Every 1990 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.
New York Giants won the 1990 title from a regular season record of 13-3. 12 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 | Miami Dolphins | 17-16 | Kansas City Chiefs | January 5, 1991 |
| Wild Card Round | Chicago Bears | 16-6 | New Orleans Saints | January 6, 1991 |
| Wild Card Round | Washington Redskins | 20-6 | Philadelphia Eagles | January 5, 1991 |
| Wild Card Round | Cincinnati Bengals | 41-14 | Houston Oilers | January 6, 1991 |
| Divisional Round | San Francisco 49ers | 28-10 | Washington Redskins | January 12, 1991 |
| Divisional Round | Buffalo Bills | 44-34 | Miami Dolphins | January 12, 1991 |
| Divisional Round | New York Giants | 31-3 | Chicago Bears | January 13, 1991 |
| Divisional Round | Los Angeles Raiders | 20-10 | Cincinnati Bengals | January 13, 1991 |
| Conference Championship | New York Giants | 15-13 | San Francisco 49ers | January 20, 1991 |
| Conference Championship | Buffalo Bills | 51-3 | Los Angeles Raiders | January 20, 1991 |
| Super Bowl | New York Giants | 20-19 | Buffalo Bills | January 27, 1991 |
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