The Paydirt Report: Wild Card Weekend EditionThe stage is set and the actors have taken their places as we enter the 1981 playoffs.
In the AFC playoff race it came down to two teams trying to get in. Kansas City and Cleveland were tied @ 8-7 and both battling it out til the end. And in the end neither teams won in week 16 thus giving the last Wild Card spot to KC via the ole tie breaker. The ole tie breaker would show it's ugly head heavily in the NFC division races. The defending Super Bowl champions Green Bay made a miraculous comeback to take the NFC North banner with an overtime victory over Minnesota to take home the title as Detroit went down for the 3rd game in a row. A heartbreaking loss for the Lions who controlled the North the whole season til the Packers grabbed it back from them literally in the last :54 seconds of the season which would've been CrazyRazor's first Paydirt division championship. In the NFC South however, both Atlanta and Carolina had a torrid season long battle in which neither team would give an inch. Carolina closed the season out with 10 straight wins to take the South via tie breaker. Atlanta finished the season out with a 6 game streak of their own. The Panthers will have home field advantage in the NFC and Buffalo in the AFC.
Congrats to the 8 division champions.
In the AFC: jgcruz of San Diego - their 6th AFC West title, $B$Dog$ of Buffalo - his 1st AFC East division title and the Bills 3rd, voegma of Cincinnati - their 4th AFC North title and Salty_Watermelon of Houston - their 4th AFC South title in a row.
In the NFC: OffensiveTaco of Dallas - their 4th NFC East title, awest827 of Seattle - their 9th NFC West title, GrandadB of Green Bay - his 7th NFC North title and Jouameng of Carolina - their 4th NFC South title.
GM Lucky narrowly won the rookie race with a 7-9 record over dd35 6-10 and pronfl51 3-13. Will it be enough to sway the competition committee votes for rookie GM of the year? It won't hurt that's for sure. In the GM all-time wins category, awest827 leads with 151 followed by Warthog with 148, jgcruz 147, Jouameng 142 and voegma rounding out the top 5 with 131.
Buffalo's QB Jorge Bishop threw for 5,438 yds while Seattle QB John Sullivan bested the field in TD/Int ratio and QBR with 37-13 and 100.67. Houston's Kevin Pickett won the rushing title with 1,483 yds on the ground. Tampa Bay's Dale Hart led the league in receptions with 119. Philly's George Reimann led in receiving yds with 2,255 and in TD's through the air with 21. Chicago Bears DE Derrick Rubinstein led the league in sacks with 12 while future hall of fame LB Carlos Walker from Tampa Bay led everyone in Int's with 13. It is the 3rd time in his career that he has had double digit Int's in a season. He has 52 career Int's which is tied for 4th on the all-time list and most by any LB. He's 28 yrs old.
Wild Card WeekendKansas City @ San Diego
Miami @ Houston
Detroit @ Seattle
Atlanta @ Green Bay