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How prescient of you! I wrote about Wilder today.

Also interesting: it looks like the Wilder experiment really began in mid-season ’83.

— In the 7th game of the year, Wilder had 5 carries, while Mel Carver had 12 and James Owens had 4: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198310160tam.htm

— The next week, it looks like both Carver and Owens were inactive, so Wilder had 20 of the 21 carries that went to a RB: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198310230tam.htm

— The next week, Owens again had 0 carries, and Carver had just 2 while Wilder had the other FORTY TWO http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198310300pit.htm

This game must have been a turning point. The Bucs were 0-8 and facing the 6-2 Steelers in Pittsburgh. Tampa Bay was a 10.5 point underdog. But the Bucs led 12-0 through 3 quarters, and my guess is Tampa Bay said let’s just keep giving the ball to Wilder no matter what. Pittsburgh won 17-12, though.

— Perhaps buoyed by what they did last week, along with Wilder’s dominance (and with Owens still out), Carver had just 1 carry while Wilder had 31 carries for 219 yards! This led to Tampa Bay’s first win of the year, 17-12. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198311060min.htm

— The next week was Wilder’s last of the year, and he recorded 19 of 20 RB carries http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198311130cle.htm

In that game, he suffered cracked ribs that ended his season: http://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/11/14/James-Wilder-who-set-an-NFL-record-two-weeks/2480437634000/

So really, this 4 game stretch in 1983 — that ended with him getting hurt — marked the beginning of the Wilder era. 20 of 21 carries, 42 carries, 31 carries, and then 19 of 20 carries.