General 1981 pre-season predictions and expectations

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74_75_78_79_
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Re: General 1981 pre-season predictions and expectations

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YouTube is currently infested with ‘NFL Review and Previews’ eps; just about all weeks from this season are available. Week #9 had Allie Sherman as a guest sitting with Sabol and Kalas. Sherman said he felt that more offenses should be throwing to their RBs especially with the recent rules changes. Jets ‘at’ Giants game was one of the games highlighted.

Week #6 (Luv Ya Blue’s “last hurrah”, if you want to call it such) had Kalas at the beginnning of Seahawks/Oilers highlights saying (paraphrasing) that football teams were sometimes like people, they tend to have an identity crisis - Oilers being one of them. It was said that #34 should be installed at tailback more often to help open up the passing game, defenses playing closer to line. In the end (Houston, 35-17) Kalas said their problems seemed to be “solved”.
Gary Najman
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Re: General 1981 pre-season predictions and expectations

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Previous to 1981, John Jefferson and Fred Dean were still with the Chargers. Although Wes Chandler replaced Jefferson very well, I still think Jefferson was the top player if we compare the time they both had playing with San Diego, Jefferson was for many the top WR in the league his first three seasons (and Chandler was in 1982, his fifth season). As for Dean, if not for him IMHO the 49ers don't make and win the Super Bowl that year, and maybe the Chargers had home field advantage if he had played the entire season with San Diego.
BD Sullivan
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Re: General 1981 pre-season predictions and expectations

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The demise of the Chargers' would-be dynasty could pretty much be laid at the feet of owner Gene Klein, whose tightwad ways pretty much guaranteed that the bottom line was more important than a Super Bowl title.
L.C. Greenwood
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Re: General 1981 pre-season predictions and expectations

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The demise of both the Eagles and Falcons was surprising to me in 1981. Philadelphia started 6-0, but lost four of their last five and was bounced by the Giants in the WC round. They were a veteran team, so age may have been a factor. Atlanta didn't even make the postseason that year.
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Bryan
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Re: General 1981 pre-season predictions and expectations

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L.C. Greenwood wrote:The demise of both the Eagles and Falcons was surprising to me in 1981. Philadelphia started 6-0, but lost four of their last five and was bounced by the Giants in the WC round. They were a veteran team, so age may have been a factor. Atlanta didn't even make the postseason that year.
Eagles - I think the 1980 Eagles might have overachieved a bit, but they had been consistently competitive since 1978 and beat many of the teams that were regarded as 'elite' for that era. The Eagles defense was #1 in fewest points allowed in 1980 and 1981. What stands out to me is that Jaworski had an uncharacteristically great year in 1980 even with Montgomery being injured for part of the season, and Jaworski fell back to earth in 1981 despite Montgomery rushing for 1400+ yards. Sid Gillman was hired to coach the passing game for the Eagles in 1980; Gillman left after that season, so perhaps his influence on Jaworski was very significant.

Falcons - strange that they were so bad in 1981 considering Bartkowski remained healthy and the offense continued to be unstoppable. If you look at the defense, they were middle-of-the-pack in yards allowed, yards per play, etc. in both 1980 and 1981, yet they were 5th in points allowed in 1980 and 18th in points allowed in 1981. So perhaps there was a bit of luck involved with the Falcons defense playing so well in 1980. Al Richardson had 7 INTs in 1980 (which I believe is still the record for rookie LBs), but had only 1 in 1981 despite starting all 16 games and would end up with only 9 career INTs. Glanville always liked to stock his secondary with hard-hitter types, and maybe guys like Pridemore/Glazebrook/Kenny Johnson weren't the best at stopping the new passing offenses.
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Re: General 1981 pre-season predictions and expectations

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L.C. Greenwood wrote:The demise of both the Eagles and Falcons was surprising to me in 1981. Philadelphia started 6-0, but lost four of their last five and was bounced by the Giants in the WC round. They were a veteran team, so age may have been a factor. Atlanta didn't even make the postseason that year.
The Falcons had a longstanding reputation of following a good year with a bad one--or vice versa.
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74_75_78_79_
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Re: General 1981 pre-season predictions and expectations

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Eagles’ 6-0 start, at the time, wreaked of they getting back to the Super Bowl with a vengeance and, this time, winning it. They beat Bills at Buffalo in a rare at the time Thursday Nighter in Week #3 and get their revenge on a still seemingly good 3-1 Atlanta two weeks later on MNF. SF just pounding Dallas yet being ‘snubbed’ on the following night’s MNF highlights may be due to “all eyes” on Eagles. Correct me if wrong but I don’t think after six weeks that there was even a 5-1 team in the league. Everyone else was 4-2 or less so Birds stood out. As for Atl...after that Week #6 (3rd-straight) loss to Rams, they were off my radar there on out.

Watched the NFL Films ’81 Packers review narrated, of course, by “the voice of God”. Lofton & Jefferson as the two WRs! So many players on that team whom I never heard of including backup QB, David Whitehurst, who led the Pack to a back-and-forth win vs Seattle in Week #9 thus launching their 6-2 finish. It would have been nice to see they & Detroit make the playoffs that year. Both looked better than NYG who did get in; and, of course, GB swept them.

But Tampa Bay did earn the division title thus playoff berth in one of the more historically overlooked division races. Bucs swept both teams, winning one convincer per sweep. Pack simply didn’t show up at all for that ‘play-in’ finale at Jets and Lions were at home for that de facto ‘division championship game’ but simply couldn’t cut it. In ’81, three of the four 5th place teams from the year before were still in the race going into final week with two of them, both NY teams, making it.
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Todd Pence
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Re: General 1981 pre-season predictions and expectations

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1981 will always seem to me kind of a "changing of the guard" season. It was probably the one year in which all preseason predictions got thrown out the window. Each of the top Super Bowl entries, both of which dominated their conference during '81, had been among their conferences worse team for the past few years. The defending champion Raiders more or less fell on their face despite a few soiid triumps. The Eagles, while starting out strong, went down the toilet to finish the year. Also, traditional recent powers (Pittsburgh, LA Rams, Houston. Atlanta, Cleveland) descended into mediocrity. Vegas must have lost a lot of money this year.
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Todd Pence
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Re: General 1981 pre-season predictions and expectations

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Todd Pence wrote:1981 will always seem to me kind of a "changing of the guard" season. It was probably the one year in which all preseason predictions got thrown out the window. Each of the top Super Bowl entries, both of which dominated their conference during '81, had been among their conferences worse team for the past few years. The defending champion Raiders more or less fell on their face despite a few soiid triumps. The Eagles, while starting out strong, went down the toilet to finish the year. Also, traditional recent powers (Pittsburgh, LA Rams, Houston. Atlanta, Cleveland) descended into mediocrity. And who could have foreseen the complete collapse of the perennially playoff-contending Patriots? Vegas must have lost a lot of money this year.
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Rupert Patrick
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Re: General 1981 pre-season predictions and expectations

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Todd Pence wrote:1981 will always seem to me kind of a "changing of the guard" season. It was probably the one year in which all preseason predictions got thrown out the window. Each of the top Super Bowl entries, both of which dominated their conference during '81, had been among their conferences worse team for the past few years. The defending champion Raiders more or less fell on their face despite a few soiid triumps. The Eagles, while starting out strong, went down the toilet to finish the year. Also, traditional recent powers (Pittsburgh, LA Rams, Houston. Atlanta, Cleveland) descended into mediocrity. Vegas must have lost a lot of money this year.
1981 was the most atypical season in NFL history, the one season which was so unlike any previous season in terms of two Cinderella teams meeting in the Super Bowl. The closest parallel is probably 1947, where the Eagles and Cardinals met for the NFL title. Off the top of my head, 1945, 1960, 1964 and 1999 would also rate among the most surprising championship match-ups.
"Every time you lose, you die a little bit. You die inside. Not all your organs, maybe just your liver." - George Allen
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