The Redskins visited Los Angeles for a playoff game that was also a grudge match. Wash­ington coach George Allen coached the Rams to five straight winning seasons before he was fired in 1970. The Redskins owners, Edward Bennett Williams and Jack Kent Cooke, gob­bled him up for the 1971 season, making him not only head coach but also general manager.

Their investment paid off immediately. Allen led the Redskins, who finished 6-8 in 1970, to a 9-4-1 season and a playoff berth in '71, 11-3 in '72 and the Super Bowl, and 10-4 in '73 and another playoff appearance.

Two weeks earlier, the Redskins beat the Rams 23-17 in a Monday night game in Los An­geles. The rematch was played on a chilly, sunny, gusty afternoon.

The home team drove 68y in eight plays to take a 7-0 lead on a 10y pass from QB James Harris to TE Bob Klein. The key gains were RB Lawrence McCutcheon's 11y run, Harris's 22y pass to WR Harold Jackson, and a 15y aerial to McCutcheon on third-and-five from the Ram 38. David Ray's PAT made it 7-0 Rams with 4:59 left in the first quarter.

Washington got on the board on their next possession via a 35y Mike Bragg field goal that culminated a 78y, six-play drive. The key gains were passes by QB Billy Kilmer for 41y and to Jerry Smith for 15. Rams 7 Redskins 3 with 1:21 left in the first quarter.

Washington forged ahead in the second quarter with a six-play, 23y drive that began after CB Pat Fischer intercepted Harris's pass and returned it 17y to the Rams 23. WR Charley Taylor caught a pass for 10, and a pass interference call against SS Dave Elmendorf on WR Frank Grant in the end zone put the ball at the one. FB Moses Denson plunged over from there. Redskins 10 Rams 7 (4:24 left in the half)

The Rams dominated the first 18 minutes of the second half, running 32 plays to the Redskins' eight. But all they got was two field goals.

DT Merlin Olsen, a key player on Allen's top-notch Ram defenses, was a thorn in Wash­ington's side all day. He forced ace RB Larry Brown to fumble in the third quarter, and LB Jack "Hacksaw" Reynolds recovered at the LA 44. Two runs by HB Jim Bertelson and McCutchen and a 14y pass to Klein set up Ray's 37y game-tying field goal. Redskins 10 Rams 10 with 1:28 left in the third quarter.

Another fumble led to a second Ram field goal. Doug Cunningham, running back his first kickoff for the season, fumbled when tackled by Pat Curran, and Cullen Bryant pounced on the ball at the Redskin 43. Short runs by McCutcheon and a 13y Harris pass to Curran pushed the ball to the 10 before the drive bogged down. So Ray booted a 26y three-pointer. Rams 13 Redskins 10 (11:55 left in the game)

Olsen said after the game that "George Allen always said that if you can get six turnovers in a game, you'll win it."

As Jurgensen dropped back to pass, Olsen got penetration up the middle and hit Sonny's arm as he threw the ball while being flattened onto his back. The pass wobbled into the hands of Isiah Robertson for Washington's sixth turnover. The graceful 6'3" 225-pound linebacker moved to the sideline on his left, hurdled one would-be tackler, then cut back against the grain. He stiff-armed WR Charley Taylor and, with some helpful blocking, completed the 59y jaunt for the touchdown that put the Rams up 19-10 with 10 minutes left. Jurgensen, the 40-year-old quarterback, was the last Redskin with a chance of stopping Robertson, but he was wiped out by a block at the 7-yard line.

"There was no way I was going to let that old man tackle me," Robertson said in the ecstatic Ram dressing room. "If he had a good chance to get me, I was going back to the middle to let someone else bring me down."

Allen was famous for trading draft choices for veteran players. Ironically, the Rams used one of several draft choices obtained from Allen in 1971 to draft Robertson in the first round.

The defeat extended Allen's road record in playoff games to 0-6. He said, "The Rams de­served to win. They played better football than we did. You can't make as many mistakes as we did and expect to win."

The Rams said they "won it for Carroll" Rosenbloom, their popular owner who was in the hospital recovering from a mild heart attack. Knox delivered the game ball to him that night.