Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Opening day matchups between two teams who both were playoff teams the year before only for both to end up finishing below-500. That '80s Jets thread made me think of their opening day win at the Jack in '83. People must have thought that as an AFCC-preview at the time. Oilers/Rams almost going into OT in '81 another one. Raiders/Titans '03 comes to mind as well. Other examples?

74_75_78_79_ wrote:Opening day matchups between two teams who both were playoff teams the year before only for both to end up finishing below-500. That '80s Jets thread made me think of their opening day win at the Jack in '83. People must have thought that as an AFCC-preview at the time. Oilers/Rams almost going into OT in '81 another one. Raiders/Titans '03 comes to mind as well. Other examples?

I had a football book from back then that had those teams meeting in the AFC Title that year, with the Jets going on to win the Super Bowl over Washington.

Another example is from 1992, when the Jets and Falcons met in the first ever regular season game at the Georgia Dome. The Falcons ended up winning 20-17. That was the debut for QB Browning Nagle (Ken O'Brien was holding out that year). The Jets would go on to finish 4-12, and the Falcons would finish 6-10.

Patriots/Browns 1995

Rematch of the '94 AFC WC game, two chic AFC picks to reach Tempe, Curtis Martin's debut, dramatic finish

New England didn't win game #2 until late October, and Cleveland.... well, we all know what happened there.

Speaking of 1992, Detroit and Chicago met on opening day in a game that the Bears pulled out at the very end on a Harbaugh to Waddle TD pass. Both teams went on to finish 5-11 that year after going 12-4 and 11-5 the year before.