Every 1981 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.
San Francisco 49ers won the 1981 title from a regular season record of 13-3. 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 | Buffalo Bills | 31-27 | New York Jets | December 27, 1981 |
| Wild Card Round | New York Giants | 27-21 | Philadelphia Eagles | December 27, 1981 |
| Divisional Round | San Francisco 49ers | 38-24 | New York Giants | January 3, 1982 |
| Divisional Round | Cincinnati Bengals | 28-21 | Buffalo Bills | January 3, 1982 |
| Divisional Round | Dallas Cowboys | 38-0 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | January 2, 1982 |
| Divisional Round | San Diego Chargers | 41-38 | Miami Dolphins | January 2, 1982 |
| Conference Championship | San Francisco 49ers | 28-27 | Dallas Cowboys | January 10, 1982 |
| Conference Championship | Cincinnati Bengals | 27-7 | San Diego Chargers | January 10, 1982 |
| Super Bowl | San Francisco 49ers | 26-21 | Cincinnati Bengals | January 24, 1982 |
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