About a month ago we compared New England's record over the past two seasons to the two-year performances of the winningest teams in the Super Bowl era. We determined that the 2003-04 Patriots were the deadliest big-game team ever to roam the fields of professional football.
Our case, built upon the irrefutable logic and legal precedents of the Cold, Hard Football Facts, has grown only stronger since then.
• The Patriots won three more games and surpassed the 1985-86 Bears to take sole claim to the second-best record over a two-year span in the Super Bowl era. Only the 1972-73 Dolphins have a better record.
• The Patriots tied the 1997-98 Broncos for the most victories over a two-year span
• New England added two more quality wins to its resume. Only one team in NFL history, the 1978-79 Steelers, beat more than 16 quality opponents in a two-year span. The Steelers went 17-5 against teams with winning records. The 2003-04 Patriots are 19-1 against quality opponents. (The Cold, Hard Football Facts define a quality opponent as any team with a winning record.)
• Following their win over the Steelers in the AFC title game, the Patriots are the only club on our list to beat an opponent that went 15-1 in the regular season. Only two other teams among the 10 winningest in the Super Bowl era beat an opponent that posted a 14-2 regular-season record. The 1992 Cowboys beat the 14-2 49ers in the NFC title game. The 1998 Broncos beat the 14-2 Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII.
In our last report, we simply compared overall records and records against quality opponents. Our updated lists appear below. But we've also added two more categories:
1) we looked at the scoring differential each of these legendary teams posted against quality opponents; and
2) we looked at how these quality opponents performed against all other opponents.
Overall record (regular season and playoffs)
| Team |
Record |
Championships |
| 1972-73 Dolphins |
32-2 (.941) |
2 |
| 2003-04 Patriots |
33-4 (.892) |
TBD |
| 1985-86 Bears |
32-4 (.889) |
1 |
| 1982-83 Redskins* |
28-4 (.875) |
1 |
| 1989-90 49ers |
32-5 (.865) |
1 |
| 1997-98 Broncos |
33-6 (.846) |
2 |
| 1978-79 Steelers |
32-6 (.842) |
2 |
| 1992-93 Cowboys |
31-7 (.816) |
2 |
| 1996-97 Packers |
31-7 (.816) |
1 |
| 1990-91 Bills |
30-8 (.789) |
0 |
Key Cold, Hard Football Fact: If the Patriots win Super Bowl XXXIX, they'll have recorded more wins in a two-year period than any team in NFL history.
Record against quality opponents (regular season and playoffs)
| Team |
Record |
| 2003-04 Patriots |
19-1 (.950) |
| 1972-73 Dolphins |
13-1 (.928) |
| 1989-90 Redskins* |
15-3 (.833) |
| 1982-83 49ers |
15-3 (.833) |
| 1992-93 Cowboys |
14-4 (.778) |
| 1978-79 Steelers |
17-5 (.773) |
| 1996-97 Packers |
16-5 (.762) |
| 1997-98 Broncos |
12-4 (.750) |
| 1985-86 Bears |
11-4 (.733) |
| 1990-91 Bills |
10-7 (.588) |
Key Cold, Hard Football Fact: The Patriots are the deadliest big-game team in the Super Bowl era. The 1972-73 Dolphins have the second best record but played the fewest quality opponents.
***
We left off there last month. But ff we're trying to gauge the relative strength of each team, these records raise an obvious question: what were the scores of all those games against quality opponents? We went through each and every game against quality opponents and calculated the average score.
Average score against quality opponents
| 1985-86 Bears |
27.6-12.6 (+15.0) |
| 1982-83 Redskins* |
29.0-16.8 (+12.2) |
| 1989-90 49ers |
26.6-14.9 (+11.7) |
| 1978-79 Steelers |
26.1-15.3 (+10.8) |
| 1992-93 Cowboys |
25.8-15.6 (+10.2) |
| 1972-73 Dolphins |
21.1-11.0 (+10.1) |
| 2003-04 Patriots |
25.6-15.9 (+9.7) |
| 1996-97 Packers |
26.0-17.9 (+8.1) |
| 1997-98 Broncos |
28.1-20.1 (+8.0) |
| 1990-91 Bills |
24.9-21.9 (+3.0) |
Key Cold, Hard Football Fact: The Bears ability to crush quality teams lends credence to the belief that it was one of the best of all time. It also raises an interesting question: Is it more impressive to crush 11 teams while losing to four (as the Bears did), or to methodically beat top opponents 19 times in 20 attempts (as the Patriots did)?
Note that three of the four teams at the bottom of the list played in the salary-cap era. We looked at parity in the NFL a few months ago. There has been a steady trend toward more competitive games since the 1970s, though that trend took a dramatic turn in the 2004 season.
***
Finally, we wanted to know how all these quality opponents fared against the rest of the league. This would tell us which teams played the toughest collection of quality opponents. Basically, we calculated the collective record of all quality opponents. We then removed the games played against our teams in question. (For example, New England's quality opponents were a combined 221-99 over the past two seasons. However, they were 1-19 against New England. Therefore, they went 220-80 against the rest of the league.)
Quality opponents' record against all other teams
| 1997-98 Broncos |
180-60 (.750) |
| 1972-73 Dolphins |
132-46-4 (.742) |
| 2003-04 Patriots |
220-80 (.733) |
| 1990-91 Bills |
186-69 (.729) |
| 1985-86 Bears |
154-71 (.684) |
| 1992-93 Cowboys |
184-86 (.681) |
| 1989-90 49ers |
184-86 (.681) |
| 1978-79 Steelers |
220-110 (.667) |
| 1982-83 Redskins |
146-73-2 (.667) |
| 1996-97 Packers |
212-114 (.650) |
Key Cold, Hard Football Fact: New England went 19-1 (.950) against teams that had a .733 winning percentage against the rest of the league. The Broncos went 12-4 (.750) against teams that had a .750 winning percentage against the rest of the league.
These Cold, Hard Football Facts show that the 2003-04 Patriots are among the very best teams in NFL history and, statistically speaking, would be a great match against any of these legendary teams. They also show that the 2003-04 Patriots are clearly the most dominant team of the young salary-cap era.
*Includes strike-shortened 1982 season
