Best team ever?

spiralism

After seeing a poll on the official site recently enough, with the bracket matchups of great teams against each other, i thought it would be a very good question to ask here, i'm surprised it hasnt been in a thread before tbh.

So, simply, who is the best team of all time and why? Obvious contenders being the '85 bears, '72 dolphins, '76 raiders, '84,'89 or '95 49ers, '98 broncos and '00 ravens to name but a few.

Discussion doesn't have to be on who was the best ever either, any discussion of great teams is cool, who had the best offence, defence, who'd win in matchups and so on

mikemac1

00 ravens, best defense ever

They made the final with the 76 raiders for this competition

However I can't say the Ravens were the best team ever, horrible, just horrible offense.
Went five games without a TD

So the kicker Matt Stover deserves some huge credit too

eagle eye

Personally I'd have to go with the 49ers 88/89 winning team but I never seen any of those teams from the 70s. I'm a Patriots fan and I'd love to pick one of our teams and they were brilliant but that 49ers team just phenomenal for me. When you have the GOAT QB and GOAT WR in your team its easy for a great defense to get overlooked but the 49ers had that as well with a D that included Ronnie Lott and Charles Haley.

Patriots from early this millenium have to be up there. The Cowboys team from the late 90s was another great team, probably the most balanced team I can remember, Aiken wasn't a superstar but he was very, very good and they had a lot of players like that. I don't know enough about that Steelers team that dominated the 70s but obviously they have to be up there too. And then going back further the Dolphins 14-0 team which won two in a row also.

Ravens wouldn't even register for me when talking about the greatest teams, neither would the Rams and their 'greatest show on turf'.

85 bears one of the few teams that where elite on both sides of the ball

spiralism

It's easy to knock the 00 ravens and their horrible offence, but that defence was so out of everyone else's league it was amazing.

10.3 ppg is absolutely amazing but the scary thing is that if you factor out one freak game against Jacksonville where they shipped 36 and still won, that defence allowed 8.6 ppg after that. In today's NFL that is absolutely mindblowing. While the 85 Bears and 76 Steelers (ironically the best defence they ever fielded was in a year they lost to oakland in the conference game) also put up outrageous defensive stats, the 2000 Ravens outdid them the most important stat - points allowed. Not to mention that in four playoff games including the superbowl they gave up 16 points. (23 overall but 7 of those were a 99 yard kick return in SB 35).

Like i said, in today's NFL where the rules favour offences so much, that is amazing. If they played in the 70s or 80s it's hard to imagine anybody scoring on them at all more or less. Greatest defence ever and by a mile.

GoldFour4

Has to be the 2012/13 Jets

poldebruin

spiralism wrote: »

It's easy to knock the 00 ravens and their horrible offence, but that defence was so out of everyone else's league it was amazing.

10.3 ppg is absolutely amazing but the scary thing is that if you factor out one freak game against Jacksonville where they shipped 36 and still won, that defence allowed 8.6 ppg after that. In today's NFL that is absolutely mindblowing. While the 85 Bears and 76 Steelers (ironically the best defence they ever fielded was in a year they lost to oakland in the conference game) also put up outrageous defensive stats, the 2000 Ravens outdid them the most important stat - points allowed. Not to mention that in four playoff games including the superbowl they gave up 16 points. (23 overall but 7 of those were a 99 yard kick return in SB 35).

Like i said, in today's NFL where the rules favour offences so much, that is amazing. If they played in the 70s or 80s it's hard to imagine anybody scoring on them at all more or less. Greatest defence ever and by a mile.

Yep, they had an awesome D all right - and what was even more impressive was they did it with a truely horrible Offense that did the bare minimum to allow then to win.

That said - they're hardly the greatest Defence ever by a mile (or at all) The 1977 Atlanta Falcons allowed fewer points per game and with an equally horrible Offense. The 85 Bears and 76 Steelers were also hugely formidable.

The idea that the 00 Ravens could be considered the best team of all time is crazy IMO. Their Offense was absolutely shocking, and the 88/89 49ers or the 85 Bears would have handled them easily.

eagle eye

spiralism wrote: »

It's easy to knock the 00 ravens and their horrible offence, but that defence was so out of everyone else's league it was amazing.

10.3 ppg is absolutely amazing but the scary thing is that if you factor out one freak game against Jacksonville where they shipped 36 and still won, that defence allowed 8.6 ppg after that. In today's NFL that is absolutely mindblowing. While the 85 Bears and 76 Steelers (ironically the best defence they ever fielded was in a year they lost to oakland in the conference game) also put up outrageous defensive stats, the 2000 Ravens outdid them the most important stat - points allowed. Not to mention that in four playoff games including the superbowl they gave up 16 points. (23 overall but 7 of those were a 99 yard kick return in SB 35).

Like i said, in today's NFL where the rules favour offences so much, that is amazing. If they played in the 70s or 80s it's hard to imagine anybody scoring on them at all more or less. Greatest defence ever and by a mile.

The pass interference rules only really started coming into affect around 04.

Packers 1966/67.

Lombardi, Starr, Nitschke, Taylor, Hornung (though think last two were gone after the first Superbowl) etc etc etc.

matthew8

There are just too many teams you could make a case for. It's either the unbeaten Dolphins or 76 Raiders for me.

matthew8

matthew8 wrote: »

There are just too many teams you could make a case for. It's either the unbeaten Dolphins or 76 Raiders for me.

i dont know that dolphins team is good but very overrated

matthew8

Annalee Creamy Backgammon wrote: »

i dont know that dolphins team is good but very overrated

Statistically they're the best team. They won every match.

matthew8

matthew8 wrote: »

Statistically they're the best team. They won every match.

very easy schedule compared to all other teams in consideration that has to be taken into account

spiralism

matthew8 wrote: »

Statistically they're the best team. They won every match.

Yet while im not advocating the 00 ravens as the best team ever and i am harping on about them a bit, they would have beaten the 72 dolphins, as would the 85 bears. Running the ball just did not work against those two defences and the 72 dolphins without a run game would have been screwed.

Best team ever imo is hard to say, 85 bears, 76 raiders and 89 49ers were truly unbelievable teams and it's hard to separate them.

A lot of people overlook us but the 98 broncos were an outstanding team. 14-2 and we killed nearly everybody we played. Elway in his last year, an excellent offensive line, Terrell Davis putting up a 2000 yard season, Smith, McCaffrey and Sharpe in the aerial game... one of the better offences ever put out tbh.

Defence was solid enough to do the job too, Romanowski and Atwater were excellent players and a young Trevor Pryce was a great Defensive line presence.

We were 13-0 at one point, only for losing focus against the giants and dolphins they would have gone down in history. Even then, we ran into the fins in the playoffs and utterly humiliated them and won the other matchups against the Jets in the conference game and Atlanta in the superbowl with room to spare.

Imo the fact that Atlanta upset the 15-1 Vikings (Cunningham, a young Randy Moss et al) in the NFC Conference game lessened the legacy of the 98 broncos a little. Had we beaten another amazing team in the SB(though it would have been no guarantee obvously) we'd be talked about as one of the best ever. Instead, we had to make do with comfortably beating the 14-2 Falcons as huge favourites.

davyjose

I think that Vikings side would have won. That team was unbelievable. Unfortunately they got stumped in the playoffs, against a lesser side, and that was that.

Same with the 07 Patriots. I mean i hated it while it was happening, but what they did to teams was just brutal. And honestly, if they had lost their single loss in, say, week 7 instead of week 21, this would be an open and shut case.

spiralism

davyjose wrote: »

I think that Vikings side would have won. That team was unbelievable. Unfortunately they got stumped in the playoffs, against a lesser side, and that was that.

Same with the 07 Patriots. I mean i hated it while it was happening, but what they did to teams was just brutal. And honestly, if they had lost their single loss in, say, week 7 instead of week 21, this would be an open and shut case.

It would have been a matchup for the ages. However, our ability to run the ball with ease and kill clock doing so was able to put down an equally good packers aerial attack a year before and imo we'd have done it again. The real shame is we'll never know. While the superbowl against Atlanta reads that we won 34-19 it wasn't anywhere near that close tbh.

LuckyLloyd

New England Patriots, 2007 - 8

Syferus

Fact is the loss came when it mattered most. The Giants were extremely close to ending the streak in week 17 of the regular season too so it was no fluke they beat them in the Superbowl. I couldn't enter a team that lost on the big stage into this discussion no matter how many wins or touchdowns they racked up.

Midlife Crashes

1999 Chargers...

LuckyLloyd

Syferus wrote: »

Fact is the loss came when it mattered most. The Giants were extremely close to ending the streak in week 17 of the regular season too so it was no fluke they beat them in the Superbowl. I couldn't enter a team that lost on the big stage into this discussion no matter how many wins or touchdowns they racked up.

They are the most dominant team of all time in an era that mitigates against the creation of such domination. That they suffered a couple of crazy plays against them in the superbowl doesn't change the fact that they are the greatest team ever assembled.

Lothaar v2

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

They are the most dominant team of all time in an era that mitigates against the creation of such domination. That they suffered a couple of crazy plays against them in the superbowl doesn't change the fact that they are the greatest team ever assembled.

I don't think the 'era that mitigates against the creation of such domination' should be a factor in the debate, tbh. None of the teams can control what era they played in! Also, the flipside of that argument is that teams like (for instance) the Niners and Cowboys - among the greatest legacies ever - kept knocking each other out in the playoffs. Back then, with less parity, some of the top-tier teams were really, really good. Thanks to the Pats' incredible front office, they created a legacy against the odds, and a very dominant team in 2007.

But this isn't 'best front office ever', right? That'd almost certainly be a landslide Patriots victory!

I'd say the best teams I've ever seen were the 89 and 94 Niners, and the 85 Bears.

Unfortunately for the 07 Patriots, they did lose out when it mattered. The 90 Bills suffered a similar fate - mangled everyone they faced through the year then ran into the Giants and lost out, largely due to a couple of plays that didn't go their way. If Norwood made that famous kick, the Bills would be mentioned more often in these conversations.

Midlife Crashes

Midlife Crashes wrote: »

1999 Chargers...

8-8

Lothaar v2

Lothaar v2 wrote: »

But this isn't 'best front office ever', right? That'd almost certainly be a landslide Patriots victory!

steelers have most superbowls

Donnelly117

Gotta be the '85 Bears. Unstoppable offense, impenetrable defense. 15 - 1 in the regular season with 2 shutouts in the playoffs. And topped it off by destroying the Pats in the Superbowl.