1929 Buffalo Bisons (NFL) season
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The 1929 Buffalo Bisons season was the Buffalo Bisons ninth and final season in the National Football League (NFL). The team marginally improved on their previous output of 0–5, winning one game. They finished tenth in the league.
After suspending operations halfway through the 1927 season, the Buffalo Bisons, name intact, returned for what proved to be a farewell season, with Al Jolley (a former player for the Oorang Indians) taking over as head coach. Jolley's dubious trademark was his teams' lack of offensive production; the Bisons never scored more than 7 points in the entire season (they had been shut out thrice) until their final game, a 19–7 win over the Chicago Bears (ironically, the very team that had robbed them of a league title at the peak of the team's success in 1921). In their first seven games, the Bisons never led during regulation, holding this dubious feat until the 2012 Kansas City Chiefs broke the record at eight games during regulation. This was, however, still an improvement from their 1927 season, when the team failed to score any points in all but one of their games.
The still-struggling Bisons franchise was folded at the end of a 1–7–1 season. Though the league flirted with returning to Buffalo in the late 1930s and again in 1950, it did not do so until the AFL–NFL merger in 1970, which added the Buffalo Bills to the league.
Jolley went on to coach the Cincinnati Reds in 1933; true to form, Jolley's Reds set a record for fewest points scored per game in a season (3.8) in the modern era (which did not begin until 1932).
Schedule
| Game | Date | Opponent | Result | Record | Venue | Attendance | Recap | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | September 29 | Chicago Cardinals | L 3–9 | 0–1 | Bison Stadium | 4,000 | ||
| 2 | October 5 | at Frankford Yellow Jackets | L 0–19 | 0–2 | Frankford Stadium | 6,000 | ||
| 3 | October 6 | Frankford Yellow Jackets | L 0–13 | 0–3 | Bison Stadium | "poor" | ||
| 4 | October 13 | Chicago Bears | L 0–16 | 0–4 | Bison Stadium | 5,200 | ||
| 5 | October 20 | at Providence Steam Roller | T 7–7 | 0–4–1 | Cycledrome | 8,500 | ||
| 6 | October 27 | vs. Boston Bulldogs | L 6–14 | 0–5–1 | Minersville Park (Pottsville, PA) | "a large crowd" | ||
| 7 | November 5 | New York Giants | L 6–45 | 0–6–1 | Bison Stadium | "handful of fans" | ||
| 8 | November 17 | at Boston Bulldogs | L 7–12 | 0–7–1 | Braves Field | "largest of season" | ||
| 9 | November 24 | at Chicago Bears | W 19–7 | 1–7–1 | Wrigley Field | 3,500 |
Standings
| NFL standings | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| viewtalkedit | W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | STK |
| Green Bay Packers | 12 | 0 | 1 | 1.000 | 198 | 22 | W2 |
| New York Giants | 13 | 1 | 1 | .929 | 312 | 86 | W4 |
| Frankford Yellow Jackets | 10 | 4 | 5 | .714 | 129 | 128 | W1 |
| Chicago Cardinals | 6 | 6 | 1 | .500 | 154 | 83 | W1 |
| Boston Bulldogs | 4 | 4 | 0 | .500 | 98 | 73 | L1 |
| Staten Island Stapletons | 3 | 4 | 3 | .429 | 89 | 65 | L2 |
| Providence Steam Roller | 4 | 6 | 2 | .400 | 107 | 117 | L1 |
| Orange Tornadoes | 3 | 5 | 4 | .375 | 35 | 80 | L1 |
| Chicago Bears | 4 | 9 | 2 | .308 | 119 | 227 | L1 |
| Buffalo Bisons | 1 | 7 | 1 | .125 | 48 | 142 | W1 |
| Minneapolis Red Jackets | 1 | 9 | 0 | .100 | 48 | 185 | L7 |
| Dayton Triangles | 0 | 6 | 0 | .000 | 7 | 136 | L6 |
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.