Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I believe the only time it's ever happened in the dozen years offered was in '87 - Burnsie's WC Vikes at 3rd-seed Redskins. Of all the possible combinations of a wildcard possibly playing a 3rd-seed in a CC, what one wouldn't you have actually minded? Pretty sure no one would have cared for an Oilers@Dolphins '79, Dallas@Vikes '80, nor especially the often notoriously thought of Pats@Browns '85. Many more to name! Pretty good chance that not a single combination appeals to anyone! Enough strong-WCs but simply not enough strong-3rd-seeds to match with one from the same season, it seems.

EDIT: Wait a minute (was just mentioned on another post)! Oakland at Buffalo, 1980! That may be (and stay) #1! Houston at Buffalo #2?

1988-89 Minnesota at Philadelphia

1986-87 Washington at San Francisco

1984-85 LA Rams at Chicago

Oh, I got one (and maybe it tops Hou@Buf '80)...Saints at Redskins '87! Mentioned Minn@Wash OP, you'd think that would have come to mind.

Yeah, Wash@SF '86 came to mind initially. So did Minn@Phi '88.

Yeah, the one that popped into my head immediately even before going back and looking at the standings was the one mentioned in another thread here somewhere... Raiders at Bills in 1980. THAT would have been a great game! Even if the Oilers snuck in there Earl Campbell's 1900+ yard regular season vs. the Bills very respectable defense would have been interesting. I wonder how things would have unfolded that 1980 AFC postseason had the Raiders not gotten past the WC round. Oilers would head to San Diego in a rematch of the previous year's divisional round game which I think they win again except this time convincingly. Buffalo would go to Cleveland. 1980 is one of the more intriguing seasons ever, IMO. 4 of the 6 division winners had either NEVER been division champs before or it had been 10+ years since. The playoff tiebreakers were truly mind bending!... especially in the AFC. Not only all 5 teams at 11-5 but all were at 10-5 before the last week. All the "if this team wins, then..." scenarios going into the final week must have been crazy. Looks like they had to go pretty deep into the tiebreakers to sort it all out... copied from wikipedia....
Cleveland finished ahead of Houston in the AFC Central based on better conference record (8–4 to Oilers' 7–5).
San Diego finished ahead of Oakland in the AFC West based on better net points in division games (plus 60 net points to Raiders' plus 37).
San Diego was the top AFC playoff seed based on better conference record than Cleveland and Buffalo (9–3 to Browns' 8–4 and Bills' 8–4).
Cleveland was the second AFC playoff seed based on better record against common opponents (5–2 to Bills' 5–3).
Oakland was the first AFC Wild Card based on better conference record than Houston (9–3 to Oilers' 7–5).

As mentioned, Saints @ Redskins in '87 would have been a good one. Dome Patrol certainly arrived on the scene that year.

Like I said in the 1980 PR thread over a year ago, technicalities aside, Bills (who I placed at #3) deserved home-field. They beat SD at the Murph and, unlike Clev, didn't avoid playing the Raiders & Chargers; nor did they get the luxury of only having to play one winning team (9-7 Vikes) across conference. Bills had to face Falcons and Rams. Cleveland's only wins vs above-500 teams were vs Houston & Pitt, that's it. Houston got to avoid the same teams Clev did but at least beat Pats (MNF) and Vikes which Cleveland didn't do.

Sort of reminds me of a year prior, Dallas getting the division over Eagles due to better conference record yet, across conference, the Birds at least beat the Steelers and (at) Houston; Dallas beat neither.

More on how bunched together that 1980 AFC was, had Houston had a late season home win over Cleveland instead of the close 17-14 loss that actually happened, they jump from the 5 seed to a 12-4 1st seed and the AFC playoffs go through the Astrodome. Cleveland goes to Oakland in the WC round. Raiders probably don't need a Red Right 88 to win that one.

OR... give the Patriots one more win, for example reverse the 16-13 OT loss at Miami, then they win the AFC East AND get the top seed due to a 10-2 conference record! Then we'd have the top 2 teams in EACH division finishing 11-5. In that scenario the seedings would go like this...
1. Patriots
2. Chargers
3. Browns
4. Raiders... who get this spot in a 3 way conference record tiebreaker with Buffalo and Houston.
5. Bills... who have to travel to Oakland in the WC round despite beating them in the regular season.
...with the Oilers the odd team out.
...all tie breakers would be based on conference record.
To make your head spin further, add that hypothetical Oilers win over the Browns back in the mix and you take the Oilers from out of the playoffs all the way up to the 1 seed, the Browns get pushed out of the playoffs at 10-6 (like the Pats in real life) and the Chargers (who are #1 in real life) end up a 3. Everyone keeping track at home?

It'll probably be a long time before we see another conference send all of its teams to the playoffs with identical regular season records.

Also part of my fascination with this season is that its the first year (as a 6 year old) I started being aware of NFL football and its teams and players!

Sorry... and one more thing. Going into the final week of the regular season, if you were a Patriots fan, all you needed to get into the playoffs was a win against the 1-14 Saints and ANY ONE of those 10-5 teams to lose. *** Piece of cake, right?

*** Not sure about that if only the Raiders lose to the Giants though... since they would both have identical 9-3 conference records, so it would go to the next tiebreaker for these 10-6 teams. Not sure what that tiebreaker would be.