Every 1982 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.
Washington Redskins won the 1982 title from a regular season record of 8-1. 16 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 | Los Angeles Raiders | 27-10 | Cleveland Browns | January 8, 1983 |
| Wild Card Round | Washington Redskins | 31-7 | Detroit Lions | January 8, 1983 |
| Wild Card Round | New York Jets | 44-17 | Cincinnati Bengals | January 9, 1983 |
| Wild Card Round | Miami Dolphins | 28-13 | New England Patriots | January 8, 1983 |
| Wild Card Round | Dallas Cowboys | 30-17 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | January 9, 1983 |
| Wild Card Round | San Diego Chargers | 31-28 | Pittsburgh Steelers | January 9, 1983 |
| Wild Card Round | Green Bay Packers | 41-16 | St. Louis Cardinals | January 8, 1983 |
| Wild Card Round | Minnesota Vikings | 30-24 | Atlanta Falcons | January 9, 1983 |
| Divisional Round | New York Jets | 17-14 | Los Angeles Raiders | January 15, 1983 |
| Divisional Round | Washington Redskins | 21-7 | Minnesota Vikings | January 15, 1983 |
| Divisional Round | Miami Dolphins | 34-13 | San Diego Chargers | January 16, 1983 |
| Divisional Round | Dallas Cowboys | 37-26 | Green Bay Packers | January 16, 1983 |
| Conference Championship | Washington Redskins | 31-17 | Dallas Cowboys | January 22, 1983 |
| Conference Championship | Miami Dolphins | 14-0 | New York Jets | January 23, 1983 |
| Super Bowl | Washington Redskins | 27-17 | Miami Dolphins | January 30, 1983 |
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 Central AFC East AFC West NFC Central NFC East NFC West