1971 Washington Redskins season

1971 Washington Redskins season
Head coach	George Allen
Home field	RFK Stadium
Results
Record	9–4–1
Division place	2nd NFC East
Playoff finish	Lost Divisional Playoffs (at 49ers) 20–24

George Allen and members of the 1971 team with President Richard Nixon, two days before Thanksgiving.

The 1971 Washington Redskins season was the team's 40th in the National Football League, and its 35th in Washington, D.C. The Redskins were led by first-year head coach George Allen, who had been the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams for the previous five seasons.

Coming into the 1971 season, the team had not made the postseason in 26 years. The Redskins had had only four winning seasons since their last playoff berth in 1945, the most recent a 7–5–2 campaign in 1969 under Vince Lombardi, who died of colon cancer in September 1970.

Allen was Washington's fourth head coach in as many seasons. Lombardi succeeded Otto Graham, and assistant Bill Austin took over when Lombardi fell mortally ill in the summer of 1970, and posted a 6–8 record.

Despite a broken left ankle suffered by leading receiver Charley Taylor in a Week 6 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs that forced him to miss the remainder of the season, the Redskins went 9–4–1, good for second place in the NFC East. They earned a wild card berth, but lost in the opening divisional round at San Francisco, 24–20.

Off-season

NFL Draft

Main article: 1971 NFL Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	School/Club Team
2	38	Cotton Speyrer	Wide Receiver	Texas
6	141	Conway Hayman	Guard	Delaware
7	166	Willie Germany	Defensive Back	Morgan State
9	219	Mike Fanucci	Defensive End	Arizona State
10	244	Jesse Taylor	Running Back	Cincinnati
11	272	George Starke	Tackle	Columbia
12	297	Jeff Severson	Defensive Back	Cal-Long Beach
13	322	Dan Ryczek	Center	Virginia
14	349	Bill Bynum	Quarterback	West New Mexico
15	375	Anthony Christnovich	Guard	La Crosse (Wis.)
16	400	Glenn Tucker	Linebacker	North Texas

Roster

1971 Washington Redskins roster

Quarterbacks (QB) 9 Sonny Jurgensen 17 Billy Kilmer 18 Sam Wyche Running backs (RB) 43 Larry Brown 26 Bob Brunet 31 Charlie Harraway FB 25 Mike Hull 20 Tommy Mason Wide receivers (WR) 86 Boyd Dowler 80 Roy Jefferson 24 Bill Malinchak 85 Clifton McNeil 42 Charley Taylor Tight ends (TE) 81 Mack Alston 87 Jerry Smith

Offensive linemen (OL) 58 George Burman C 56 Len Hauss C 75 Terry Hermeling T 73 Paul Laaveg G 76 Walt Rock T 62 Ray Schoenke G 74 Jim Snowden T 77 Mike Taylor T 60 John Wilbur G Defensive linemen (DL) 89 Verlon Biggs DE 77 Bill Brundige DT 79 Ron McDole DE 64 Manny Sistrunk DT 72 Diron Talbert DT

Linebackers (LB) 55 Chris Hanburger 53 Harold McLinton 32 Jack Pardee 66 Myron Pottios 67 Rusty Tillman Defensive backs (DB) {{{defensive_back}}} Special teams 4 Mike Bragg P 5 Curt Knight K

Rookies in italics

Regular season

Main article: 1971 NFL season

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Attendance
1	September 19	at St. Louis Cardinals	W 24–17	1–0	46,805
2	September 26	at New York Giants	W 30–3	2–0	62,795
3	October 3	at Dallas Cowboys	W 20–16	3–0	61,554
4	October 10	Houston Oilers	W 22–13	4–0	53,041
5	October 17	St. Louis Cardinals	W 20–0	5–0	53,041
6	October 24	at Kansas City Chiefs	L 27–20	5–1	51,989
7	October 31	New Orleans Saints	W 24–14	6–1	53,041
8	November 7	Philadelphia Eagles	T 7–7	6–1–1	53,041
9	November 14	at Chicago Bears	L 16–15	6–2–1	55,049
10	November 21	Dallas Cowboys	L 13–0	6–3–1	53,041
11	November 28	at Philadelphia Eagles	W 20–13	7–3–1	65,358
12	December 5	New York Giants	W 23–7	8–3–1	53,041
13	December 13	at Los Angeles Rams	W 38–24	9–3–1	80,402
14	December 19	Cleveland Browns	L 20–13	9–4–1	53,041

• Monday night (December 13)

Game summaries

Week 3

Washington Redskins at Dallas Cowboys

1 2 3 4 Total • Redskins 7 7 3 3 20 Cowboys 0 9 0 7 16 Date: Sunday, October 3 Location: Cotton Bowl Game start: 1:00 p.m. CDT Game weather: 70 °F (21 °C), wind 10 mph (16 km/h) Referee: Jack Reader TV announcers (CBS): Ray Scott, Pat Summerall Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com

Scoring summary 1 Redskins Charlie Harraway 57 yard run (Curtis Knight kick) Redskins 7–0 2 Cowboys Mike Clark 22 yard field goal Redskins 7–3 2 Redskins Roy Jefferson 50 yard pass from Billy Kilmer (Curtis Knight kick) Redskins 14–3 2 Cowboys Mike Clark 9 yard field goal Redskins 14–6 2 Cowboys Mike Clark 27 yard field goal Redskins 14–9 3 Redskins Curtis Knight 25 yard field goal Redskins 17–9 4 Redskins Curtis Knight 32 yard field goal Redskins 20–9 4 Cowboys Calvin Hill 1 yard run (Mike Clark kick) Redskins 20–16

Week 8

1 2 3 4 Total Eagles 0 0 7 0 7 Redskins 0 0 0 7 7 Date: November 7 Location: RFK Stadium Game start: 1:00 p.m. EST Game weather: 47 °F (8 °C) • Wind 17 mph (27 km/h) Referee: Fred Silva

Scoring summary 3 PHI Ronnie Bull 12 yard pass from Pete Liske (Happy Feller kick) Eagles 7–0 4 WSH Clifton McNeil 32 yard pass from Billy Kilmer (Curt Knight kick) Tie 7–7

Postseason

Main article: 1971–72 NFL playoffs

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Attendance
Divisional	December 26, 1971	at San Francisco 49ers	L 24–20	45,327

Standings

NFC East
	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	CONF	PF	PA	STK
Dallas Cowboys	11	3	0	.786	7–1	8–3	406	222	W7
Washington Redskins	9	4	1	.692	6–1–1	8–2–1	276	190	L1
Philadelphia Eagles	6	7	1	.462	4–3–1	5–5–1	221	302	W3
St. Louis Cardinals	4	9	1	.308	1–7	2–8–1	231	279	L2
New York Giants	4	10	0	.286	1–7	3–8	228	362	L5

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

Richard Nixon play

There was a rumor that President Richard Nixon called a key play that caused the Redskins to lose to the 49ers in the divisional round of the playoffs. Nixon, a friend of George Allen, once attended a practice game where he tried the same play to much better results.