What happened with the 1981 Raiders?

[Gary Najman]

The 49ers were terrible running the ball in 1982. Their yards per rush dropped only from 3.5 to 3.4, but they became more one dimensional. They didn't crack 100 yards rushing until the final 2 games of the season, and needed Montana scrambles to do so.
Montana tossed 11 interceptions in 9 games, whereas in 1981 he had only thrown a couple more in 16 games. His INT% wasn't too much higher...because he threw so much more often. I think he threw about 100 less passes in the 9 games of 1982 than he had the previous season.

Their 1981 leading rusher, Ricky Patton, was injured in the first game of the season, never playing again, and 3rd down back Lenvil Elliott (key in The Catch drive) retired. Jeff Moore was brought from Seattle, but he ran fir less than 300 yards and San Francisco finished last in rushing yards and yards per carry. IIRC, they wanted to draft Craig James in the 1983 NFL Draft, but adter he signed with the USFL, they drafted Craig and traded for Tyler, both key contributirs in next season' Super Bowl winning team.

[BD Sullivan]

On defense, the main difference was they went from first in the league in INTs to last.

Wasn't '81 when the NFL outlawed Stickum, which was a big part of Lester Hayes' game, among others?

[7DnBrnc53]

Wasn't '81 when the NFL outlawed Stickum, which was a big part of Lester Hayes' game, among others?

Yes, it was. It probably was a reason that they went from first in INT's in 1980 to last in 81 (like Jay Z pointed out earlier). Also, according to CCC Productions, the 1981 Raiders are the 22nd most disappointing team of all-time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hwsstGEBuw

He would have only felt good about leaving if Mike White, John Robinson, or Terry Donahue would have replaced him. When neither were interested, he decided to bite the bullet and go on anyway for '83. At the Senior Bowl, Jim Hanifan and another friend who were at the game with him told to him to "get over it" which sealed the deal.

Also, according to part 2 of the Rise of the 49ers documentary, Eddie D apparently told him that he won't be allowed to be GM without being the HC, and that he would be making a mistake if he quit.