A look back at sloppy Super Bowl V

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Likely the most forgotten Super Bowl-winning coach, Don McCafferty led the Baltimore Colts to victory over the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl V.

McCafferty – an Ohio State graduate who played on the Buckeyes’ 1942 national championship team – had gotten his start as an NFL assistant coach with the Colts under Weeb Ewbank in 1959, and stayed on as an assistant under Don Shula after Ewbank was fired following the 1962 season.

McCafferty received his chance to become head coach of the Colts when Shula left to coach the Miami Dolphins prior to the 1970 season, and McCafferty won the world title in his first year.

Super Bowl V was far from an artistic success (11 combined turnovers), but Jim O’Brien’s late field goal gave the Colts a 16-13 victory.

I recently asked former Colts’ receiver Roy Jefferson about McCafferty and his coaching abilities.

“McCafferty was a great coach,” said Jefferson, whose only season with the Colts resulted in a world championship. “He had a very veteran team with less talent than most great teams today. He was a greater coach than most people realized.”

The opposing coach in Super Bowl V, Dallas’ Tom Landry, would go on to win two Super Bowls.

I recently asked former Cowboys’ defensive tackle Bob Lilly about what made Landry such a great coach.

“He was brilliant,” said Lilly, a Hall of Famer. “He and Coach Lombardi coached together (with the Giants) and studied football from its inception. Landry had great integrity and character. He was a great teacher and was also very innovative.

“He put our defense together to pit strength against strength,” Lilly added. “He gave us goals and we reached them weekly. If we were weak in an area, we stayed after practice 30 extra minutes per day to work on that weakness.”

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If you’d like to watch our NFL Films Presents segment that aired Monday night on Fox Sports 1, go to this web address: https://youtu.be/U4mgzoPOQRk

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Trivia Time – Don Coryell coached the San Diego State football team from 1961-72.

This week’s question – Don McCafferty played one year in the NFL for which team?

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By Steve Stout

[email protected]

Reach Steve Stout at 652-1331 (ext. 1776) or on Twitter @udcstout

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