A Dynasty Lost. During the Super Bowl era, the measuring stick for a team to be considered a dynasty was winning back to back championships. Poised to do that, were the 1983 Washington Redskins, fresh from their Super Bowl XVII win over the Miami Dolphins, had roared through the ’83 season on a high. Man, with Riggo, ‘The Hogs’ & ‘The Fun Bunch’ this team was fun to watch!
As I sit here and think about it…this could have been Joe Gibbs finest coaching job over a Hall of Fame career. A coach of a defending champion normally has to fight off complacency within his team trying to keep them from becoming ‘fat cats’ and playing with the hunger that drove them to a title. Most defending champions try to stay the course and hope other teams won’t catch up to them, yet the ’83 Redskins were better than the team that won it the year before.
Let’s take you back to 1983…Ronald Reagan wanted to get re-elected…MASH aired its final episode (hated that show)…and the NFL had returned to its roots with the Redskins offense bludgeoning its way to the ’82 title with Hall of Famer John Riggins running “50 gut” right down team’s throats. Then a funny thing happened, the Redskins caught teams in a vice. Gang up to stop Riggins and the “Fun Bunch” receivers were wide open behind the drawn up linebackers and points rang up all year long.
They set the NFL record for season scoring at 541. Joe Theismann went from being a serviceable quarterback to league MVP throwing for 29 TDs. Riggins went on to set the single season TD record at 24 while rushing for 1,347 yards. Coming off the only time a kicker was named MVP, Mark Moseley in 1982, set the kicker record for scoring at 161.
They marched to a 14-2 record with their 2 losses coming when they lost 31-30 to Dallas and 48-47 to the Green Bay Packers. These were the two teams that faced each other in the ’82 playoffs with the winner, Dallas, moving on to play Washington for the NFC Championship. Each happened on a Monday night, yet the game against Lynn Dickey, John Jefferson, James Lofton of the Packers, was the highest scoring Monday Night game ever. Talk about a juggernaut…
Where this team was solid on defense was up front with big Dave Butz and Darryl Grant at DT swallowing opposing running attacks. Dexter Manley was in his prime as a DE caving in the pocket from the QBs blindside. Steady linebacker play came from Rich Milot, Neal Olkewicz, and Mel Kaufman. The secondary was bolstered by sensational rookie Darrell Green. The Redskins were never spectacular on defense but always ranked among the league’s best and 1983 was no different.
They marched into the ’83 playoffs as a powerful defending champion…so what happened?? They peaked 6 quarters too early. After the 51-7 dismantling of the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round, they went back to basics and were grinding out a win in the NFC Championship over the 49ers. Looks can be deceiving. Although the Redskins had taken a 21-0 lead, a closer view and you saw Niners cornerbacks Ronnie Lott and Eric Wright were smothering Charlie Brown and Art Monk for the most part, allowing other 49er defenders to solely focus on Riggins.
They could cover them man for man. This slowed Washington down and Joe Montana almost pulled off a spectacular comeback losing 24-21 with some dubious penalties called against them late in that game….yet I digress. The point being, this served as the blueprint for what was to come 2 weeks later in Super Bowl XVIII when the Raiders, with even better cornerbacks in Lester Hayes and Mike Haynes, handled the Redskins receivers allowing the front 7 and safeties to attack Riggins.
C’mon, 38-9?? Really?? I still can’t believe they were beaten that convincingly until I have to remind myself of an NFL truth: The highest scoring teams in history: 1980-1981 Chargers, these ’83 Redskins, the ’84 Dolphins, My ’90 Buffalo Bills, the ’98 Vikings, the 2001 St. Louis Rams, and the 2007 Patriots all EVENTUALLY ran into a defense late in the playoffs and were all knocked off. The lone exception is the ’99 Rams.
This was a team that right before Super Bowl XVIII were being called one of the best teams ever and all they had to do was win this one game. This is the ring commemorating the NFC Championship for getting there.
Best team ever? Not quite… Best Redskins team ever?? I think this team would give the 91 team a run for its money. If you think about the ’83 Redskins and the Super Bowl XXVI champion, they really looked alike. Who would win between these two if we had a mythical match-up??
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How did the Raiders kill the defending Redskins like that? Beating the Redskins yes but dismantling them like that? It’s still baffling some 31 years later. The highest scoring team in history only scoring 9 points? NFL Films shows you and tells the story. Raiders defense, Raiders defense, Raiders defense! 
Had Lyle Alzado controlled himself, the Raiders could have won that game in the 1982 playoffs (loss to Jets 17-14) and could have won Super Bowl XVII. How do we know this? The Redskins (who won XVII) was exceedingly stronger in 83 and that beating the Raiders gave them was epic.
This defense had no real holes and then we get to
That game was played in a torrential downpour in the Orange Bowl. In the mud “the Killer B’s” shut out Richard Todd, Freeman McNeil and the high powered Jets offense 14-0. A.J. Duhe had a career game with an AFC Championship record 3 interceptions, returning the last for the decisive touchdown.
I can remember being fired up for the NFC Championship between Washington and Dallas and knew it was going to be a thing of beauty. It actually started when the Redskins were putting the finishing touches on a 21-7 win over the Vikings to set up the NFC Conference final when the chant “We want Dallas!! We want Dallas!!” resonated from the jam packed crowd at RFK.
Beginning with Dexter Manley professing that he “hated Dallas” on Monday of championship week that got the ball rolling. It was all over ESPN… Then came the back and forth in the newspaper from Danny White of the Cowboys, to Redskin owner Jack Kent Cooke, everyone was stoking the fire. How bad did it get? There was even a heated argument about the game within the House of Representatives the Friday before the game between Texas and Washington delegates where the late Thomas “Tip” O’Neill adjourned session an hour early. It was on!!
Old time Redskin fans still talk with high regard of the fact that they beat Dallas in the ’72 NFC Championship when the Cowboys were defending champions. So here we were some 10 years later and all that animosity was a thing of the past right? After all new owner, new coach, new quarterback and cast of characters comprised the Redskins roster. Right?
I still get chills thinking about that because kickoff was 30 minutes away and the crowd at RFK began another “We want Dallas!” chant. It wasn’t as boisterous as the one from a week prior but it stoked the fire. How must that have felt for the Cowboys to come out to shaking stands and all that noise during warm-ups let alone what would they hear on 3rd downs?? The Redskins weren’t a taunting team but they talked big before that game during the week and on the field pregame. Near fights broke out….couldn’t have been better set up.
On to the game this team is most remembered for, winning the 1981 AFC Championship game in -59* wind chill over the Chargers 27-7. Yikes!! The poor Chargers had to play in a temperature difference of 140 degrees just 1 week after the “Epic in Miami” which they stood NO chance of winning. There were heated buses outside Riverfront Stadium in case fans needed to heat up. Temperature difference withstanding, the divisional game against Miami went into 6 quarters in high humidity, so the Chargers were exhausted.
The NFC Championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys was so good you forgot there was a Super Bowl yet to be played. Then with the 59 below AFC Championship Game I don’t know if the Bengals had thawed out from that game. For the first time in memory, you could see the national magazines and media outlets scrambling to sell these teams to the masses. Or actually to sell themselves that the 49ers and Bengals were in the Super Bowl.
After taking a 14-0 lead late in the 2nd quarter, most teams would be satisfied with the upper hand and not push the envelope. Walsh implemented his genius and stamp on the game with the ensuing kickoff. Totally unprepared, the ball bounced downfield and put the Bengals in horrible field position inside their own 15. Cincinnati played conservatively, couldn’t move the football and punted. The 49ers, on a short field, kicked a quick field goal and hit them with a squib kick again.
Others point to the great goal line stand in the 3rd quarter that kept the Niners in strategic control of the game. San Francisco was up 20-7, however the Bengals could have stuck to their regular game plan had it just been 14-7 without the special team gaffes before halftime.
Before the Bill Walsh coaching tree would blossom and implement his intricacies throughout the league, it was Super Bowl XVI that gave genesis to this. If you take away “The Catch” in the NFC Championship Game, it looks similar to the Super Bowl. There was no marquee performer or performance that you could think of. Super Bowl MVP Joe Montana only threw for 157 yards against the Bengals. They were the first Super Bowl champion to allow more than 20 points in each of their postseason wins.
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