Last week, we looked back on a randomly selected game between the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings.
That’s the only game against the Vikings we’ll be looking back on until further notice. Thank you. This week, we’ve got the New York Jets, whom the Packers have played 14 times. The random game? Their third-ever matchup, way back on December 20th of 1981. I didn’t like this one, and you probably won’t either.Entering the Game
It was the final week of the 1981 regular season. The Packers, coached by Bart Starr
and helmed by Lynn Dickey at QB, found themselves in a “win and in” scenario. The New York Giants were vying for that same Wild Card playoff spot, but the Packers had the edge after beating the Giants twice during the season. Also fighting for a playoff spot were the Jets, who had not been to the postseason since 1969. With a win, they were also in. The entire city of New York was rooting against the Packers.
The storied Packers had fallen into a bit of a slump. After dominating in the ‘60s, a series of poor personnel decisions led to the team making the playoffs just once in the ‘70s. With 9 years since their last postseason appearance, they were hungry. They were coming off of their third straight win, and had scored 101 points combined in those three previous games. All they needed was one more win. Dear reader, I am so sorry for what you’re about to see.
Key Moments
The Packers’ first drive was a doozy. After a couple of incomplete passes and a 6-yard sack, the team punted. Well, they tried to punt.
Suddenly, it was 1st and 10 for the Jets at the Packers’ 11. What do you know, they promptly scored. I’m sorry, I thought I specifically said I did NOT want to look back on last week’s Vikings game?
After another failed drive by the Packers, they conjured up a momentum shift after Mark Murphy (not him!) intercepted Jets QB Richard Todd. Lynn Dickey responded by getting intercepted himself. After some back and forth between the two teams, the Packers finally put points on the board in the 2nd quarter with a Jan Stenerud field goal.
After this, the Packers offense fell victim to the New York Sack Exchange. Joe Klecko, Mark Gastineau, Marty Lyons, and Abdul Salaam hounded Lynn Dickey all afternoon, and Dickey was sacked 9 times as a result. I’m very tired of talking about last week’s Vikings game.
The Packers offense had a total of 84 yards, compared to the Jets’ 393. Lynn Dickey finished the game with 39 passing yards, and the Packers turned the ball over 3 times (the Jets turned it over 4 times!)
The Outcome
The Packers went on to lose the game 28-3, missing out on the Wild Card spot, and sending not one, but two New York teams to the playoffs in the same season for the very first time. In celebration of making the playoffs for the first time since 1969, hundreds of Jets fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts. The Giants were handed their first postseason appearance in 17 years.
The Packers playoff drought would finally end the next year, when the team qualified for the postseason after a 5-3-1 record (7 games were wiped out from the 1982 season after a labor strike). Despite what many Packers doomers are telling you online about the current team, these were the dark ages, and I’m very happy I wasn’t alive to see them.
The Packers face off against the New York Jets at 1:00 ET/12:00 CT on Sunday at MetLife Stadium, in search of their first win of the 2026 season.
