1983 Green Bay Packers season

The 1983 Green Bay Packers season was their 65th season overall and their 63rd in the National Football League. The team finished with an 8–8 record under ninth-year head coach Bart Starr to finish second in the NFC Central division. The team set an NFL record for most overtime games played in one season with five,[1] winning two and losing three. On Monday Night Football in October, Green Bay defeated the Washington Redskins, 48–47, in the highest-scoring game in MNF history. It was voted one of the ten best Packer games and is featured on the NFL Films collection, "The Green Bay Packers Greatest Games."

1983 Green Bay Packers season
Head coachBart Starr
Home fieldLambeau Field
Milwaukee County Stadium
Results
Record8–8
Division place2nd NFC Central
Playoff finishDid not qualify

Green Bay hovered around the .500 mark all season. Entering their final regular season game on December 18 at Chicago, the Packers (8–7) could secure a playoff berth with a victory. Green Bay scored a touchdown to take a one-point lead with just over three minutes in the game, and Chicago running back Walter Payton was sidelined with a wrist injury. The Bears returned the kickoff to their 38 and drove fifty yards, down to the Packer twelve, with 1:17 remaining. Although Green Bay had all three of its timeouts, they opted not to use any, and the Bears kicked a winning 22-yard field goal with ten seconds on the clock. Green Bay fumbled away the ensuing kickoff, and the Los Angeles Rams (9–7) gained the final playoff slot.[2][3]

Starr was fired the following day by team president Robert Parins, ending a 26-year association with the team as a player and coach.[4][5] Former player Forrest Gregg, the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, was hired before the end of the week, announced on Christmas Eve.[6] Gregg had led the Bengals to Super Bowl XVI two years earlier, but had less success in his four seasons in Green Bay, then left for his alma mater SMU in Dallas in January 1988.[7]

Offseason

NFL draft

1983 Green Bay Packers Draft
RoundSelectionPlayerPositionCollegeNotes
1 11 Tim Lewis CB Pittsburgh
2 48 Dave Drechsler G North Carolina
4 104 Mike Miller WR Tennessee
5 132 Brian Thomas RB Pittsburgh
6 160 Ron Sams G Pittsburgh
7 188 Jessie Clark RB Arkansas
8 216 Carlton Briscoe DB McNeese State
9 243 Robin Ham C West Texas State
10 253 Byron Williams WR Texas Arlington
271 Jimmy Thomas DB Indiana
11 299 Bucky Scribner P Kansas
12 327 John Harvey LB USC

Undrafted free agents

1983 Undrafted Free Agents of note
Player Position College
Chet Winters Running back Oklahoma

Personnel

Staff

1983 Green Bay Packers staff
Front office

Head coaches

Offensive coaches

Defensive coaches

Special teams coaches

[8]

Roster

1983 Green Bay Packers final roster
Quarterbacks

Running backs

Wide receivers

Tight ends

Offensive linemen

Defensive linemen

Linebackers

Defensive backs

Special teams

Reserve lists



Practice squad



Rookies in italics
00 active, 0 practice squad

Preseason

Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue Recap
1 August 6 Cleveland Browns L 20–21 1–0 Lambeau Field Recap
2 August 12 at Seattle Seahawks L 21–28 1–1 Kingdome Recap
3 August 20 at Philadelphia Eagles L 14–27 1–2 Veterans Stadium Recap
4 August 27 St. Louis Cardinals W 39–27 2–2 Lambeau Field Recap

Regular season

Schedule

Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue Attendance Recap
1 September 4 at Houston Oilers W 41–38 (OT) 1–0 Astrodome
44,073
Recap
2 September 11 Pittsburgh Steelers L 21–25 1–1 Lambeau Field
55,154
Recap
3 September 18 Los Angeles Rams W 27–24 2–1 Milwaukee County Stadium
54,037
Recap
4 September 26 at New York Giants L 3–27 2–2 Giants Stadium
75,308
Recap
5 October 2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers W 55–13 3–2 Lambeau Field
54,272
Recap
6 October 9 at Detroit Lions L 14–38 3–3 Pontiac Silverdome
67,738
Recap
7 October 17 Washington Redskins W 48–47 4–3 Lambeau Field
55,255
Recap
8 October 23 Minnesota Vikings L 17–20 (OT) 4–4 Lambeau Field
55,236
Recap
9 October 30 at Cincinnati Bengals L 14–34 4–5 Riverfront Stadium
53,349
Recap
10 November 6 Cleveland Browns W 35–21 5–5 Milwaukee County Stadium
54,089
Recap
11 November 13 at Minnesota Vikings W 29–21 6–5 Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
60,113
Recap
12 November 20 Detroit Lions L 20–23 (OT) 6–6 Milwaukee County Stadium
50,050
Recap
13 November 27 at Atlanta Falcons L 41–47 (OT) 6–7 Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium
35,688
Recap
14 December 4 Chicago Bears W 31–28 7–7 Lambeau Field
51,147
Recap
15 December 12 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers W 12–9 (OT) 8–7 Tampa Stadium
50,763
Recap
16 December 18 at Chicago Bears L 21–23 8–8 Soldier Field
35,807
Recap

Week 1 at Oilers

Week One: Green Bay Packers (0–0) at Houston Oilers (0–0)
1 2 34OTTotal
Packers 7 21 37341
Oilers 10 0 721038

at Houston Astrodome, Houston, Texas

Lynn Dickey completed 27 of 31 passes, including 18 straight at one point during the game, for 333 yards and four touchdowns and Jan Stenerud's 42-yard field goal with 9:05 left in overtime give the Packers a successful opening day victory.

Week 16 at Bears

Week Sixteen: Green Bay Packers (8–7) at Chicago Bears (7–8)
1 2 34Total
Packers 7 7 0721
Bears 7 0 7923

at Soldier FieldChicago, Illinois

Standings

NFC Central
W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK
Detroit Lions(3) 9 7 0 .563 7–1 8–4 347 286 W1
Green Bay Packers 8 8 0 .500 4–4 6–6 429 439 L1
Chicago Bears 8 8 0 .500 4–4 7–7 311 301 W2
Minnesota Vikings 8 8 0 .500 4–4 4–8 316 348 W1
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2 14 0 .125 1–7 1–11 241 380 L3

Statistics

Passing

PlayerAttemptsCompletionPercentageYardsAvgLongTDIntRating
Lynn Dickey48428959.7%44589.2175322987.3

Receiving

PlayerReceptionsYardsAverageTDLong
James Lofton58130022.4874
John Jefferson5783014.6736
Paul Coffman5481415.11174
Gerry Ellis5260311.6256

Rushing

PlayerAttemptsYardsavgTDLong
Gerry Ellis1416964.9471
Eddie Lee Ivery863404.0221
Jessie Clark713284.6042
Harlan Huckleby501823.6420

Defensive

PlayerSacksINT'SYardsAverageTDLong
John Anderson4.555410.8127t
Greg Boyd2.0000.000
Byron Braggs5.5000.000
George Cumby2.0000.000
Mike Douglass5.5000.000
Johnnie Gray0.0252.505
Charles Johnson3.5000.000
Ezra Johnson14.5000.000
Mike Jolly0.0100.000
Jim Laughlin0.012222.0022
Mark Lee0.04235.8015
Cliff Lewis2.0000.000
Tim Lewis0.0511122.2046
Randy Scott0.011212.0012

Records

  • Lynn Dickey, Club Record, Most Passing Yards in One Season, 4,458. First NFC Quarterback to ever throw for over 4,000 yards.
  • NFL record, Most Overtime Games played in one season, (5)
  • NFC Central record, Most Interceptions in a season by a passer other than the quarterback (3, Cliff Lewis).

References

  1. NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book, Workman Publishing Co, New York,NY, ISBN 0-7611-2480-2, p. 388
  2. Feuerherd, Vic (December 19, 1983). "Bears end playoff bid by Packers". Milwaukee Sentinel. p. 1, part 2.
  3. Lea, Bud (December 19, 1983). "Defeat clouds Starr's future". Milwaukee Sentinel. p. 1, part 2.
  4. Feuerherd, Vic (December 20, 1983). "Sad Starr said Pack set to win". Milwaukee Sentinel. p. 1, part 1.
  5. Lea, Bud (December 20, 1983). "Parins shows he runs Pack". Milwaukee Sentinel. p. 1, part 2.
  6. Salituro, Chuck (December 25, 1983). "Gregg shortened Parins' search". Milwaukee Journal. p. 1, sports.
  7. Perkins, Eddie (January 15, 1988). "The rebuilding starts for SMU, Packers". Milwaukee Journal. p. 1C.
  8. "All Time Coaches Database". Packers.com. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
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