1982 NFL season - expectations as well as retrospect

[CSKreager]

Nice! Maybe you should do the week-by-week, 7Dn! However, I'd pick quite a few differently, but what do I know? It'd still be cool seeing yours and others'.

I would not mind.

The others I would have went the other way on? I'm thinking the Killer B's actually get the best of Dickey at Lambeau, but it would have been a close game. Shula & Co would have that extra day to prepare as well.

Well, the Pack did have a weak defense, but is Miami going to play on offense the way they did in Week 1 against the Jets? Also, Arnsparger is a defensive genius, but the Dolphins didn't have a great secondary.

Rams by two TDs at the Vet?? They'd be winners again the next year, but a second-straight bad season here. And though I see the Eagles losing a bunch of close games in a full '82 as well (picking up where they left off in '81, can Vermeil fight on through the burnout for an entire season? I'm sure he'd make it to the end) they keep things optimistic for at least another week in what would actually be they winning by two TDs here instead. Sid was back again helping Jaws and the offense.

I don't know. I think that Vermeil will fall apart during the season. He is probably a ticking time bomb. Also, Bert Jones and the Rams can get it going that week.

That depends on how much does LA's 17 point blown lead and then getting dominated by DET carry over to the Vet?

[74_75_78_79_]

I was 11 in 1982. I am a Packers fan and it always made me mad when I was younger that the Packers' lone playoff season of the 80s has been discounted as a strike fluke of sorts.

I get it now that I'm older, but of the Packers teams from 1981-85 that largely went 8-8, I think the 1982 team was still the best.

The 1981 team had a fifth-place schedule and an offense that hadn't quite hit overdrive.
The 1983 team had an offense that was awesome at times, but the defense was atrocious.
The 1984 team had a much-better defense, but age was catching up to Lynn Dickey and the team started terrible and finished strong.
The 1985 team was a repeat of 1984, but with serious QB issues as Dickey benched himself at one point replaced with dreck like an old Jim Zorn and second-year Randy Wright.

The 1982 team had peak James Lofton, good Lynn Dickey, still solid (if declining) John Jefferson, underrated Paul Coffman and a solid running back combo in Eddie Lee Ivery and (also underrated) Gerry Ellis, a good two-way threat.

The defense ranked 11th in the NFL - yes, taken with a grain of salt given the sample size - with a solid linebacking corps and a secondary that hadn't melted down yet like it would in '83 (perhaps in direct correlation to whether Maurice Harvey was playing or not). Ezra Johnson was still a pass-rushing threat and they got a one-year wonder season out of Casey Merrill.

They also had X-factor Gary Lewis, kick blocker extraordinaire.

The 1982 Packers were much like their early 80s counterparts. Won some games they shouldn't have, lost (or tied against a putrid Colts team) some they shouldn't have. Then again, it was a totally bizarre schedule. Packers only played one regular season game at Lambeau and three in Milwaukee. There were also three road games to finish.

The games they didn't play were:
Miami - probably a loss. Miami's defense would have given them trouble home or away.
Philly at Milwaukee - Maybe a win. That was when Philly declined, but in the normal run of the schedule, maybe the Eagles pull themselves out?
Chicago home and away - Probably a split, but that game was unpredictable at the time. Plenty of weird results at both places until the Bears finally began a run of season sweeps in 1985.
Tampa Bay home and away - Another split. Bucs were still decent.
at Minnesota - Probably a loss.

Those results would have put the Packers at 8-7-1. No idea where that would put the Packers against the rest of the division. Someone probably sneaks the NFC Central at 9-7. Season for Green Bay might have hinged on whether it could sweep the Bears (decent chance) or the Bucs (not as much). Then again, pro-football-reference rates the Packers better via their SRS rating than all but the Dolphins of the teams they didn't play.

Maybe it's best they did have their 5-3-1, a resounding playoff home win, and a relatively honorable loss to the Cowboys.

My take on the '82 Packers being treated as a true playoff team, Starr's best as a HC, is right here within this old introductory post of mine...(a much-belated apology for not initially thanking you for the compliment on it, Babcock)...

https://profootballresearchers.com/foru ... 9f0df8937a

Starr only making the playoffs as a HC during the '82 campaign (as also the case with the very HC he beat in that 1st Rd playoff, 41-16) is not a good look. But I treat them as a playoff team just the same just as I do the '82 Cards though at a lesser level. Tightening that attitude was, indeed, the Pack squashing that Hanifan team and then giving the Cowboys a good game at Big D.

Looking at their original '82 schedule, I actually got them finishing 11-5 (that could possibly change a tad if I actually ever do an "every game/every week" thing based on the 'groove'/momentum of the entire exercise thus possibly altering things)! I got GB losing in Wk#3 to Miami (as myself, and you TMT, have already opined) but I think the Packers split with everyone in the division except for Chicago who, IMO, I think they sweep. They start 5-1, fall to 7-5 after another loss at Shea to the Jets, but then win-out. Yes, they got swept by Detroit IRL (and that first game, a rout/a Silver Rush Masterpiece - and at Lambeau, mind you) , but that second loss was in the finale. Yes, Pack still did have something to play for, an even-better playoff seeding, but the Lions obviously needed it so much more; in a normal 16-game season as originally scheduled, a split takes place between both IMO.

And, no, I'm not going to get 'cute' and say they still TIE at Baltimore, lol! No, the simple "as-normal" scenario here butterflies that away.

But your possible 8-7-1 take, TMT, may be the case. Again, sweeping the Bears (and not tying against the Colts) would be key. Sure-enough that division race would have been real tough as the surrounding seasons. There was no 'battle of the Bays' at all in '82. I think TB would have been the key obstacle in the Pack winning that division. But Minny is likely right in the thick of it as well into December. Maybe Detroit too, but (I could be wrong) something tells me they have a slight set-back. Looking at their original schedule I, sadly, have them finish...7-9 (be a shame if that would have gotten Clark fired being no playoffs at all). And with a little more respectability, perhaps the Bears in Ditka's HC debut may have still been in range or at least play plenty of spoiler to make the entire NFC Central even more a logjam!

Looking at the Bucs' original slate, I got them finishing at 10-6. Because they likely would need that finale, they yet again sweep the Lions in '82. They split with everyone else (hey, Ditka needs at least one "sign of the future" upset win) along with winning both their MNF games against San Fran and (as they did IRL) Miami! Give me a minute while I - may as well - do the Vikings & Bears to round things out...

NFC Central
Green Bay 11-5
Tampa Bay 10-6
Detroit 7-9
Minnesota 6-10
Chicago 6-10

Ouch! I thought I'd have Minny finishing, maybe, 9-7. No, it's both they and Chi finish at 6-10 as well as splitting with each other. Vikings 4-4 in their division with their two other wins against Saints & Colts. What do I know? Maybe I'm being too harsh on them, but who else should I have them beat outside their division with me already thinking Dallas beats them in Wk#3? Not the Dolphins or Jets. Maybe flip my thinking that they lose at Candlestick in Wk#9? Or actually upset Mia or NYJ (or, simply, sweep Chicago; or - as you, 7Dn, opine - beat Dallas as they actually did)?

Bears split with everyone in their division except for GB. They also split with...the Cards (remember, they should have played each other twice due to both finishing 5th-place the year before; it would have been the first double between the two in 30 years). I have them beating the Pats as they did IRL Respectability-wise, still picking up where Armstrong left off whilst - more importantly - showing hints of winning to come in a full season as they did in that 9-game sample-size, I think.

Maybe I am too harsh (and, again, perhaps this changes with me doing "every game"/"every week" all the way to the end), but here IS the thing - IRL, both Minny & Chi, according to the small sample-size offered, were the only two teams in the division to finish minus in PD along with also being a negative in Y/P. Detroit also were a negative in yardage but at least finished a positive PD. Both Bays? Despite TB finishing with the #13 offense and #3 defense to Green Bay's respective #12 & #8, and finishing a positive in Y/P, the Bucs IRL '82 were a minus-20 in PD! That 32-17 loss at Shea the obvious culprit.

As for the Packers...they were a positive all-across-the-board! But with that #3 defense, and having swept them the year before, that final John McKay winner would have sure given the Pack a serious dogfight to the finish!

Yes, the '82 Packers, to me, are the strongest 'dark ages' GB installment other than, of course, 1972. Better than any other Starr HC'd team, better than that 'Majik' wonder seven years later. And, IMO, also better than any of Holmgren/Favre's first three teams who each finished at 9-7.

And I also think that, despite not making it to the CCG or winning a playoff game, the '82 Bucs were McKay's best squad thus the franchise's best until Dungy.

[Citizen]

The Packers had their chances to sneak by Dallas. Stenerud missed a PAT that would have made it 23-20 Dallas early in the 4th quarter, and they ended up chasing that point the rest of the game. In the 3rd, Green Bay had also reached the Dallas 15 and 16, but had to settle for field goals both times.

[CSKreager]

David Woodley would never have made a SB with the 16 game schedule.

82 Miami was basically a defense without an offense and that was with 7 games wiped out.

Miami needing back-to-back 5 INT games against more talented Charger/Jet teams says a lot About how they lived and died by the Killer B’s