Every 1980 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.
Oakland Raiders won the 1980 title from a regular season record of 11-5. 10 teams reached the playoffs and the bracket ran 4 rounds. Every game below is taken from FiveThirtyEight's openly licensed NFL data and the devstopfix results set; nothing on this page is estimated.
| Round | Won by | Result | Opponent | Played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wild Card Round | Dallas Cowboys | 34-13 | Los Angeles Rams | December 28, 1980 |
| Wild Card Round | Oakland Raiders | 27-7 | Houston Oilers | December 28, 1980 |
| Divisional Round | Dallas Cowboys | 30-27 | Atlanta Falcons | January 4, 1981 |
| Divisional Round | Philadelphia Eagles | 31-16 | Minnesota Vikings | January 3, 1981 |
| Divisional Round | San Diego Chargers | 20-14 | Buffalo Bills | January 3, 1981 |
| Divisional Round | Oakland Raiders | 14-12 | Cleveland Browns | January 4, 1981 |
| Conference Championship | Philadelphia Eagles | 20-7 | Dallas Cowboys | January 11, 1981 |
| Conference Championship | Oakland Raiders | 34-27 | San Diego Chargers | January 11, 1981 |
| Super Bowl | Oakland Raiders | 27-10 | Philadelphia Eagles | January 25, 1981 |
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