2004 NFL season

The 2004 NFL season was the 85th regular season of the National Football League.

With the New England Patriots as the defending league champions, regular season play was held from September 9, 2004 to January 2, 2005. Hurricanes forced the rescheduling of two Miami Dolphins home games: the game against the Tennessee Titans was moved up one day to Saturday, September 11 to avoid oncoming Hurricane Ivan, while the game versus the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, September 26 was moved back 7½ hours to miss the eye of Hurricane Jeanne.

The playoffs began on January 8, and eventually New England repeated as NFL champions when they defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX, the Super Bowl championship game, at ALLTEL Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida on February 6.

Major rule changes

• Due to several incidents during the 2003 NFL season, officials are authorized to penalize excessive celebration. The 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty will be marked off from the spot at the end of the previous play or, after a score, on the ensuing kickoff. If the infraction is ruled flagrant by the officials, the player(s) are ejected.
• Due to several instances during the 2003–04 playoffs, officials are instructed to strictly enforce illegal contact, pass interference, and defensive holding.
• Timeouts can be called by head coaches.
• In addition to the numbers 80–89, wide receivers will now be allowed to use numbers 10–19.
• A punt or missed field goal that is untouched by the receiving team is immediately dead once it touches either the end zone or any member of the kicking team in the end zone. Previously, a punt or missed field goal that lands in the end zone before being controlled by the kicking team could be picked up by a member of the receiving team and immediately run the other way.
• Teams will be awarded a third instant replay challenge if their first two are successful. Previously, teams were only limited to two regardless of what occurred during the game.
• The one-bar facemask was officially outlawed. The few remaining players who still used the one-bar facemask at the time were allowed to continue to use the style until they left the league under a grandfather clause.

2004 NFL Changes

• Baltimore Ravens – Added third alternative uniforms. Black.
• Cincinnati Bengals – New Uniforms.
• Indianapolis Colts – Grey facemask. Black shoes.

The NFC West champions Seattle on offense against San Francisco, week 3

• Jacksonville Jaguars – New road uniforms. White uniforms, black numbers with gold and teal trim. New black pants with Jaguars logo on hip.
• New York Giants – Added third alternative uniforms. Red.
• Minnesota Vikings – New FieldTurf field.
• Chicago Bears – Added third alternative uniforms. Orange.

Coaching changes

• Arizona Cardinals – Dennis Green replaced Dave McGinnis
• Atlanta Falcons – Jim Mora, Jr. replaced Dan Reeves
• Buffalo Bills – Mike Mularkey replaced Gregg Williams
• Chicago Bears – Lovie Smith replaced Dick Jauron
• Oakland Raiders – Norv Turner replaced Bill Callahan
• New York Giants – Tom Coughlin replaced Jim Fassel
• Washington Redskins – Joe Gibbs replaced Steve Spurrier

Final regular season standings

W = Wins, L = Losses, PCT = Winning Percentage, PF= Points For, PA = Points Against

Clinched playoff seeds are marked in parentheses and shaded in green. No ties occurred this year.

Tiebreakers

• ^a Indianapolis clinched the AFC #3 seed instead of San Diego based on better head-to-head record (1–0).
• ^b N.Y. Jets clinched the AFC #5 seed instead of Denver based on better record in common games (5–0 to 3–2).
• ^c St. Louis clinched the NFC #5 seed instead of Minnesota or New Orleans based on better conference record (7–5 to Minnesota's 5–7 to New Orleans' 6–6).
• ^d Minnesota clinched the NFC #6 seed instead of New Orleans based on better head-to-head record (1–0).
• ^e N.Y. Giants finished ahead of Dallas and Washington in the NFC East based on better head-to-head record (3–1 to Dallas' 2–2 to Washington's 1–3).
• ^f Dallas finished ahead of Washington in the NFC East based on better head-to-head record (2–0).

Playoffs

Within each conference, the four division winners and the two wild card teams (the top two non-division winners with the best overall regular season records) qualified for the playoffs. The four division winners are seeded 1 through 4 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and the wild card teams are seeded 5 and 6. The NFL does not use a fixed bracket playoff system, and there are no restrictions regarding teams from the same division matching up in any round. In the first round, dubbed the wild-card playoffs or wild-card weekend, the third-seeded division winner hosts the sixth seed wild card, and the fourth seed hosts the fifth. The 1 and 2 seeds from each conference then receive a bye in the first round. In the second round, the divisional playoffs, the number 1 seed hosts the worst surviving seed from the first round (seed 4, 5 or 6), while the number 2 seed will play the other team (seed 3, 4 or 5). The two surviving teams from each conference's divisional playoff games then meet in the respective AFC and NFC Conference Championship games, hosted by the higher seed. Although the Super Bowl, the fourth and final round of the playoffs, is played at a neutral site, the designated home team is based on an annual rotation by conference.

The Miami Dolphins were the first team to be eliminated from the playoff race, having reached a 1-9 record by week 11.^[1]

Bracket

* Indicates overtime victory

Milestones

The following teams and players set all-time NFL records during the season:

The Colts led the NFL with 522 points scored. The Colts tallied more points in the first half of each of their games of the 2004 NFL season (277 points) than seven other NFL teams managed in the entire season.^[3] Despite throwing for 49 touchdown passes, Peyton Manning attempted fewer than 500 passes for the first time in his NFL career.^[4] The San Francisco 49ers record 420 consecutive scoring games that had started in Week 5 of the 1977 season ended in Week 2 of the season.

Statistical leaders

Team

Playoff chasers the New York Jets against Miami in 2004, week 8 MNF

Individual

Awards

External links

• Football Outsiders 2004 Team Efficiency Ratings

Notes

References

• NFL Record and Fact Book (ISBN 1-932994-36-X)
• NFL History 2001– (Last accessed October 17, 2005)
• Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN 0-06-270174-6)
• Celebration penalty among rules changes (Last accessed October 17, 2005)