The Washington Redskins season was the franchise's 48th season in the National Football League. The team improved on their 8âÂÂ8 record from 1978, finishing 10âÂÂ6. Although the Redskins were able to improve their record, they were eliminated from playoff contention on the final week of the season after facing the Dallas Cowboys with the NFC East title on the line. Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach led a last-minute comeback to defeat Washington 35âÂÂ34 to win the division, which, combined with the Chicago Bears defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 42âÂÂ6, resulted in the Redskins losing a points tiebreaker for the final wild-card slot.
The Redskins adopted new uniforms this season, retiring the gold pants in favor of separate burgundy and white pants to be worn with the white and burgundy jerseys, respectively. Smaller changes were made to the jerseys and socks as well. This uniform set would be worn for all three of the franchise's Super Bowl victories to date and were relatively unchanged until the team changed its name for the 2020 season.
This would prove the last time the Green Bay Packers would ever play at RFK Stadium before its closure in 1997: in fact, the Packers would not play an away game against the Redskins again until 2004. This occurred because between and the admission of the Texans in , non-division conference matchups had no rotation but were entirely based upon previous seasonâÂÂs standings.
The loss knocked the Redskins out of the playoffs.