 |
| Record setter: New England quarterback Tom Brady set a new single-season mark with 50 touchdown passes. John Cetrino/AP |
Patriots: The greatest ever?
New England Patriots' brilliant season spurs discussion of greatest teams in NFL history.
from the December 31, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 2
Page 1 | 2
1941 CHICAGO BEARS
Record: 13-1Coach: George Halas
Avg. margin of victory: 25.6 points
Championship game: Beat the New York Giants, 37-9
Notes: The Bears earned the reputation as Monsters of the Midway during the early 1940s, and with good reason. In 1940, they produced the most lopsided victory ever, beating the Washington Redskins 73-0 in the title game. In 1942 they turned in the club's only perfect regular season. Even so, the '41 squad might have been the best of the bunch.
1984 SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS
Record: 18-1
Coach: Bill Walsh
Avg. margin of victory: 17.1 points
Championship game: Beat the Miami Dolphins, 38-16
Notes: While it can be hard to pick from among San Francisco's five championship teams of the 1980s and '90s, and even harder to bypass one without superlative receiver Jerry Rice, who arrived in 1985, the 1984 squad may well have been the best in franchise history. Certainly it had the best record. Quarterback Joe Montana was in his prime executing the famous "West Coast offense," with its short, horizontal passing attack. The entire defensive backfield was all-star caliber, and its play in Super Bowl XIX was a key factor in limiting the effectiveness of Miami's record-setting quarterback Dan Marino in his only Super Bowl.
1978 PITTSBURGH STEELERS
Record: 17-2
Coach: Chuck Noll
Avg. margin of victory: 12.9 points
Championship game: Beat the Dallas Cowboys, 35-31.
Notes: Pittsburgh's "Steel Curtain" teams were the first to win four Super Bowls, securing back-to-back SB championships on two occasions in the 1970s. The roster remained basically the same throughout this dynasty, with quarterback Terry Bradshaw guiding the offense and "Mean" Joe Greene anchoring the defense. Two things stand out about the 1978 team: It lost just twice, and both times by narrow margins to good teams. Then, in the playoffs, it defeated the defending champion Dallas Cowboys in one of the most exciting Super Bowls ever, 35-31.
1962 GREEN BAY PACKERS
Record: 13-1
Coach: Vince Lombardi
Avg. margin of victory: 20.6 points
Championship game: Beat the New York Giants, 16-7
Notes: Notes: Lombardi, maybe the ultimate taskmaster coach, put his stamp all over this franchise, driving it to win on simple
plays honed to near-perfection. Running backs Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor helped make the phrase "run to daylight" famous.
Green Bay would win five league championships during a seven-year stretch, but this squad (called the last of the great pre-Super
Bowl era teams) was arguably the best. It outscored its opponents 415 to 148. [Editor's note: The original version mistakenly identified Paul Hornung as a quarterback.]
1977 DALLAS COWBOYS
Record: 15-2
Coach: Tom Landry
Avg. margin of victory: 15.3 points
Championship game: Beat Miami, 24-3
Notes: For sustained brilliance, Dallas was never better than while winning three out of four successive Super Bowls in the mid-1990s with Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Deion Sanders. But the best season may have been in 1977, when the Cowboys lost the fewest games in franchise history. The team was led by quarterback Roger Staubach. Overseeing the sideline was stoic Coach Landry, one of the most innovative minds in football, who took his team to five Super Bowls.
1 | Page 2
RSS feed
