Just Added: The 1976 Panda Game

The recap below was copied from the Ottawa Citizen dated October 25th, 1976. 

That Gee-Gees team was an interesting one. Coming off their national championship from the previous year, they won their first four games by shut out and averaged 44 points of their own. The first score against them was a single point on missed field goal in the first half of the fifth game of the season when they ultimately beat Queen's 26-07 in Kingston.

With the game below, it seems like things started to unravel.  They won it, but then lost to Queen's at home the following weekend by a score of 19-00. At that point they had won 18 straight games over the course of the past two seasons.

With the regular season concluded, they barely got through their first playoff game against Bishop's. It was played in Ottawa and the Gee-Gees won by a score of 22-20 when the Gaiters missed a field goal attempt with five seconds remaining in the game. They then went on to lose to Acadia in the Atlantic Bowl 18-16 when they failed to take advantage of a number of scoring opportunities and good field position.

I have not been able to find a specific turning point (such as a major injury) but I am curious as to what a member of that team would point to. Obviously they couldn't have been expected to win every game 44-00 but the speed with which they began to struggle is mysterious.