1965 American Football League season

American Football League season

1965 AFL season

Regular season
Duration| September 11 – December 19, 1965
Playoffs
Date| December 26, 1965
Eastern champion| Buffalo Bills
Western champion| San Diego Chargers
Site| Balboa Stadium, San Diego, California
Champion| Buffalo Bills

* <- 1964
* AFL seasons
* 1966 ->

Oilers

Jets

Bills

Patriots

Chargers

Chiefs

Raiders

Broncos

class=notpageimage|

AFL teams:  West,  East

The 1965 AFL season was the sixth regular season of the American Football League.

The season also saw a change of television address as the games moved from ABC to NBC.

The season ended when the Buffalo Bills defeated the San Diego Chargers in the AFL Championship game. The next season, the AFL would join the NFL to form the AFL-NFL World Championship game, known today as the Super Bowl.

## Division races

[edit]

The AFL had 8 teams, grouped into two divisions. Each team would play a home-and-away game against the other 7 teams in the league for a total of 14 games, and the best team in the Eastern Division would play against the best in the Western Division in a championship game. If there was a tie in the standings at top of either division, a one-game playoff would be held to determine the division winner.

There was little drama in either of the AFL's division races in 1965. The Bills led the Eastern Division from start to finish, ending five games ahead of the 5–8–1 Jets. In the Western Division, San Diego had three potential wins cancelled out when they were tied by Kansas City (10–10), Boston (13–13) and Buffalo (20–20), but their 9–2–3 finish (.818) was well ahead of Oakland's 8–5–1 record (.615).

Week  | Eastern  |  | Western  |

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1  | Tie (Buf, Hou)  | 1–0–0  | Tie (Oak, SD)  | 1–0–0
2  | Tie (Buf, Hou)  | 2–0–0  | San Diego  | 2–0–0
3  | Buffalo  | 3–0–0  | San Diego  | 2–0–1
4  | Buffalo  | 4–0–0  | San Diego  | 3–0–1
5  | Buffalo  | 4–1–0  | San Diego  | 4–0–1
6  | Buffalo  | 5–1–0  | San Diego  | 4–0–2
7  | Buffalo  | 6–1–0  | San Diego  | 5–0–2
8  | Buffalo  | 6–2–0  | San Diego  | 5–1–2
9  | Buffalo  | 7–2–0  | San Diego  | 6–1–2
10  | Buffalo  | 8–2–0  | San Diego  | 6–2–2
11  | Buffalo  | 8–2–0  | San Diego  | 6–2–2
12  | Buffalo  | 8–2–1  | San Diego  | 6–2–3
13  | Buffalo  | 9–2–1  | San Diego  | 7–2–3
14  | Buffalo  | 10–2–1  | San Diego  | 8–2–3
15  | Buffalo | 10–3–1  | San Diego | 9–2–3

## Regular season

[edit]

### Results

[edit]

Home/Road  | Eastern Division  | Western Division

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BOS | BUF | HOU | NY | DEN | KC | OAK | SD
Eastern  | Boston Patriots |  | 7–23  | 42–14  | 20–30  | 10–27  | 10–10  | 10–24  | 13–13
Buffalo Bills | 24–7  |  | 17–19  | 33–21  | 31–13  | 34–25  | 17–12  | 3–34
Houston Oilers | 31–10  | 18–29  |  | 27–21  | 21–31  | 38–36  | 21–33  | 26–37
New York Jets | 23–27  | 14–12  | 41–14  |  | 45–10  | 10–14  | 24–24  | 9–34
Western  | Denver Broncos | 20–28  | 15–30  | 28–17  | 16–13  |  | 23–31  | 20–28  | 21–35
Kansas City Chiefs | 27–17  | 7–23  | 52–21  | 10–13  | 45–35  |  | 14–7  | 31–7
Oakland Raiders | 30–21  | 14–17  | 21–17  | 24–14  | 24–13  | 37–10  |  | 6–17
San Diego Chargers | 6–22  | 20–20  | 31–14  | 38–7  | 34–31  | 10–10  | 24–14  |

### Standings

[edit]

| AFL Eastern Division

* view
* talk
* edit

| W | L | T | PCT | DIV | PF | PA | STK
Buffalo Bills | 10 | 3 | 1 | .769 | 4–2 | 313 | 226 | L1
New York Jets | 5 | 8 | 1 | .385 | 3–3 | 285 | 303 | W1
Boston Patriots | 4 | 8 | 2 | .333 | 2–4 | 244 | 302 | W3
Houston Oilers | 4 | 10 | 0 | .286 | 3–3 | 298 | 429 | L7

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

| AFL Western Division

* view
* talk
* edit

| W | L | T | PCT | DIV | PF | PA | STK
San Diego Chargers | 9 | 2 | 3 | .818 | 4–1–1 | 340 | 227 | W3
Oakland Raiders | 8 | 5 | 1 | .615 | 3–3 | 298 | 239 | L1
Kansas City Chiefs | 7 | 5 | 2 | .583 | 4–1–1 | 322 | 285 | W1
Denver Broncos | 4 | 10 | 0 | .286 | 0–6 | 303 | 392 | L4

## Playoffs

[edit]

Main article: 1965 American Football League Championship Game

| AFL Championship Game

|

|  |

| December 26, 1965 – Balboa Stadium

| Buffalo Bills| 23

| San Diego Chargers| 0

## Stadium changes

[edit]

* The Houston Oilers moved from Jeppensen Stadium to Rice Stadium

## Coaching changes

[edit]

* Denver Broncos: Mac Speedie began his first full season. He replaced Jack Faulkner after four games into the 1964 season.
* Houston Oilers: Sammy Baugh was fired and replaced by Hugh Taylor.

## See also

[edit]

* 1965 NFL season

## External links

[edit]

* Football Database[usurped]

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NFL seasons

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1965 AFL season

| Eastern Division| Boston | Houston| Denver| Oakland | Western Division

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Buffalo | New York| Kansas City| San Diego

* 1965 AFL Draft
* AFL Championship
* All-Star Game

* Related: 1965 NFL season

*[W]: Wins
*[L]: Losses
*[T]: Ties
*[PCT]: Winning percentage
*[DIV]: Win–Loss record within their division
*[PF]: Points For (Total points scored)
*[PA]: Points Against (Total points allowed)
*[STK]: Current Winning or Losing Streak
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template