The Greatest Season That Never Was

I’ve been watching Washington Football since Vince Lombardi spent his final year in DC. I grew into football with George Allen, the Over-the Hill Gang, Sonny vs Billy, all of that.  The first twenty years of my fanhood saw a lot of wins, a lot of great players, many great teams, five Super Bowl appearances, with three of them ending in victory.

The best Redskins team I ever saw, the greatest season I ever witnessed ended in devastation, and because of that shocking loss to the Raiders in Super Bowl 18 a lot of fans like me let it slide into the mud of history, preferring to not think about it.

If 1991 was our greatest team because it finished with a win over the Bills in the Super Bowl, then the 1983 Washington Redskins live in infamy, their greatness lost in the glare of that terrible blowout in the old “big Sombrero’ in Tampa Bay.

But make no mistake. Had they won that Super Bowl, the 1983 team would be remembered as one of the best and most dominant teams the NFL ever saw. But that loss was SO surprising, so thorough of a whipping that it erased them from the collective memory of sportswriters when they put together their lists of all-time greatest teams.

The team set lofty records. They scored 541 points, a whopping average of 34 points per game. Eleven of their wins were by double digits. John Riggins rushed for 1,347 yards and set the single season rushing TD record with 24. The defense set a record I believe is unbreakable with an astonishing +43 turnover margin. Riggo won the Bert Bell Award for Player of the Year. Joe Theismann was named the league MVP and Offensive Player of the Year. Joe Gibbs was named Coach of the Year.

The season began with a gut-wrenching loss to the Cowboys on Monday Night Football. Coming off a Super Bowl win the Redskins had high expectations, and for the first half of the game they appeared to be right on track, building a dominant 23-3 lead. But Cowboys QB Danny White brought them back and hit WR Tony Hill for two touchdowns in the 3^rd quarter, then in the 4^th he ran one in himself to take the lead. White then hit TE Doug Cosbie to make the score 31-23. Late in the 4^th the Redskins added a touchdown to get within one, but it was too late, and Dallas spoiled our opener 31-30.

The Redskins then went on the road and won over Philadelphia 23-13 on the strength of three Mark Mosely field goals. They then defeated the Chiefs at home 27-12, holding Kansas City to just four field goals. Back on the road in week 4 to beat the Seahawks in the King Dome. Theismann threw 3 TDs, including 2 bombs to Charlie Brown and Alvin Garret, and a 4 yard touchdown to Rick “Doc” Walker in the 4^th was enough to hold the Jim Zorn led Seahawks off, and the Redskins won 27-17.

This set up the best game I’ve ever seen. The week five matchup with the then Los Angeles Raiders promised to be a great game, and it did not disappoint. This game had Hall of Famers all over the field. Both coaches, John Riggins, Howie Long, Mike Haynes, Art Monk, Darrell Green, Russ Grimm would all eventually be enshrined. Raiders QB Jim Plunkett and Joe Theismann had history, finishing 1-2 for the 1970 Heisman Trophy, and this would be their first meeting in the pros. They combined for 789 yards passing and 7 touchdowns.

Haymakers, knockout punches, staggering comebacks, I have never seen a more exciting football game. This game had a 97-yard punt return, a 99-yard Plunkett to Cliff Branch touchdown pass, and a 4^th down stand by each team. During the course of the game, both teams would overcome double digit deficits to take the lead.

Deep in the 4^th quarter, Greg Pruitt’s 97-yard punt return with about 7 minutes to go gave the Raiders a 35-20 lead, and it seemed to be the dagger that would slay the Redskins. But then came Rocket Screen, a play made infamous a few months later. But this one worked, and Joe Washington took the ball up the sidelines for 67 yards to set up a Theismann to Charlie Brown touchdown to cut the Raiders lead to 35-27.

The Redskins then recovered an onside kick and drove down for a Mosely FG. The defense held the Raiders and gave Theismann the ball back on his own 31 with 2 minutes to go. A quick drive downfield put the ball on the Raiders six yard line, and with 30 seconds left in the game, Theismann hit Joe Washington with a 6 yard touchdown pass, and the Redskins won 37-35.

Below is the full game. It is worth watching.

And here is a 30 minute summary: 1983-10-02 Los Angeles Raiders vs Washington Redskins

The next week they went to St. Louis and demolished the Cardinals 38-14, and then came one of the stranger losses I have seen, versus the Packers on Monday Night Football. It began with a weird play. On the first or second play of the game, a Redskins back dropped a pass in the flat that was ruled a fumble. The back (who I forget) didn’t know it was a fumble and gave no chase as the Packers Mike Douglass raced 22 yards for a touchdown. None of the Redskins seemed to think it was a fumble until the ref signaled the touchdown.

That was when the horse-race began. Other than the third quarter, the Packers matched score for score, and in the end Hall of Fame kicker Jan Stenerud sent the Redskins packing with a 20 yard game winning field goal, giving Green Bay a 48-47 win.

After that game, the Redskins became one of the most dominant forces in NFL history, winning 6 out of their last nine games by three scores or more. They finished the regular season 14-2.

In the first round of the playoffs they destroyed the Rams 51-7. Fifty-one to seven. Washington looked like they were playing against a J.V. team. They did whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and held Eric Dickerson to only 16 yards rushing. In this game the Redskins broke or tied 13 NFL postseason records. But because of what was waiting, this game is largely forgotten in the lore of the NFL whenever there is talk of the largest playoff blowouts.

In the NFC championship they defeated the 49ers 27-24 in a game that was expected to be an offensive fireworks show and was a tough defensive battle instead. The game should have never been so close. The Redskins had a 21-0 lead when Joe Montana led the 49ers back to tie the game midway through the 4^th quarter. Controversy happened when the 49ers were driving late in the game and the Redskins broke up a pass on the sidelines. The 49ers screamed foul, demanded a pass interference call, but got none. The Redskins held, got the ball back, and Mark Mosely kicked them into the Super Bowl and a rematch with the Raiders.

The next two weeks were a whirlwind. It seemed as if every corner in the DC area had stands hawking pennants, buttons, t-shirts, caps, and every kind of Super Bowl souvenir you can imagine. There was a surety that the Redskins were going in to trounce L.A.

Fans felt it, and the team felt it, in my opinion. They lost their hunger, announced they were going down to Tampa to win this one for the fans. All of them wearing camouflage, taking every photo op, enjoying the party. From my standpoint it really did feel like they were reading their own press and felt overconfident. The Raiders on the other hand were all business, and in the end it showed.  

I’m not going to bother to rehash that game. I got over marriages faster than I got over that game, and I still don’t like to admit it even happened. It was as thorough a thrashing as this team ever got, and it was on the biggest stage after the greatest season.

The shock of not just the loss in the Super Bowl, but in the way the Raiders totally dominated a team that had dominated everyone shot all of it full of huge flaming holes. No one had EVER lost that badly in the Super Bowl. The defeat was so complete that the legitimate greatness of the team is forgotten, tucked away like a shameful secret.

Joe Gibbs would bring them back to win the division in 1984, and would go on to win 2 more Super Bowls to ice his Hall of Fame career. His 1991 team has been hailed by several national publications as the greatest team in NFL history.

But that 1983 team deserves a very honorable mention.

Hail.