It didn't mean anything as far as getting in the playoffs, since we got in anyway. Miami beat us twice that year so they had tiebreaker, but the whole seedings would have been different. Because of the 9-game season, they ignored the divisions and seeded each conference 1-8, we were #6 at 6-3. At 7-2 the whole alignment would have been different, we would have had at least one game at Shea, maybe not the AFC Championship. Probably would have played at Miami in the second round in better weather if nothing else, now that I think about it.
I'm bored. So let's look at it. Here's the ACTUAL seedings from 1982 season: 1 Los Angeles Raiders 8-1 2 Miami Dolphins 7-2 3 Cincinnati Bengals 7-2 4 Pittsburgh Steelers 6-3 5 San Diego Chargers 6-3 6 New York Jets 6-3 7 New England Patriots 5-4 8 Cleveland Browns 4-5 (!) SCENARIO 1: If the Jets end up 7-2, they are at least the 4 seed, playing at home vs. Pittsburgh in the first round (I think). If San Diego beats Cincy at Cincy, then the rest of the playoffs continue as they actually did in Jan 83. 1 Los Angeles Raiders 8-1 2 Miami Dolphins 7-2 3 Cincinnati Bengals 7-2 4 New York Jets 7-2 5 Pittsburgh Steelers 6-3 6 San Diego Chargers 6-3 7 New England Patriots 5-4 8 Cleveland Browns 4-5 (!) SCENARIO 2: If the Jets would have been seeded third (second being impossible due to tiebreakers vs. Mia), they would have hosted San Diego in week 1 and Pitt goes to Cincy. 1 Los Angeles Raiders 8-1 2 Miami Dolphins 7-2 3 New York Jets 7-2 4 Cincinnati Bengals 7-2 5 Pittsburgh Steelers 6-3 6 San Diego Chargers 6-3 7 New England Patriots 5-4 8 Cleveland Browns 4-5 (!) I wonder how well that 82 team would have done vs. the Steelers. I think we could have handled the Chargers at Shea, though...
Considering we beat the #1 Raiders in LA and the #3 Bengals in Cincinnati, you have to assume we could have handled anyone else in the pool at Shea. The only game we lost at Shea the whole year was the opener, granted we only played four. Because of the make-up game being away, we ended up with three straight road games to finish the regular season, then three road playoff games.
The NFL Films highlights for the 1982 Jets was titled "The Road Warriors." Appropriate title considering what they went through that season.
Yeah we only had 4 home games all year w/ 8 road games(including postseason). Pitt has always owned us, we SHOULD have beaten them but you never know.
I voted favorable. I am not surprised to see this one as close, though. Todd was a good QB. His only real glaring difficulty was that he could not play on a bad field.
Had Todd had the benefit of a real QB coach, Todd could have been great. Remember, Al Toon was only 2 years away from coming in. In the Mud Bowl, Shula made the adjustment going with his big fullback Aundra Franklin. The Jets should've countered with Dierking or Augustiniak. Instead, Walton continued to try and run Freeman McNeil who's slip and slide style was not effective in mud. Todd's worst INT of the day was not the Duhe pick-6. (Like the Wilfork lateral play of this year, that was a bad play choice from the start. The footing was terrible and the right side of the line just got pushed back into Todd allowing Duhe to get right in his face. The TD scored did not factor into the outcome because the Jets got shut out.) The worst pick occured in the 1st quarter after what was his "Best play of the day". Todd had just pulled the ball down and scrambled for 14 yards on a 1st down around mid-field. The following play, Todd dropped back and fire a pass blindly down the slot and was picked by won of the Blackmon brothers I believe, ending their best scoring threat of the day. The field conditions only got worse after that. Had he pulled the ball down more, and scrambled more, he might've had a different game. Richard Todd is another example of what has really been the problem with the Jets. Poor coaching, poor management at the top mishandling the true assets and opportunities that the NYJ have had through the years. Hopefully, that era is over with Tangini.
I've always felt that way too. We had Dwayne Crutchfield on that team as well, who never did much but that might have been the perfect game for him. Certainly worth a shot instead of McNeil, who was a cutback runner, similar to Curtis Martin. Franklin was Miami's main back though, he finished second to McNeil for the rushing title that year, so it wasn't that much of an adjustment Shula made, just a better fit for that field. Which is probably one reason he made sure it was a mess. They had no passing game with Woodley and Strock, which is why they took Marino #1 a couple months later.
And just think, the Jets actually awarded Walton with the head coaching job after that inept offensive game plan.......
Todd told Eskenazi that the Jets were outcoached in the Mud Bowl. And since Michaels was a 100% defensive mind, he totally delegated the offensive play-calling to Walton. Michaels was too nice to Walton, I think.
Walton threw Todd under the bus for the Mud Bowl by drafting O'Brien. Michaels was far too classy to point fingers at Walton. I seriously would put Walton right below Kotite for a coach doing most damage to this franchise. You could even argue Walton was worse than Kotite, because of the length of time Walton was coach and that he inherited an excellent team. Kotite took over crap and just made it worse.
Whatever happened to Crutchfield? In 1983 he was gaining alot of yards the first half of the season and then they just cut him.
I think they cut him in the middle of a week after a game. There was a 1983 game at Shea we lost where we ran kind of an option play, Todd rolled left and pitched to Crutchfield and he missed it, causing a turnover. I'm pretty sure he was cut after that game, but there had to be more to it. His rookie year he was kind of out of shape and admitted he "partied too much". I don't think he ever caught on with another team but I could be wrong.
Gerald Eskanazi was the Jets beat reporter for The New York Times from 1975-1998, I believe those are the correct years. In 1998 he wrote what is currently the best and only history of the Jets titled Gang Green. You can find it on Amazon, but it may be out of print. It can still be purchased from used book dealers and Ebay too. The other book worth having is Nose To Nose by Joe Klecko and Joe Fields. Of course not a complete history, but very good insight to the Michaels and Walton eras.
