1981 Oakland Raiders season

1981 Oakland Raiders season
Head coach	Tom Flores
General manager	Al Davis
Owner	Al Davis
Home field	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Results
Record	7–9
Division place	4th AFC West
Playoff finish	did not qualify

The 1981 Oakland Raiders season began with the team trying to improve on their 11–5 record from 1980. The Raiders went 7–9 and became the fourth team in NFL history to enter a season as the defending Super Bowl champions and miss the playoffs. The 1981 Raiders set an NFL record by being shut out three consecutive times. The passing game fell off badly being 26th and throwing 28 interceptions. After the defense led the NFL in interceptions and takeaways in 1980, they were dead last in 1981 and were - 16 in turnover differential. It was also their last season in Oakland until 1995 and their losing record snapped a streak of 16 consecutive winning seasons.

Offseason

NFL Draft

1981 Raiders Draft Selections^[1]
Round	Overall	Player	Position	College
1	21	Ted Watts	CB	Texas Tech
1	23	Curt Marsh	OT	Washington
2	48	Howie Long	DE	Villanova
4	111	Johnny Robinson	DT	Louisiana Tech
5	118	James Davis	CB	Southern
9	248	Curt Mohl	OT	UCLA
10	276	Frank Hawkins	HB	Nevada
11	304	Chester Willis	HB	Auburn
12	332	Phil Nelson	TE	Delaware

Regular season

Schedule

Week	Opponent	Result	Game site	Attendance
1	at Denver Broncos	L 7–9	Mile High Stadium	74,796
2	at Minnesota Vikings	W 36–10	Metropolitan Stadium	47,186
3	Seattle Seahawks	W 20–10	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum	45,725
4	at Detroit Lions	L 0–16	Pontiac Silverdome	77,819
5	Denver Broncos	L 0–17	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum	51,035
6	at Kansas City Chiefs	L 0–27	Arrowhead Stadium	76,543
7	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	W 18–16	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum	42,288
8	Kansas City Chiefs	L 17–28	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum	42,914
9	New England Patriots	W 27–17	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum	44,246
10	at Houston Oilers	L 16–17	Houston Astrodome	45,519
11	at Miami Dolphins	W 33–17	Miami Orange Bowl	61,777
12	San Diego Chargers	L 21–55	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum	50,199
13	at Seattle Seahawks	W 32–31	The Kingdome	57,147
14	Pittsburgh Steelers	W 30–27	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum	51,769
15	Chicago Bears	L 6–23	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum	40,384
16	at San Diego Chargers	L 10–23	San Diego Stadium	52,279

Game summaries

Week 1

	1	2	3	4	Total
Raiders	7	0	0	0	7
• Broncos	6	3	0	0	9

Date: September 6
Location: Mile High Stadium, Denver, Colorado
Game start: 2:00 p.m.
Game attendance: 74,796
Game weather: 67°F; wind 9

^[2]

Week 2

	1	2	3	4	Total
• Raiders	3	13	7	13	36
Vikings	0	7	3	0	10

Date: September 14
Location: Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington, Minnesota
Game start: 8:00 p.m.
Game attendance: 47,186
Game weather: 66°F; wind 13
Television network: ABC

Scoring summary

Q1	OAK	Chris Bahr 21 yard field goal	OAK 3–0

Q2	OAK	Burgess Owens 30 yard interception return (Chris Bahr kick)	OAK 10–0

Q2	OAK	Todd Christensen 21 yard pass from Jim Plunkett (kick failed)	OAK 16–0

Q2	MIN	Eddie Payton 99 yard kickoff return (Rick Danmeier kick)	OAK 16–7

Q3	MIN	Rick Danmeier 37 yard field goal	OAK 16–10

Q3	OAK	Morris Bradshaw 12 yard pass from Jim Plunkett (Chris Bahr kick)	OAK 23–10

Q4	OAK	Cedrick Hardman 52 yard fumble return (Chris Bahr kick)	OAK 30–10

Q4	OAK	Malcolm Barnwell 61 yard pass from Marc Wilson (kick failed)	OAK 36–10

^[3]

Week 3

	1	2	3	4	Total
Seahawks	0	3	7	0	10
• Raiders	7	6	0	7	20

Date: September 20
Location: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, California
Game start: 1:00 p.m.
Game attendance: 45,725
Game weather: 64°F; wind 10

Scoring summary

Q1	OAK	Jim Plunkett 13 yard run (Chris Bahr kick)	OAK 7–0

Q2	SEA	Efren Herrera 26 yard field goal	OAK 7–3

Q2	OAK	Morris Bradshaw 29 yard pass from Jim Plunkett (kick failed)	OAK 13–3

Q3	SEA	Sam McCullum 36 yard pass from Jim Zorn (Efren Herrera kick)	OAK 13–10

Q4	OAK	Derrick Jensen 1 yard run (Chris Bahr kick)	OAK 20–10

^[4]

Standings

AFC West
	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	CONF	PF	PA	STK
San Diego Chargers⁽³⁾	10	6	0	.625	6–2	8–4	478	390	W2
Denver Broncos	10	6	0	.625	5–3	7–5	321	289	L1
Kansas City Chiefs	9	7	0	.563	5–3	7–5	343	290	W1
Oakland Raiders	7	9	0	.438	2–6	5–7	273	343	L2
Seattle Seahawks	6	10	0	.375	2–6	6–8	322	388	W1

References

↑ "1981 NFL Draft at databaseFootball.com".
↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com
↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com
↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2014-Feb-10.

Seasons (55)

1960s	1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

1970s	1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979

1980s	1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

1990s	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

2000s	2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

2010s	2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders seasons

Oakland 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 Los Angeles 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 Oakland 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Bold indicates AFL Championship or Super Bowl victory Italics indicates AFL Championship or Super Bowl appearance

1981 NFL season

East	Central	West	East	Central	West
Baltimore	Cincinnati	Denver	Dallas	Chicago	Atlanta
Buffalo	Cleveland	Kansas City	NY Giants	Detroit	Los Angeles
Miami	Houston	Oakland	Philadelphia	Green Bay	New Orleans
New England	Pittsburgh	San Diego	St. Louis	Minnesota	San Francisco
NY Jets		Seattle	Washington	Tampa Bay

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