
SEA – Sam McCullum: 4 rec, 112 yds, 2 TD
Team – pass – rush – total – to
STL – 175 – 281 – 456 – 2
SEA – 279 – 73 – 352 – 3 :

## Standings

NFC East :
| viewtalkedit | W | L | T | PCT | DIV | CONF | PF | PA | STK |
| Dallas Cowboys$^{(2)}$ | 11 | 3 | 0 | .786 | 6–2 | 9–3 | 296 | 194 | L1 |
| Washington Redskins$^{(4)}$ | 10 | 4 | 0 | .714 | 6–2 | 9–3 | 291 | 217 | W4 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 10 | 4 | 0 | .714 | 5–3 | 9–3 | 309 | 267 | W2 |
| Philadelphia Eagles | 4 | 10 | 0 | .286 | 2–6 | 4–8 | 165 | 286 | W1 |
| New York Giants | 3 | 11 | 0 | .214 | 1–7 | 3–9 | 170 | 250 | L1 |