The most dominant teams of the Super Bowl Era

They made a lot of history in 2007, but in our book New England's biggest and best record was this one: most dominant team of the Super Bowl Era, in terms of point-per-game differential. (In fact, only two teams in history outscored their opponents by a greater margin than the 2007 Patriots. For more on those teams, click here.)

 

By outscoring opponents by an average of 36.8-17.1 every game, the 2007 Patriots finished with a +19.7 PPG differential that was last topped by the 1942 Bears.

 

The previous best was right at the start of the Super Bowl Era –  the nearly perfect 1968 Colts outscored their opponents by +18.4 PPG. They were 2nd in points scored, 1st in points allowed. They won 13 of 14 in the regular season, 11 by double digits. And they rolled through the postseason, beating Cleveland in the NFL title game 34-0.

 

Then Joe Namath happened.

 

In other words, the two most dominant teams of the Super Bowl Era both suffered shocking defeats in the big game itself.

 

Here is a list of all 24 teams of the Super Bowl Era that outscored their opponents by a 2-to-1 margin over the course of an entire season. These are, in other words, the most dominant teams in modern NFL history.

 

Fourteen of the 23 teams (not counting NE) made it to the Super Bowl, and 10 won it all. But an unlucky 13 were left wishing they could trade their regular-season success for one or two more wins in the playoffs. In other words, a dominant regular season won't be remembered if you don't win it all.

 

The last team to come closest to the 2007 Patriots before the Super Bowl Era? That would be Vince Lombardi's 1962 Packers, who went 13-1 and scored 415 points (29.6 PPG) while surrendering a measley 145 (10.6 PPG), a difference of +19.0 PPG.