These two teams did not meet in the regular season. The Bob Gough led Saints were formed around the SRFL's first draft pick Jim Brown and for the most part ran roughshod through the schedule with just a few minor hiccups on the way to winning the AFC East. St.Louis completed their regular season with three consecutive tough games in preparation for the playoffs. The Saints won a close game over Canton, lost a nail-biter to VII Hills and then closing out the schedule with a win over another playoff team Missouri to clinch the Division championship.
You're not going to have success against the Saints unless you find a way to slow down Brown. Notice that I didn't say stop him as that's a near impossibility. The man led the leagues in rushes with 286 attempts and in yardage with 1426 yards. Then you tack on his 31 catches and yeah he also ran back kicks so let's face it the ball is going to be in his hands a lot!. The veteran Bobby Layne calls the plays and he has a couple of big targets in Buddy Dial and Kyle Rote. This team can come at you in multiple ways besides just running Brown, Hugh McElhenny and Tom Moore down your throat.
Here's what is so unfair about the Saints. There defense is probably batter than their offense! St.Louis has three different players among the league leaders in sacks with Dick Chorovich leading the league with his 10 sacks, "Big Daddy" Lipscomb with 9 and Doug Atkins with 8. The Saints 43 sacks is 7 more than the next highest team total. In addition they allowed the least rushing yards in the league so how do you beat that?
Oldsmar snuck into the playoffs by virtue of Canton's loss to Detroit in the final game of the season. Coach Mike Roses relied mostly on good fortune to have a winning season. John Brodie took the team about as far as they could go this season but on paper they don't seem to have the talent level of some of the other playoff squads. The offense is pretty average, there is no workhorse resembling Jim Brown. The receivers are decent but there isn't a Raymond Berry or Don Maynard threat. The offensive line is average and the running backs are a collectivve of platoon guys.
On defense it's more of the same. You have some decent players like Darris McCord, Rosey Grier & Goose Gonsoulin surrounded by other yeomen. As a unit the defense performed about to their maximum just to finish a few games over .500. The special teams also lack impact players so it will take a large bit of luck for the Ospreys to advance anywhere in the playoffs. I don't know what the over-under line is for this game but I have to think that the smart money is all going on St.Louis.
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