1981 New York Jets season

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The Jets playing the Bills in the 1981 AFC wild card game.

File:Aerial view Shea Stadium with Manhattan in background 1981.jpg

Shea Stadium in 1981

The 1981 New York Jets season was the 22nd season for the franchise and its twelfth in the National Football League (NFL). It began with the team trying to improve upon its 4–12 record from 1980 under head coach Walt Michaels. The Jets sputtered early, starting 0–3 and (combined with the previous season's 4–12 finish) fueling a quarterback controversy and altercation between quarterback Richard Todd and sports writer Steve Serby and speculation about Michaels’ job. After the 0–3 start, however, the Jets would catch fire, and go on a 10–2–1 run. The team ultimately finished the season with a record of 10–5–1 and qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 1969, breaking a twelve-season drought. In the playoffs, however, they fell to their division rivals, the Buffalo Bills, 31–27.

Offseason

Undrafted free agents

1981 undrafted free agents of note

Player	Position	College
Todd Benson	Linebacker	Maryland
Ted Blackwell	Running back	Rutgers
Kent Clausen	Linebacker	Montana
Gary England	Guard	Nebraska
Scott Fanz	Guard	Maryland
John Nitti	Running back	Yale
John Wojtowicz	Guard	Penn State

Regular season

Schedule

style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Week	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Date	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Opponent	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Result	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Record	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Venue	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Attendance
1	September 6	at Buffalo Bills	L 0–31	0–1	Rich Stadium	79,754
2	September 13	Cincinnati Bengals	L 30–31	0–2	Shea Stadium	49,454
3	September 20	at Pittsburgh Steelers	L 10–38	0–3	Three Rivers Stadium	52,973
4	September 27	Houston Oilers	W 33–17	1–3	Shea Stadium	50,309
5	October 4	at Miami Dolphins	T 28–28	1–3–1	Miami Orange Bowl	68,723
6	October 11	New England Patriots	W 28–24	2–3–1	Shea Stadium	55,093
7	October 18	Buffalo Bills	W 33–14	3–3–1	Shea Stadium	54,607
8	October 25	Seattle Seahawks	L 3–19	3–4–1	Shea Stadium	49,678
9	November 1	at New York Giants	W 26–7	4–4–1	Giants Stadium	74,740
10	November 8	at Baltimore Colts	W 41–14	5–4–1	Memorial Stadium	31,521
11	November 15	at New England Patriots	W 17–6	6–4–1	Schaefer Stadium	45,342
12	November 22	Miami Dolphins	W 16–15	7–4–1	Shea Stadium	59,962
13	November 29	Baltimore Colts	W 25–0	8–4–1	Shea Stadium	53,593
14	December 6	at Seattle Seahawks	L 23–27	8–5–1	Kingdome	53,105
15	Template:Dow tooltip	at Cleveland Browns	W 14–13	9–5–1	Cleveland Municipal Stadium	56,866
16	December 20	Green Bay Packers	W 28–3	10–5–1	Shea Stadium	56,340
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Season summary

Week 15 at Browns

Week Fifteen: New York Jets (8–5–1) at Cleveland Browns (5–9)

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
Jets	0	14	0	0	14
Browns	0	3	7	3	13

at Municipal Stadium • Cleveland, Ohio

• Date: December 12
• Game time: 12:30 p.m. EDT
• Game weather: • Wind
• Game attendance: 56,866
• Referee: Jerry Seeman
• TV announcers (NBC): Dick Enberg
• Pro-Football-Reference.com

Game information
Jets Richard Todd 15/28, 159 Yds, 2 TD, 2 INT Scott Dierking 13 Rush, 76 Yds Johnny Lam Jones 5 Rec, 83 Yds, TD Browns Brian Sipe 20/35, 280 Yds, TD Mike Pruitt 15 Rush, 41 Yds Ozzie Newsome 5 Rec, 79 Yds

Playoffs

style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Round	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Date	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Opponent (seed)	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Result	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Record	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Venue	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Attendance
Wildcard	December 27	Buffalo Bills (5)	L 27–31	0–1	Shea Stadium	57,050

TV Announcers (NBC): Charlie Jones, Len Dawson

AFC: Buffalo Bills 31, New York Jets 27

Buffalo Bills vs. New York Jets – Game summary

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
Bills	17	7	0	7	31
Jets	0	10	3	14	27

at Shea Stadium, Flushing, Queens, New York

• Game time: 12:00 p.m. EST
• Game weather: , drizzle
• Game attendance: 57,050
• Referee: Bob McElwee
• TV announcers (NBC): Charlie Jones (play-by-play) and Len Dawson (color commentator)

Game information

Scoring BUF – Romes 26 fumble return (Mike-Mayer kick) BUF 7–0 BUF – Lewis 50 pass from Ferguson (Mike-Mayer kick) BUF 14–0 BUF – field goal Mike-Mayer 29 BUF 17–0 BUF – Lewis 26 pass from Ferguson (Mike-Mayer kick) BUF 24–0 NYJ – Shuler 30 pass from Todd (Leahy kick) BUF 24–7 NYJ – field goal Leahy 26 BUF 24–10 NYJ – field goal Leahy 19 BUF 24–13 BUF – Cribbs 45 run (Mike-Mayer kick) BUF 31–13 NYJ – Jones 30 pass from Todd (Leahy kick) BUF 31–20 NYJ – Long 1 run (Leahy kick) BUF 31–27

External links

• 1981 statistics

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