Best All-Time SB Teams

[Blaze_1UP]

by John Czarnecki

1. 1984 San Francisco 49ers: Bill Walsh had two great teams in this decade, but this one finished the regular-season 15-1, outscoring opponents by 248 points. In the playoffs, the 49ers dominated two of the NFC's very best teams — future Super Bowl winners — in the Giants and the Chicago Bears. Granted, this team didn't have Jerry Rice yet, but it had a super defense — better talent than New England's today — with a secondary led by Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott that included Eric Wright, Dwight Hicks and Carlton Williamson. The front line had Fred Dean, Gary "Big Hands" Johnson and Dwaine Board. These 49ers throttled Dan Marino, who had thrown a then-record 48 touchdowns in the regular season, in Super Bowl XIX. They sacked him four times and intercepted him twice. On the 49ers side, Joe Montana passed for three touchdowns and a young running back named Roger Craig scored three times.
2. 1992 Dallas Cowboys: This was the first of Jimmy Johnson's back-to-back Super Bowl teams. Yes, they lost three games during the regular season, but they were super impressive in the playoffs, whipping a 14-2 Niners team in San Francisco for the NFC title, and then demolishing Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII. These Cowboys were powerful on both sides of the ball, and offensive tackles Mark Tuinei and Erik Williams (maybe the best lineman of his generation not in the Hall of Fame) protected Troy Aikman and opened holes for Emmitt Smith. Cornerback Kevin Smith had the talent to shut down Jerry Rice, too.
3. 2007 New England Patriots: We're assuming they whip the Giants and go 19-0. My only reservation with calling them the best ever is that they were fortunate to play six games in a woefully weak AFC East. Unlike the 49ers and Cowboys, who had quality division foes and strong conference opponents, the Patriots whipped their division foes by a margin of 153 points, with a league-record 589 points. Heck, the best quarterback they faced in the AFC East might have been Bills rookie Trent Edwards. The Patriots' greatest accomplishment was beating six playoff teams during the regular season while unleashing a passing offense featuring Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Jabar Gaffney, Ben Watson, Donte' Stallworth and Kevin Faulk. If you think the Chargers beat up on Brady last Sunday, both the 49ers and Cowboys had better defenses. The Patriots haven't seen a back seven as talented as San Francisco's in 1984.
4. 1985 Chicago Bears: When you think of characters, you think of this team. It was full of great talkers and one of the greatest football players ever in Walter Payton, who didn't score in the Super Bowl because Mike Ditka had this thing for Refrigerator Perry. This was a very unique team in that Ditka was the head coach, but a lot of the defensive players followed Buddy Ryan because of what his innovative 46 defense allowed them to do. Yes, they went 15-1 and demolished the out-numbered New England Patriots in the championship game, but they really didn't face a lot of great quarterbacks that season and the ones they did, they simply destroyed. Yes, they beat Montana and Phil Simms (although windy conditions in Soldier Field has something to do with that), but they faced someone named Dieter Brock in the NFC title game.
5. 1989 San Francisco 49ers: This was the team emboldened by Montana and Lott that wanted to show the league it could win without Bill Walsh. It went 14-2 during the regular season, but really displayed its muscle in the postseason, outscoring three opponents by a total of 100 points. The '85 Bears blanked two teams in the playoffs, but their total domination was by only 81 points. Granted, the 49ers were helped when the Rams upset the mighty Giants, and then Jim Everett took that dive when he felt imaginary pressure and the rest was history. This team thoroughly embarrassed the Broncos in the Super Bowl, owning a 42-3 lead at one point.
6. 1975 Pittsburgh Steelers: This was probably their most complete team of their four Super Bowls clubs during a six-season span. They won 11 straight games in the regular season before resting a lot of key players in the regular-season finale. In the playoffs, they defeated archrival Oakland in the championship game and then America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys, in the Super Bowl. The defense was amazing in that game, sacking Roger Staubach seven times and intercepting him three times. Others may say that the '78 edition was the best Pittsburgh team, but this group had exceptional depth and several played hurt in the playoffs.
7. 1972 Miami Dolphins: This is the NFL's lone unbeaten team, going 17-0. But they are downgraded for playing one of the easiest schedules (opponents had a combined winning percentage under .400) and the Steelers might have beaten them in the playoffs if Bradshaw hadn't suffered a concussion. Also, despite an unbeaten record, Las Vegas didn't believe in the Dolphins, making them underdogs against Washington in one of the ugliest Super Bowls ever. They won 14-7 in a game that was all defense and that silly Garo Yepremian pass.
8. 1962 Green Bay Packers: Believe me, the 1996 Packers, Brett Favre's Super Bowl team, ranks pretty close to this bunch, considering Brett's team won all three playoff games by at least two touchdowns. But this Lombardi team held opponents to less than 11 points a game while running over teams with Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor. Bart Starr was a tremendous leader at quarterback. Counting the six-game exhibition schedule (can you believe that?), these Packers actually won 16 consecutive games before losing to the Lions on Thanksgiving in Detroit. The Packers whipped Y.A. Tittle in the NFL Championship game and, counting preseason games, finished 19-1. They outscored opponents by 267 points in a 14-game season; conversely, the Patriots this season owned a 315-point edge.

I'd put 98'-99' Denver at #9 and 94'-95' 9ers at #10.

[Roy_Williams318]

93 Cowboys>>94 49ers......I'm just saying. If only they would have called a PI on Sanders (I think it was Sanders lol) in 94....could have been looking at back to back to back to back champions lol.

[Blaze_1UP]

SF beat Dallas twice that season and Steve Young was a phenom that year, unstoppable.

[steelejones]

How about that team with the Redskins and doug williams...they set all kinds of records for scoring...

Course im biased possibly....since im a redskins fan ?

[Blaze_1UP]

Them and the 86'-87' Giants.

[Goose]

Ok here's a Cowboy fan not picking the '93 Cowboys... I will take the 85 bears people underrate them because of the QB, but it didn't matter they had to crappy QBs take them through what should have been a 16-0 season. Their only weakness was the secondary, they had sweetness and maybe the best defense ever.

That being said I'd take the '93 Cowboys 2nd, no one remembers just how bad arse that defense was because we had the best O-line in the history of the league. There isn't a defense that has ever existed that could hang with that running game, and if you tried Troy Michael and Jay would light you up.

Much respect to the '89 9ers, but their defense couldn't hang with our offense and ours was good enough to slow them down enough to get Dallas the win by 4. Must respect to the '78 Steelers but their offense couldn't keep up.

The 2007 Pats couldn't beat any of the above mentioned teams, and the way that '85 Bears team was built may beat them by 20 points. Sweetness would destroy them.

[NFL_WIZARD]

The 2007 Pats are #1 by a long shot, look at the numbers.....
2nd would be the Cowboys.
If all GM's, coaches and owners were polled I bet the 2007 Patriots would pull in 70-80%....at least.

If you disagree, read my signature and click the link.

[JCD]

Originally Posted by NFL_WIZARD

The 2007 Pats are #1 by a long shot, look at the numbers.....
2nd would be the Cowboys.
If all GM's, coaches and owners were polled I bet the 2007 Patriots would pull in 70-80%....at least.

If you disagree, read my signature and click the link.

I would take that bet and win.

You can't really compare between eras. Patriots belong on the short-list of "best ever" (assuming they win SUnday), but they are not definitively better than a half dozen other teams out there.

Biggest reason would be the inherient differences of the cap versus non-cap era. Cap era, it is pariety. Teams are not as stacked as they were before the cap. 15+ years ago, it was a league of have's and have-not's. The good teams were great teams and the bad teams lived in the basement for a decade or more. You couldn't afford to have that much talent on one team today.

Case in point, people regard the Pats team as one of the most talented teams ever. Thing is, that kind of amassed talent was commonplace on the dynasty-caliber teams. Only there were 2-4 of those kind of stacked teams in the league every year. Niners and Cowboys were on equal footing during their reigns. The dominance of the Dolphins, Steelers and Raiders in the 70's is why the Vikings Purple People Eaters (who were in themselves a dominant team) never won a SuperBowl.

So while the Pats belong in the "best of" discussion. Anybody that claims that they are defintively the best is full of it.

[Goose]

Originally Posted by NFL_WIZARD

The 2007 Pats are #1 by a long shot, look at the numbers.....
2nd would be the Cowboys.
If all GM's, coaches and owners were polled I bet the 2007 Patriots would pull in 70-80%....at least.

If you disagree, read my signature and click the link.

Sorry dude, but the 2007 Pats would get demolished by the '93 Cowboys... go look at that offensive line and then look at the pats front 7. Emmit would average 9 yards a carry... it would be like playing Madden on Easy. I am not saying the '93 Cowboys are the best team ever (see my previous post) but they match up soooooooo good against this Pats team. The Cowboys would probably have 40+ mins of T.O.P.

[Fish on The Sand]

I will throw a vote for the 99 Rams. Despite the stats,i think that offence was better than this year's Pats. The Rams played nobody in week 17 and often pulled their starters during the season, and they could dominate you on the ground as well. I do not think they are the greatest team ever, but think they deserve some mention. No team would have been able to simply beat them handily. That was a truly special team, and I just wanted to make sure they got some love haha.

[Blaze_1UP]

84' 49ers beat the 4-6 Bears defense 23-0 and had a 15-1 record only losing to the Steelers 20-17. That 9er defense was one of the best with Lott who then played corner and Wright the other corner, possibly the two best DBs ever destroying Marino in the Superbowl.

[NFL_WIZARD]

The 1999-2001 Rams were the only team I ever saw that could hang with these Patriots....they were awesome.

[JCD]

Originally Posted by NFL_WIZARD

The 1999-2001 Rams were the only team I ever saw that could hang with these Patriots....they were awesome.

Honest question: did you ever see the glory-days Steelers, Cowboys, Niners or 84 Bears play?

[Fish on The Sand]

Originally Posted by JCD

Honest question: did you ever see the glory-days Steelers, Cowboys, Niners or 84 Bears play?

I agree with the poster you are quoting, and I can say i was old enough to recognize the greatness that those Cowboys were, but that offence in St. Louis was just amazing. They had the best qb, the best receivers and the best running back. It was a triple threat never seen before, and probably won't be seen again.

[JCD]

Originally Posted by Fish on The Sand

I agree with the poster you are quoting, and I can say i was old enough to recognize the greatness that those Cowboys were, but that offence in St. Louis was just amazing. They had the best qb, the best receivers and the best running back. It was a triple threat never seen before, and probably won't be seen again.

I would take both Montana-Rice-Craig and Aikmen-Smith-Irvin over Warner-Faulk-Bruce without a moment's hesitation.

Warner is grossly over-rated. He put up gaudy numbers, but gaudy numbers can be misleading. Example: Jeff George has better career numbers than John Elway.

Rams were a very good team, but there is a reason why you never see them mentioned alongside what are generally recognized to be the best teams of all time.