Top 10 NFL Power Rankings, 1981

[CSKreager]

Might as well jump on the recent run of top 10 power rankings that 74_75_78_79 has been doing lately.

1981 seemed like a potentially wide-open year: the Steelers/Raiders (and to an extent, the Rams/Vikings) missed the playoffs for the first time in eons after being among the titans of football for nearly a decade. You had the 49ers coming from out of nowhere. The Jets and Eagles coming into the playoffs in completely opposite fashion (both starting and finishing in different ways). The Bills and Dolphins, Bengals and Chargers. A Giant revival in New York.

Heck, even a non playoff team in Denver (the only team since the AFL merger to go undefeated at home and miss the playoffs) and Kansas City may have been seen as more dangerous.

Really, other than the Dallas Cowboys, it felt like they were the only team that had major playoff chops going into that postseason. Prior to the playoffs, I would have gone with them because they were the only one of those squads at the time that knew how to win.

How would you assess the 10-12 best teams of '81 before the postseason?

For me:

1. Cowboys- Beat a lot of quality teams, had Super Bowl experience + guys that knew how to win
2. 49ers- Controversial, but before the playoffs, they had a 1980 Falcons 'Yeah, but let's see how they do in the playoffs' feel to them. Plus, other than DAL/CIN, the rest of their victories didn't exactly jump off the pages.
3. Bengals- Had regular season wins over each playoff team but MIA (and I'd counter beating Denver the way they did makes up for that).
4. Jets- Very hot team down the stretch
5. Bills- No fluke from year before, played good ball more often than not
6. Chargers- More defensively suspect than past years, but a better running game
7. Eagles- the way they backed into the playoffs couldn't help but scare you off
8. Broncos- Yes, I know they missed the playoffs, but some on this forum think they were a better team than the '77 SB squad)
9. Dolphins- Beat BUF/KC/PHI but their offense just screamed 'Too one dimensional.'
10. Buccaneers- Quality defense, had won a few years before, Williams had his best season
11. Giants
12. Chiefs

[74_75_78_79_]

Denver is the obvious non-playoff team that gets in. They did win at Tampa, 24-7, in Week #11. And Chiefs, whom you mention, also beat Bucs although it was early. Not only are Bucs at risk of being boxed-out of some lists but especially their 9-7 playoff counterpart, Giants. Remember, they got swept by 8-8 Green Bay (got beat convincingly 'at home' to Jets, and split with Dallas in finale with Boys already 'locked'-in). Then you got 8-8 Detroit who beat Chiefs on Thanksgiving Day along with beating SF & Dallas albeit the "excuse" for each was opening day and '12 men on field' respectively. However, both they and the Pack got swept by the Bucs, each suffering one lopsided affair per sweep. Also, Tampa (contrary to KC) finished strong after that Denver defeat only losing to the Chargers - by 1 at the Murph.

0-5 to 8-8 Redskins should get some consideration as well. Eagles shouldn't be a shoe-in amongst everyone either with the way they finished, one of those losses in that end-of-season collapse to Washington. I personally would put Eagles in the Top 10 nonetheless for I didn't expect (nor would I had expected as an adult either) they losing at Vet again to Giants. And, yes, Eagles did beat Tampa in Week #8. I'll still count that one although it was before the collapse; three of those four-straight losses could have easily gone the other way (and were up 10-0 at Dallas early FWIW). 8-8 Steelers? Showed signs of 'good' throughout (4-2, 8-5) but their only win against an above-500 team the whole season was Week #3 against the Jets, before the Jets 'woke up'. Heck not only can you make a 'top 16' out of this instead, but the bottom-6 of such a list would probably be the most intriguing part.

Anyways, I'll just do ten...

1) Cowboys
2) Niners
3) Bengals
4) Bills
5) Jets
6) Chargers
7) Dolphins
8) Eagles
9) Broncos
10) Buccaneers

[ChrisBabcock]

wowwww.... This is a tough/fun year to do. Like CSKreager said, it definitely would have had a wide-open feel going into the playoffs. I think you would have had tiers of teams in terms of strength with DAL/SF/CIN in the top group and then about five 10-11 win teams in the next group, all fairly evenly matched. When I saw the thread subject line, I thought I was going to be controversial by putting Dallas first. But I see that's unanimous so far.

1. Dallas... They still had that swagger about them. Laid an egg @SF though.
2. San Fran... Yes, 13-3 but probably would have seemed like a paper tiger. Like someone said, the year before Falcons. Or better yet one of Schottenheimer's KC or SD 13-3 teams.
3. Cincinnati... Clearly the best AFC team. Ken Anderson needs to get in the Hall ASAP.
4. Buffalo... I remember as an 8 year old them being left for dead at 6-5. Battled back to get in the playoffs. First of 3 AFC East teams here... interestingly in reverse order of finish. All finished strong.
5. NY Jets
6. Miami
7. San Diego... Air Coryell at the height of its powers. Horrendous D though. I think either Bills or Jets knock them off in a hypo AFCC if the Bengals lose in the divisional round.
8. Tampa Bay
9. Denver
10. Philadelphia... that late season collapse!

28. Colts... Even though they won 2, this is my vote as the worst team of the 16 game era.

[74_75_78_79_]

Nice little time-capsule NYT article previewing Week #11, Steelers at Falcons in-particular. I was at my grandmother's that Sunday. She was an Eagles fan and Steelers weren't on anyway. During that very schlackling of hapless Colts, I remember the game kept being interrupted to show highlights - a Bradshaw TD here, and a Bradshaw TD there. Terry's best career game and I missed it! The 4:00 games would have Dallas & SF losing to Lions & Browns respectively thus allowing Eagles at 9-2 to be alone atop the NFL for one final week before...well you know.

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/15/sport ... elers.html

I vaguely remember hearing a story about Cliff Stout being injured due to a punching bag incident at a bar. Rick Trocano? Don't ever recall that name. Turk Schonert? Think I recall.

[7DnBrnc53]

1. San Fran: You have to give it to them because they beat Cincy and Dallas by the combined score of 66-17, and they won in Pittsburgh as well.
2. Dallas: The mystique is still there, and they upgraded their secondary from the year before.
3. Cincinnati: The class of the AFC after beating Denver, SD, the Steelers (twice) and Buffalo (twice).
4. Denver: Even though they missed the playoffs, this was a better Bronco team than the 1977 AFC Titlists were. They had two more regular season games to deal with, and they played in a tougher division, which made it tougher to duplicate what that Denver team did.
5. Buffalo: They beat the Jets in the playoffs and did split with Miami that year. They also lost to the beat team in the conference by only three points in the playoffs, and they did beat SD and Denver as well.
6. Miami: The start of the 1981-85 era of overachieving. Played pretty well all year, though, and were tantalizingly close to going to Ice Station Zebra for the AFC Title Game instead of SD.
7. San Diego
8. N.Y. Jets: Played great ball for the last 3/4th of the season after starting 0-3.
9. Tampa Bay: May have been better than their 1979 counterparts because of more offense.
10. N.Y. Giants:


Honorable Mention:

Philadelphia: Late season loss to Skins was beginning of end for Vermeil era.
Kansas City: Loss in Week 15 to Miami at home may have been the beginning of the end of the Levy era.
Detroit: Second year of their "can't quite get out of mediocrity" era of 1980-83.

[BD Sullivan]

I vaguely remember hearing a story about Cliff Stout being injured due to a punching bag incident at a bar. Rick Trocano? Don't ever recall that name. Turk Schonert? Think I recall.

The week before, the Steelers blew a 21-3 lead in Seattle, missing the chance to send it into OT when rookie PK David Trout (who had beaten out Matt Bahr) missed a 22-yard FG. To make matters worse, the Steelers couldn't get out of Seattle due to fog, so some of the players went to a bar that had a punching bag that measured strength. While I'm not sure if he was lit up (:D), Stoudt swung and only grazed the bag, which resulted in him giving the post holding the bag a forearm shiver. The post won and Stoudt had a fractured elbow.

Rick Trocano (who was a QB at Pitt) was on the IR, so the Steelers tried to activate him by sending him through waivers. However, the Browns claimed him, which (not surprisingly) annoyed the hell out of Chuck Noll, who said the Browns did it out of spite.

Schonert was the third string QB for Cincy who was pressed into service in the opener. Seattle took a 21-0 lead, Anderson was stinking the place out and Jack Thompson had been injured the week before. The Bengals ended up winning, 27-21.

[Gary Najman]

I vaguely remember hearing a story about Cliff Stout being injured due to a punching bag incident at a bar. Rick Trocano? Don't ever recall that name. Turk Schonert? Think I recall.

The week before, the Steelers blew a 21-3 lead in Seattle, missing the chance to send it into OT when rookie PK David Trout (who had beaten out Matt Bahr) missed a 22-yard FG. To make matters worse, the Steelers couldn't get out of Seattle due to fog, so some of the players went to a bar that had a punching bag that measured strength. While I'm not sure if he was lit up (:D), Stoudt swung and only grazed the bag, which resulted in him giving the post holding the bag a forearm shiver. The post won and Stoudt had a fractured elbow.

Rick Trocano (who was a QB at Pitt) was on the IR, so the Steelers tried to activate him by sending him through waivers. However, the Browns claimed him, which (not surprisingly) annoyed the hell out of Chuck Noll, who said the Browns did it out of spite.

Schonert was the third string QB for Cincy who was pressed into service in the opener. Seattle took a 21-0 lead, Anderson was stinking the place out and Jack Thompson had been injured the week before. The Bengals ended up winning, 27-21.

Trocano was the QB at Pitt before Dan Marino. He played some games for the BRowns in 1981 and 1982, but IIRC mainly at special teams and also at safety (he wore no. 12 in Cleveland).