The

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

was the 29th season for the team in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). The Colts finished the NFL's 1981 season with a record of 2 wins and 14 losses, tied for fourth in the AFC

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

division with the New England Patriots, and also tied for the second worst record in the league. However, the Colts finished ahead of New England in the AFC East based on head-to-head sweep (2–0). Both wins over the Patriots were the first and last games of the season; Baltimore lost 14 games in between victories. They also won the two games by a combined 3 points, winning 29–28 in the first game, and 23–21 in the second meeting. The Colts’ defense had one of the worst seasons in NFL history, setting records for points (533) and yards (6,793) allowed. (The yardage record was later surpassed by the

2012 New Orleans Saints The 2012 season was the New Orleans Saints' 46th in the National Football League and their 37th playing home games at the Superdome. It would have been their seventh season under head coach Sean Payton, but he was suspended by the NFL for the e ...

, who allowed 7,042.) The Colts gave up more than twice as many points as they scored (259). Conversely, the Patriots, with whom they were tied in the AFC East, only gave up 48 more points than they scored. The Colts’ pass defense surrendered a staggering 8.19 yards-per-dropback, the most surrendered by any team in NFL history. The Colts’ -274 point differential (points scored vs. points allowed) is the second-worst since the 1970 merger, second only to the 1976 expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who finished 0–14 (ironically, the next year's Colts team went winless as well). The 1981 Colts are the first of only two NFL teams since 1940 to suffer eleven losses in a season during which they never had a lead.The other team to never lead in eleven losses is the 1990 New England Patriots. The Colts allowed 40 points in 4 separate games during the season (including 3 games in a row from weeks 6-8), which is still an NFL record. The season included a bizarre incident in which, during the Colts’ 38–13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on November 15, team owner Bob Irsay called plays from the coaches’ booth. Quarterback

Bert Jones Bertram Hays Jones (born September 7, 1951) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Baltimore Colts and Los Angeles Rams. At Ruston High School in Ruston, Louisiana, he was given t ...

told ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'' in 1986:

Offseason

NFL draft

Personnel

Staff

Roster

Regular season

Schedule

Standings

Records set

* Most Points Allowed, Season, 533 * Worst Point Differential, 16-game season, -274 * Most First-Half Points Allowed, 16-game season, 307 * Most Touchdowns Allowed, Season, 68 * Most First Downs Allowed Season, 406 * Fewest Punt Returns, Season, 12 The '81 Colts held the record for most total yards allowed in a 16-game season—6,793—until it was broken by the

(7,042).

Notes

References

Baltimore Colts

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

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