1965 NFL season The 1965 NFL season was the 46th regular season of the National Football League . Because the Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Colts ended up tied in the Western Conference standings after the regular season ended , a conference playoff game was held in Green Bay . Although the Packers had defeated the Colts in both of their games in 1965 , there were no tiebreaking rules at the time . In the playoff game , both Colts starting quarterback Johnny Unitas and backup Gary Cuozzo could not play , so Baltimore was forced to use Tom Matte , normally a running back , as the starting quarterback . Packers starting quarterback Bart Starr was injured on the first play from scrimmage and did not return to the game . Green Bay ' s Don Chandler kicked a 27 - yard field goal with less than two minutes remaining to tie the game . Chandler then kicked a game - winning 25 - yard field goal after 13 minutes , 39 seconds of overtime . The Packers went on to defeat the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Championship Game , the last before the Super Bowl era . Meanwhile , the NFL ' s war with the rival AFL began to increase as the two leagues competed for the top players coming out of college . Prior to the season , both the NFL ' s Chicago Bears and the AFL ' s Kansas City Chiefs selected running back Gale Sayers in their respective league drafts . Sayers eventually decided to sign with the NFL ' s Bears in a victory for the established league . On the other hand , quarterback Joe Namath was selected by both the NFL ' s St . Louis Cardinals and the AFL ' s New York Jets , but Namath decided to play for the Jets after signing a $ 427 , 000 contract . This war between the AFL and the NFL would escalate until just before the 1966 season , when they would agree to merge and create a new AFL - NFL World Championship Game between the winners of the two leagues , that later would be known as the Super Bowl . Conference Races . Each team played each of the six other teams in its conference twice . In addition , each team played two of the seven teams from the other conference to complete the 14 game schedule . Thus each week ' s schedule included 6 intra - conference games ( 3 from each conference ) and one inter - conference game . In 1965 the Western Conference dominated the Eastern winning 13 out of the 14 interconference games . The lone win for the Eastern Conference was a 39 - 31 victory by Dallas over San Francisco in week eight . As in 1964 , the Eastern Conference race started out as a battle between the Cardinals and the Browns . By " Week Five " ( October 17 ) , both had 4 - 1 - 0 records , but the Cards won only one more game after that , finishing 5 - 9 . The Browns won all seven of their remaining divisional games during the same stretch , losing only their two inter - conference games against Western opponents . The Browns had clinched the conference title by November 28 . In the Western race , Green Bay won its first six games , before a 31 - 10 loss , at Chicago on Halloween , put it in a tie with the Colts . In " Week Eight " ( November 7 ) , the Packers lost again , 12 - 7 to Detroit , while the Colts beat Chicago 26 - 21 . Both teams won their next two games , but in " Week Eleven " , the Packers lost 21 - 10 to the Rams , and the Colts averted a loss by tying the Lions , 24 - 24 . In " Week Twelve " , Green Bay closed the gap with a 24 - 19 win over the Vikings , while the Colts fell to Chicago , losing the game ( 13 - 0 ) and their star quarterback , Johnny Unitas , to a knee injury . With backup Gary Cuozzo passing for the Colts , they met the Packers again , in Baltimore , on December 12 , and Paul Hornung scored five touchdowns as Green Bay won , 42 - 27 , to take a half - game division lead , 10 - 3 to 9 - 3 - 1 . Along with the conference lead , the Colts lost another quarterback when Cuozzo was injured . In the final weekend , the Colts were in Los Angeles for a Saturday game that they had to win , but were losing 17 - 10 . A tying touchdown by fourth - string quarterback Ed Brown helped the Colts knot the game 17 - 17 , but a tie wasn ' t enough . It took Lou Michaels ' field goal to get a 20 - 17 win and a 10 - 3 - 1 record . A Green Bay win the next day in San Francisco would have ended the race , and the Packers leading and were slightly more than a minute away from the title game , but the 49ers tied the game , 24 - 24 , with 1 : 07 to play . Both Green Bay and Baltimore had 10 - 3 - 1 records , forcing a playoff for the day after Christmas . Final standings . " W = Wins , L = Losses , T = Ties , PCT = Winning Percentage , PF = Points For , PA = Points Against " " Note : Prior to 1972 , the NFL did not include tie games when calculating a team ' s winning percentage in the official standings " Playoffs . Western Conference Playoff Game NFL Championship Game " Total Football : The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League " ( ISBN 0 - 06 - 270174 - 6 )