# 1977 Oakland Raiders season

The 1977 Oakland Raiders season was the team's 18th season overall, and 8th season since joining the NFL. The Raiders entered the season as the defending Super Bowl champions. The team could not match its 13–1 record from 1976 and finished 11–3, which was only good enough for second place in the AFC West next to the Denver Broncos, who won 12 games (the two split victories over each other in the regular season).
The Raiders reached the AFC Championship Game for the fifth consecutive season, and their sixth in eight years. They lost the AFC Championship, however, to the division rival Denver Broncos. This marked the seventh time in ten seasons that the Raiders' season ended one game short of the Super Bowl. They did not return to the AFC Championship for the next two seasons.
The 1977 Raiders set a professional football record with 681 rushing attempts. Fullback Mark van Eeghen 324 times for 1273 yards, and running back Clarence Davis ran 194 times for 787 yards.

## Offseason
### NFL Draft

1977 Oakland Raiders Draft :
| Round | Selection | Player | Position | College |
| 2 | 35 | Mike Davis | DB | Colorado |
| 2 | 56 | Ted McKnight | RB | Minnesota-Duluth |
| 4 | 112 | Mickey Marvin | OG | Tennessee |
| 5 | 126 | Lester Hayes | DB | Texas A&M |
| 5 | 139 | Jeff Barnes | LB | California |
| 7 | 190 | Rich Martini | WR | California-Davis |
| 8 | 223 | Terry Robiskie | RB | Louisiana State |
| 12 | 317 | Rod Martin | LB | Southern California |
| 12 | 334 | Rolf Benirschke | PK | California-Davis |

## Roster

    Source:

## Regular season
### Schedule

| Week | Date | Opponent | Result | Record | Venue | Attendance |
| 1 | September 18 | San Diego Chargers | W 24–0 | 1–0 | Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum | 51,022 |
| 2 | September 25 | at Pittsburgh Steelers | W 16–7 | 2–0 | Three Rivers Stadium | 50,398 |
| 3 | October 3 | at Kansas City Chiefs | W 37–28 | 3–0 | Arrowhead Stadium | 60,684 |
| 4 | October 9 | at Cleveland Browns | W 26–10 | 4–0 | Cleveland Municipal Stadium | 80,236 |
| 5 | October 16 | Denver Broncos | L 7–30 | 4–1 | Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum | 53,616 |
| 6 | October 23 | at New York Jets | W 28–27 | 5–1 | Shea Stadium | 56,734 |
| 7 | October 30 | at Denver Broncos | W 24–14 | 6–1 | Mile High Stadium | 75,007 |
| 8 | November 6 | Seattle Seahawks | W 44–7 | 7–1 | Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum | 50,929 |
| 9 | November 13 | Houston Oilers | W 34–29 | 8–1 | Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum | 53,667 |
| 10 | November 20 | at San Diego Chargers | L 7–12 | 8–2 | San Diego Stadium | 50,887 |
| 11 | November 28 | Buffalo Bills | W 34–13 | 9–2 | Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum | 51,558 |
| 12 | December 4 | at Los Angeles Rams | L 14–20 | 9–3 | Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum | 67,075 |
| 13 | December 11 | Minnesota Vikings | W 35–13 | 10–3 | Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum | 52,771 |
| 14 | December 18 | Kansas City Chiefs | W 21–20 | 11–3 | Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum | 50,304 |
| Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text. |||||||

### Results
#### Week 1

| Quarter | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Chargers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Raiders | 7 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 24 |
at Oakland Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, California
* Game time: 1:00 p.m.
* Game weather: 66 °F (19 °C) (24.4 °C), wind 11 mph (18 km/h)
* Box Score
Scoring summary :
| Quarter | Time | Drive | Drive | Drive | Team | Scoring information | Score | Score |
| Quarter | Time | Plays | Yards | TOP | Team | Scoring information | Chargers | Raiders |
| 1 | | | | | Raiders | Cliff Branch 7-yard touchdown reception from Ken Stabler, Errol Mann kick good | 0 | 7 |
| 2 | | | | | Raiders | 20-yard field goal by Errol Mann | 0 | 10 |
| 2 | | | | | Raiders | Dave Casper 1-yard touchdown reception from Ken Stabler, Errol Mann kick good | 0 | 17 |
| 3 | | | | | Raiders | Pete Banaszak 2-yard touchdown run, Errol Mann kick good | 0 | 24 |
| "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. | "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. | "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. | "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. | "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. | "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. | "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. | 0 | 24 |

#### Week 2

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| • Raiders | 0 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 16 |
| Steelers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 |

#### Week 3

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| • Raiders | 7 | 6 | 21 | 3 | 37 |
| Chiefs | 0 | 21 | 0 | 7 | 28 |

#### Week 6

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| • Raiders | 14 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 28 |
| Jets | 13 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 27 |

#### Week 11

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Bills | 3 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 13 |
| • Raiders | 13 | 7 | 14 | 0 | 34 |

#### Week 13

* Network: CBS
* Announcers: Vin Scully, Alex Hawkins
Oakland capitalizing on Minnesota mistakes, scored three times in the first 8 minutes and kept their hopes for a playoff berth alive. "We Got Stomped", Vikings coach Bud Grant said after his team had lost a total of five fumbles and had three passes intercepted. Ken Stabler threw three touchdown passes one to Carl Garrett for 2 yards, and two others to Cliff Branch from 32 and 10 yards. Mark Van Eeghan who rushed for 112 yards on 28 yards got the Raiders day going with a 2-yard touchdown run. While Willie Hall of Super Bowl XI fame scored a fumble recovery touchdown off a Tommy Kramer blunder.

### Standings

AFC West :
| viewtalkedit | W | L | T | PCT | DIV | CONF | PF | PA | STK |
| Denver Broncos$^{(1)}$ | 12 | 2 | 0 | .857 | 6–1 | 11–1 | 274 | 148 | L1 |
| Oakland Raiders$^{(4)}$ | 11 | 3 | 0 | .786 | 5–2 | 10–2 | 351 | 230 | W2 |
| San Diego Chargers | 7 | 7 | 0 | .500 | 3–4 | 6–6 | 222 | 205 | L2 |
| Seattle Seahawks | 5 | 9 | 0 | .357 | 1–3 | 4–9 | 282 | 373 | W2 |
| Kansas City Chiefs | 2 | 12 | 0 | .143 | 1–6 | 1–11 | 225 | 349 | L6 |

## Playoffs

Oakland made the playoffs as a wild card and won its divisional round game against the Baltimore Colts when Errol Mann tied the game with a late field goal, set up by a pass to tight end Dave Casper, a play known as the Ghost to the Post. In the second overtime, Casper caught another touchdown pass for the victory. The following week on New Year's Day, they lost the AFC Championship Game 20–17 in Denver.
| Round | Date | Opponent | Result | Attendance |
| Divisional | December 24 | at Baltimore Colts | W 37–31$^{2OT}$ | 60,763 |
| AFC Championship | January 1 | at Denver Broncos | L 17–20 | 74,982 |

## Statistics
### Passing

| Player | Comp | Att | Yards | TD | INT |
| Ken Stabler | 169 | 294 | 2176 | 20 | 20 |

### Rushing

| Player | Att | Yards | TD |
| Ken Stabler | 3 | −3 | – |

### Receiving

| Player | Rec | Yards | TD |
| Dave Casper | 48 | 584 | 6 |
| Cliff Branch | 33 | 540 | 6 |
| Fred Biletnikoff | 33 | 446 | 5 |