The National Football League playoffs for the 1984 season began on December 22, 1984. The postseason tournament concluded with the San Francisco 49ers defeating the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX, 38–16, on January 20, 1985, at Stanford Stadium in Stanford, California.
Participants
Bracket
Schedule
The two wild card games were held on different days because both venues were in the Pacific Time Zone. Playoff games normally started at either 12:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time/9:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time or 4 p.m. EST/1 p.m. PST. The NFL did not schedule prime time playoff games on the east coast until 2002. A 9:30 a.m. PST game was considered too early to be played on the west coast.
Starting with its coverage of Super Bowl XIX, ABC became part of the annual Super Bowl broadcasting rotation. The television rights to the first three rounds of the playoffs remained the same, with CBS televising the NFC games and NBC broadcasting the AFC games.
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:92%; text-align:center;"
! Away team !! Score !! Home team !! Date !! Kickoff<br />(ET / UTC–5) !! TV
|-
! colspan="6"|Wild card playoffs
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| Los Angeles Raiders || 7–13 || Seattle Seahawks || December 22, 1984 || 4:00 p.m. || NBC
|-
| New York Giants || 16–13 || Los Angeles Rams || December 23, 1984 || 3:30 p.m. || CBS
|-
! colspan="6"|Divisional playoffs
|-
| Seattle Seahawks || 10–31 || Miami Dolphins || December 29, 1984 || 12:30 p.m. || NBC
|-
| New York Giants || 10–21 || San Francisco 49ers || December 29, 1984 || 4:00 p.m. || CBS
|-
| Chicago Bears || 23–19 || Washington Redskins || December 30, 1984 || 12:30 p.m. || CBS
|-
| Pittsburgh Steelers || 24–17 || Denver Broncos || December 30, 1984 || 4:00 p.m. || NBC
|-
! colspan="6"|Conference Championships
|-
| Pittsburgh Steelers || 28–45 || Miami Dolphins || January 6, 1985 || 12:30 p.m. || NBC
|-
| Chicago Bears || 0–23 || San Francisco 49ers || January 6, 1985 || 4:00 p.m. || CBS
|-
! colspan="6"|Super Bowl XIX<br /><small>Stanford Stadium, Stanford, California</small>
|-
| Miami Dolphins || 16–38 || San Francisco 49ers || January 20, 1985 || 6:00 p.m. || ABC
|}
Wild Card playoffs
Saturday, December 22, 1984
AFC: Seattle Seahawks 13, Los Angeles Raiders 7
The Seahawks rushed on 51 plays for 205 yards and the defense intercepted 2 passes and recorded 6 sacks to avenge their AFC championship loss to LA in the previous season. The Raiders crossed midfield only three times during the whole game, while Seattle's defense and Jeff West's punting constantly made them start each drive deep in their own territory. Their possessions in the game started from the 20, 4, 20, 18, 16, 22, 30, 20, 16, 16, 22 and 6-yard lines.
Seattle quarterback Dave Krieg completed only 4 of 10 passes in the game, but one was a 26-yard touchdown throw to Daryl Turner in the second quarter. Late in the third quarter, Seattle linebacker Bruce Scholtz forced a fumble from Frank Hawkins, and cornerback Keith Simpson recovered it on the Raiders 38. Krieg gained 13 yards with a scramble on the next play, and Norm Johnson finished the drive with a 35-yard field goal to put the team up 10-0 with 1:29 left in the third quarter. On LA's ensuing possession, quarterback Jim Plunkett, starting in his first game since week 6 of the regular season due to injuries, threw an interception to John Harris at the Seahawks 31-yard line, and Seattle ended up scoring another field goal on a 44-yard kick by Johnson, giving them a 13-0 lead.
With 5:05 left in the game, Plunkett threw a 47-yard touchdown pass to running back Marcus Allen. LA's defense managed to force a punt on the next series, but only after the Seahawks ran the clock down to 45 seconds, and West's kick pinned them back at their own 6-yard line. Seattle safety Kenny Easley then put the game away by intercepting a pass from Plunkett with 4 seconds left on the clock.
Dan Doornink recorded 29 carries for 126 rushing yards and a 14-yard reception. Defensive end Jacob Green had 2.5 sacks. Allen rushed for 61 yards, while also catching five passes for 90 yards and a score. This would be Seattle's last playoff victory until the 2005 NFC Divisional playoffs against the Washington Redskins.
This was the second postseason meeting between the Raiders and Seahawks. Los Angeles won the only previous meeting the previous year.
In his book about his years as a physician working for the Raiders "You're OK, It's Just a Bruise", Robert Huizenga wrote that Jacob Green's father had died suddenly in Texas right before the game, and Green was told by his mother that they were going to wait until the game was over to have Mr. Green's funeral so Jacob could be there to bury his dad. Green and his teammates dedicated the game to Mr. Green and absolutely destroyed the Raiders' offensive line on their way to victory.
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed"
|+
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!Los Angeles Raiders leads 1–0 in all-time playoff games
|-
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|}
Sunday, December 23, 1984
NFC: New York Giants 16, Los Angeles Rams 13
In a defensive struggle, the Giants managed to pull out a win with key defensive stands on the last two LA drives.
After forcing the Rams to punt on the opening drive, New York scored first with kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh's 37-yard field goal. On the Rams ensuing drive, Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor forced a fumble from Eric Dickerson, and defensive back Bill Currier recovered it at Los Angeles 23-yard line. This set up running back Rob Carpenter's 1-yard touchdown run, giving the Giants a 10-0 lead. Mike Lansford's 38-yard field goal in the second quarter cut the score to 10-3 going into halftime.
Haji-Sheikh kicked a 39-yard field goal in the third quarter, but this was countered by Dickerson's 14-yard touchdown run, making the score 13-10. New York responded with Haji-Sheikh's 36-yard field goal five minutes later to go up by 6 points. LA then took the ball back and drove to a first down on the Giants 7-yard line, with Dickerson rushing four times for 44 yards along the way. Dickerson picked up 3 more yards on the next play, but then Giants defensive end Leonard Marshall dropped fullback Dwayne Crutchfield for a 3-yard loss and Jeff Kemp's 3rd down completion to Henry Ellard picked up just 2 yards. Faced with 4th and goal from the 5, the Rams decided to settle for Lansford's 22-yard field goal, cutting their deficit to 16-13 with 7:02 left in the game.
Los Angeles caught a break on the Giants next possession when Joe Morris' 61-yard run was eliminated by a holding penalty against center Kevin Belcher and the team ended up punting. This gave the Rams one last chance to drive for the tying field goal or winning touchdown at the 2:48 mark. However, they were unable to gain even a single first down. Faced with 4th and 6 after three plays, Kemp was sacked by George Martin and fumbled the ball. Linebacker Andy Headen recovered for New York on the Rams 33, enabling them to run out the rest of the clock.
This game marked an impressive turnaround for the Giants, who had finished the previous year with a 3-12-1 record. Both teams combined for just 406 yards (214 for LA, 192 for New York). The only offensive star of the game was Dickerson, who rushed for 107 yards and a touchdown, though he rushed for only 37 yards on 12 carries in the first half, including his costly fumble.
This was the first postseason meeting between the Giants and Rams.
Marino finished the game 21/34 for 262 yards and three touchdowns, with two interceptions (both by John Harris). The Dolphins 405 yards would be spread out quite evenly among the team, as their top rusher (Nathan) had only 76 yards, while their top receiver (Clayton) had 75. Krieg completed 20/35 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for 2 yards and gaining one yard off a deflected pass that he caught himself. Largent was the top receiver of the game with 6 receptions for 128 yards and a touchdown.
This was the second postseason meeting between the Seahawks and Dolphins. Seattle won the only prior meeting the previous year.
This was the second postseason meeting between the Giants and 49ers. San Francisco won the only prior meeting.
Denver tied the game in the third period when safety Roger Jackson blocked a punt give them a first and goal on the Pittsburgh 4-yard line, leading to Karlis' 21-yard field goal. The next time Denver got the ball, they drove 54 yards to take a 17-10 lead on Elway's 20-yard touchdown pass to Steve Watson (who finished with 11 receptions for 177 yards). But the Steelers tied the game with quarterback Mark Malone's 10-yard touchdown to Louis Lipps.
With 3 and half minutes left in the game, Pittsburgh drove into position for Anderson to attempt a go-ahead field goal, but he missed the kick from 26 yards. A few plays later, Steelers safety Eric Williams intercepted a pass from Elway and returned it 28 yards to the Broncos' 2-yard line to set up Pollard's winning 1-yard touchdown run.
Malone finished the game with 227 passing yards and a touchdown. Elway threw for 184 yards and two scores, but was sacked four times and intercepted twice. This was Elway's first playoff game as a starter; because of the Broncos' elimination, he was denied the opportunity to play in the only Super Bowl to be held at his college home field, Stanford Stadium. The Steelers outgained Denver who was outgained in ten of their 16 games in the regular season and ranked bottom 10 on total offense and total defense. Running back Sammy Winder, who rushed for 1,153 yards during the season, was held to just 37 yards on 15 carries.
This was the third postseason meeting between the Steelers and Broncos. Both teams split the prior two meetings.
Duper finished the game with 5 receptions for 148 yards and 2 touchdowns. Clayton caught 4 passes for 95 yards and a score. Nathan rushed for 61 yards and a touchdown, while also catching 8 passes for 114 yards. Stallworth caught 4 passes for 111 yards and 2 touchdowns in the final postseason game of his Hall of Fame career.
This was the third postseason meeting between the Steelers and Dolphins. Both teams split the previous two meetings.
Midway through the third quarter, the 49ers got into the end zone on a 5-play drive in which they never passed the ball. Running back Wendell Tyler rushed three times on it for 25 yards, the last carry a 9-yard score. Montana later threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Freddie Solomon and Wersching finished off the scoring with a 34-yard field goal.
This was the first postseason meeting between the Bears and 49ers.