7DnBrnc53 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 5:41 am
Something tells me that Dallas will win-it-all (beat Wash in the NFCCG) with the Jets/Raiders-winner representing the AFC. But we'll see. Anyway, I'll play the playoffs soon enough and then post the results.
I like Dallas over Jets then. I still think the Raiders are a year away.
If Landry gets that third ring, maybe he walks away in a few years. If he does, the trajectory of the franchise changes. Bum Bright doesn't have to sell the team to Jerry Jones so he can fire Landry, and maybe it is in a better place today.
Jets finished 7-1 as Big D finished 11-0. Both the hottest teams of each conference going in! IRL, I would have loved to see both play each other in '81, so that definitely is the case the following year - especially in a full-season!
ChrisBabcock wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 12:02 pm
Very interesting! It looks like you replayed the whole season rather than just the missing games. Which explains why the Packers have less losses in this scenario than in rel life. 14-2??? Wow!
I kept the first two weeks exactly as it was but, via What-If-Sports, played each and every originally scheduled game after that. Strictly playing the games that had to be made up for, but leaving the made-up ones alone, was not at all ideal to me. Had the 57-day stoppage not have taken place, practically everything gets butterflied away! You must assume every single final score as well as enough of the winners of games now being losers instead. I strongly feel it made better sense to do it this way.
Anyways, without further ado, here is...
the 1982 NFL POST-SEASON...
NFC Wild Card
Sunday, January 2, 1983, 1PM EST
RFK Memorial Stadium
Washington 30, Tampa Bay 10
The Bucs were pesky. No score in the 1stQ. TB drew first blood with a FG in the 2nd. Wash was only up 7-3 at the half, only up 13-7 end of the 3rd. But then...the RIGGINS-
grind when it mattered!
AFC Wild Card
Sunday, January 2, 1983, 4PM EST
Jack Murphy Stadium
Kansas City 19, San Diego 14
Levy WINS his first playoff game as a HC six years earlier as well as elsewhere! Competitive game. No one ever led by more than a TD. Chargers got in the lead for the first and only time, 14-10, with 5+min to go in the first half; and kept that lead at halftime. The rest of the scoring was KC kicking two FGs in the 3rd, and then another in the 4th. Kenney 'named' the game's MVP. 15/27 for 248 yds with no INTs, but no TDs either. Fouts? 16/26 for 198. Two TDs, but...THREE INTS!!
NFC Divisional
Saturday, January 8, 1983, 1PM EST
Texas Stadium
Dallas 31, Atlanta 24
A third-straight competitive playoff game between these two teams. Dallas down, 24-17, going into the 4th Q. White-to-Hill 9-yd TD pass with 1:08 to go and then, with
12 seconds to go, a Bob Breunig
66-yd-pick-6 to ICE it! Heck, even What-If-Sports, I guess, got the Landry 'comeback'-magic down pat!
AFC Divisional
Saturday, January 8, 1983, 4PM EST
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
LA Raiders 12, NY Jets 9
Mickey Shuler scored the game's only TD (XP-missed). It was in the 2nd Q. Every other score a FG otherwise. This non-strike '82 scenario not so kind to the Jets at Raiders, here! A shame for them. ANOTHER one-and-done instead of, at least, a trip to the AFCCG!
AFC Divisional
Sunday, January 9, 1983, 1PM EST
Three Rivers Stadium
Pittsburgh 26, Kansas City 16
GARY DUNN, with 3 sacks, named the MVP in this one! Competitive game, though KC never led, going into the 4th with the score tied at 16-apiece. But Steelers pulled away! The 'Burgh had the ball for more than 34 min. Kenney threw 3 INTs.
NFC Divisional
Sunday, January 9, 1983, 4PM EST
Lambeau Field
Green Bay 28, Washington 16
OUCH! The IRL World Champs are ELIMINATED! And by almost 2 TDs!! Lofton just four catches but for 100 yds and 2 TDs! Dickey 3 TDs, zero INTs. Theismann with 2 TDs, but also 2 INTs. The Pack, who also had the ball for more than 34 min, went up 21-3 middle of the 3rd Q. Wash scored a TD, also in the 3rd, to make it 21-10 but Dickey would throw his third TD with less then 7 min to go in regulation to make it 28-10 and that would, pretty much, be that!
So we got ourselves a Starr-vs-Landry championship on one end (celebrating the '60s, the Ice Bowl is 15 post-seasons ago) and a Steelers/Raiders on the other end ('70s, Immaculate Reception is 10 post-seasons ago). Yes, I think this '82 scenario already, automatically, makes this one a better season than '80 & '81! Would Green Bay be installed a favorite over Big D? I'm not sure at all! Okay, I'll try. Either Packers by one point (1.0) strictly because they're at home and beat Wash by 12, a pick-'em, or somewhere in-between. The other CGG? I think Vegas installs Raiders as a favorite considering they being 5-0 vs the 'Burgh since the '76 opener. Raiders favorite by 3? 3.5? Something like that, I think.
I think I've already gotten "my money's worth" binging this series (1982 the best NFL season since I started following)!
Okay (big sigh)...let's continue...
NFC Championship
Sunday, January 16, 1983, 1PM EST
Lambeau Field
Green Bay 27, Dallas 13
Again...WOW!! Okay, the 16-2 Pack truly
earned it now in beating Wash & Dallas! I don't know WHY they call Dorsett the player of the game instead of Lofton! This site is Howley/SBV on Steroids! They really like throwing that honor to any player no matter if on the winner or the loser! #33 did score a TD to close the gap to 14-7 at the half. He was 22/64 with that rushing TD; and he did catch 3 for 38. But James' simple 4 for 65 and one TD of his own - and he WAS on the
winning team - ought to do the trick.
And GB pulled away throughout the second half! They went up, 27-7, with 9:33 to go in the 4th due to a 54-yd,fumble-return for a TD. Big D, weirdly, went for a 35-yd FG with 3:28 to go to make it 27-10, but the game seemed to be won anyway so whatever. The City of Green Bay, and the rest of the State of Wisconsin, right now is going NUTS!! They're in the SUPER BOWL again for the first time since VINCE! And just WHO is the Head Coach
TAKING them to the Rose Bowl in two weeks??
Anyway, on to the NEXT one! A 28-years-in-advance affair, or a 15-year revival of SBII? Let's see...
AFC Championship
Sunday, January 16, 1983, 4PM EST
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
LA Raiders 19, Pittsburgh 10
GUT-punch upon the score coming up!! Raiders simply got our number lately and What-If-Sports seems to know that as well, lol. But, also, they were
better this campaign in addition! The BEST in the conference, and maybe...well, we'll see in two weeks in this (Bart Starr vs Al Davis) SBII rematch (Green Bay will wear their dark unis this time)!!
YIKES! Looking deeper into the stats of this AFCCG that I just clicked, Raiders had the ball for...42-PLUS minutes!! They had 21 first downs to Pittsburgh's 9! Bradshaw was 8/19, 130 yds, 1TD, 1INT. The actual scoring through the contest doesn't indicate this high imbalance, however. A 29-yd Bradshaw-to-Swann TD drew first blood in the 1stQ. Steelers were up, 10-6, at the half! No scoring in the 3rd. But Marcus - the game's MVP - scored a TD to make it, 13-10, in the 4th and then two more Bahr FGs after that for good measure!
Hey, LAR & GB both started 10-1 at the same time. Each finished top-seeds. So this only makes sense. I'm all about my team finishing in First! Never a runner-up nor, especially, less! But I'll take THIS over us going one-and-done at home against SD with that campaign being a forever-notorious 9 games! 1982, in this parallel reality, is the Best season since I started following in 1980!
Vegas? I'm going to also say the Pack by either 1.0, a pick-em, or somewhere in-between. Should be a Dandy! Will excitedly WATCH despite my still feeling that gut-punch! I'll bet $500 (
1982 dollars, that is) on the Pack!! Yes, $1665.62! Why NOT (go for broke)??
SUPER BOWL XVII
Sunday, January 30, 1983, 6:17 PM EST
Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA
LA Raiders 14. Packers 6
Out of dough, I guess! Raiders get SB-revenge 15 years later! Marcus, of course, scored first making it 7-0 in the 1st Q. Then in the 2nd, it was a Dickey-to-Lofton 15-yarder in which the XP was failed. It made the score 7-6 which it stayed at at halftime. The game's next, and last, score wouldn't be until less than 8 to go in the 4th. It was a Plunkett-to-Christensen 4-yarder to make it 14-6. Marcus named the MVP with 19 for 77 (1TD) in rushing, and catching 5 for 69.
Al flips his LA-bird to the League one year earlier! Do they still
repeat in this scenario? Can't see why not but you never know.
Does Green Bay's 16-3 Super Bowl campaign give Starr more time beyond '83 thus Gregg likely never coming onboard?
It's been real! Yes, despite the AFCCG obvious. I'm so revved-up - perhaps 'spent' - by this, that I just may say forget about trying that other hypo involving a '91 campaign with Giants, Bills, and San Fran from the year before replacing their '91 versions.; '92 Cowboys replacing the '91 version. Forget that. Washington that very year is Historically credible with me in that I don't think it's necessary nor worth investing the time. I already see them as just behind (no crime) the better versions of those teams, so I don't need such a season-long hypo to try to prove that they "may have" been..."better".
I had enough 'fun' with this hypo-'82!
I won't even bother with such a similar '87 attempt. Forget it.
Considering that I always feel like a dwarf here on this site (though, modesty-aside, I feel pretty
strong among common sports-bar patrons), anyone here who tries what I did - just play the all the games following Week #2 and tally up - but
makes their OWN guesses for each game instead all the way to the end (no use of a stat-engine)? I'll take it more seriously than my own.
But I'll say if one
does each post-Wk#2 game via stat-engine, roll-up some SERIOUS sleeves and not just play all the remaining '82 games from that very stat device, but SAVE all those games and take the time to DIG in (apply some "get a life' kind of TIME and SWEAT to it) and keep track of every stat (and I mean, EVERY one), And, also, maybe adjust each and every game to what the actual weather was each outdoor game (What-If-Sports does allow those adjustments, btw) or maybe even start backups for teams who already clinched end of season, etc. Even if that person's such exercise involves Pittsburgh finishing at 6-10, I will respect that version even more-so and admire it/take it even-more seriously.
Yes, maybe if I do this all over again, perhaps Green Bay still makes the playoffs, but maybe just a 10-game winner and wins just one game if even that. Maybe the Dolphins DO kick-butt and go deep in the post-season! But, oh well, in real-life as Eminem says (and he's not even my, Classic Rock/old-school genre) "You only got ONE SHOT" And every team in MY '82 full-season-hypo had just THAT, so that's just the way it is. Again, I never replayed one single game and will never try this exercise again. It's all just a stat-based engine. I still feel that in a 'real' (not stat/computer) situation that Washington still holds up the Vince at the end of a full-'82 season! But God Only Knows (RIP Brian Wilson).
The Los Angeles Raiders, I guess, are the '82 (hypo-FULL-season) World Champs in the meantime. Lyle gets a chance to go...Back-to-Back!
Back-to-Back
SBMVPs for Marcus?? I should have looked at, and recorded, every game stat of his throughout the 16 games just to see how it would have added up! Yes, same with Wes Chandler, Dan Fouts, and so on.
