Did the Patriots put together the greatest team ever?

By Tim Farmer  |   Monday, March 20, 2006  |  Comments( 2 )

New England Patriots
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Now that the New England Patriots are one year removed from winning their last Super Bowl, there isn't a better time than now to see where New England's championship teams rank among football's elite during the Super Bowl era.

The four teams considered the crème de la crème of the NFL are the 1970s-era Pittsburgh Steelers, the 1980s San Francisco 49ers, the Dallas Cowboys of the early 1990s, and the New England Patriots of the current era. What I did was pit all of the combined championship teams from these four dynasties in a series of simulated games thanks to WhatIfSports.com. After careful analysis of the fourteen Super Bowl Champions (plus the 1994 Cowboys and 2005 Patriots), the best team was… well, I shouldn't spoil it too early.

First off, I separated each team into four round-robin tournaments, with each season's version getting three home and three away games - facing each other twice. After running each team's tournament, I took the best team from each tournament, and the four teams with the best remaining record. It just so happened that each franchise ended up with two teams in the Elite Eight. Those teams are the 1974 and 1979 Steelers, the 1984 and 1989 49ers, the 1992 and 1995 Cowboys, and the 2003 and 2004 Patriots. Not surprisingly, all eight remaining teams won the Super Bowl.

After seeding all eight teams based on individual record and dominance in their brackets, I set up a double elimination tournament to determine which team was the best overall. All games in this double elimination tournament were played in Ford Field, the host of Super Bowl 40, to keep all teams on an even level in terms of home field advantage. After thirteen games to eliminate the first six teams, that left the 2004 New England Patriots and the 1989 San Francisco 49ers to battle for the ultimate title. The Patriots got to the game undefeated, having knocked off the 1979 Steelers, the 2003 Patriots, and the 1995 Cowboys to get to the championship. The 1989 49ers had to work to get there, losing to the 8th seeded 1974 Steelers before defeating the 1992 Cowboys, the 1984 49ers, the 2003 Patriots and the 1995 Cowboys to advance.

In the first game of the championship, the 49ers won a close 16-13 game to force a second game. In the finale, the 2004 New England Patriots emerged victorious. The Pats won 27-16 to clinch my unofficial title of "Team of the Dynasties".
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