Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Today's playoff matchups are identical to 44 years ago on December 26, 1970. I wonder how many other playoff days featuring two games have duplicated each other in having the same two game lineups?

But... the Colts were Baltimore - not Indianapolis.

True. But it is still the same franchise.

It is that.
And, as you ask, including "way-back-whens," I would bet there have not been too many similar play-off days - if any?

None of the four teams who played on 12/27/1970 (Vikings, Niners, Raiders, Dolphins) even made the playoffs this year.

There was also an odd parallel between the playoff games on 12/23/72 and 1/5/2003. The games were hosted in Pittsburgh and San Francisco in both circumstances, and all four games involved dramatic come from behind victories in the final 65 seconds of play:

-The Immaculate Reception game.

-The Dallas-San Francisco 30-28 game with Staubach coming back from a 28-16 deficit with less than four minutes to play.

-The Pittsburgh-Cleveland wild card game with the Steelers overcoming a 24-7 deficit late in the third quarter to win 36-33.

-The Giants-49ers wild card game with the 49ers coming back from being down 38-14 to win 39-38.

Two of the games - the Immaculate Reception game and the 39-38 Giants 49ers game, had two of the wildest and most controversial plays in postseason history, with the botched FG pass play to end the Giants game and the deflected TD by Harris. Also, all four teams who won these games lost the following week, and in both circumstances for the 49ers, it was a last hurrah as the team drifted out of contention for about a decade before re-emerging as a contender again.

In a slightly related note, next weekend will be the first time the Packers and Cowboys have met in the playoffs in Green Bay since the Ice Bowl.

rhickok1109 » Mon Jan 05, 2015 10:18 am
"In a slightly related note, next weekend will be the first time the Packers and Cowboys have met in the playoffs in Green Bay since the Ice Bowl."

Let us hope the outcome is the same.

rhickok1109 wrote:In a slightly related note, next weekend will be the first time the Packers and Cowboys have met in the playoffs in Green Bay since the Ice Bowl.

They didn't even meet in Green Bay again during the regular season until 1989. Three Packer home games against them during that stretch were all played in Milwaukee.

rhickok1109 wrote:In a slightly related note, next weekend will be the first time the Packers and Cowboys have met in the playoffs in Green Bay since the Ice Bowl.

Also interesting that the Cowboys are 8-0 on the road, and the Packers are 8-0 at home.