Every 1971 NFL playoff game, three ways: the season race carried on into the postseason, who beat their seeding, and the bracket.
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The same race these clubs ran all season, carried on through the postseason on one scale and on real dates.
Where each club finished the season against how far it went, ranked on record rather than seed.
Who played whom, round by round, which no line chart can say.
Dallas Cowboys won the 1971 title from a regular season record of 11-3. 8 teams reached the playoffs and the bracket ran 3 rounds. Every game below is taken from FiveThirtyEight's openly licensed NFL data; nothing on this page is estimated.
| Round | Won by | Result | Opponent | Played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divisional Round | Dallas Cowboys | 20-12 | Minnesota Vikings | December 25, 1971 |
| Divisional Round | Miami Dolphins | 27-24 | Kansas City Chiefs | December 25, 1971 |
| Divisional Round | Baltimore Colts | 20-3 | Cleveland Browns | December 26, 1971 |
| Divisional Round | San Francisco 49ers | 24-20 | Washington Redskins | December 26, 1971 |
| Conference Championship | Dallas Cowboys | 14-3 | San Francisco 49ers | January 2, 1972 |
| Conference Championship | Miami Dolphins | 21-0 | Baltimore Colts | January 2, 1972 |
| Super Bowl | Dallas Cowboys | 24-3 | Miami Dolphins | January 16, 1972 |
The left column ranks this field by regular season record, not by seed number: seeding rules differ by era, so this site uses records everywhere instead. The right column groups clubs by the round they went out in, which is not the same as the number of rounds they won, because a bye carries a club further without it winning anything. The figure beside a name is places moved between the two columns, and part of it is only where a club sat inside its band. Nothing here is a prediction. The data notes carry the whole method.
The races that filled this bracket: AFC Wild Card NFC Wild Card