NFL - Are You Ready For Some Football?!! - PLAYOFFS

[Imran Siddiqui]

They have to win a superbowl to recieve any consideration. How many consider the 15-1 Vikings the 'best team ever' and that team had Moss too? They got beat in the playoffs and aren't even considered the best team of their year.

Quite right. Without the Superbowl, they won't be considered the best. They probably will be considered the biggest disappointment. The Pats are actually the FOURTH team to finish the regular season undefeated. The other two (aside from the '72 Fins) are two Bears teams from the 40s and 50s... you don't hear from them because they lost the NFL Championship.

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

They have to win a superbowl to recieve any consideration. How many consider the 15-1 Vikings the 'best team ever' and that team had Moss too? They got beat in the playoffs and aren't even considered the best team of their year.

Quite right. Without the Superbowl, they won't be considered the best. They probably will be considered the biggest disappointment. The Pats are actually the FOURTH team to finish the regular season undefeated. The other two (aside from the '72 Fins) are two Bears teams from the 40s and 50s... you don't hear from them because they lost the NFL Championship.

Actually, it was 1934 and 1942.

Undefeated seasons by the Bears

The Chicago Bears, charter members of the National Football League, were among the elite of the league in the early years. In fact, the Bears suffered just two losing seasons in its first 27 years. Along the way, they claimed seven league championships during that span (1920-1946).

There are two seasons during that time, however, that deserve attention. In 1934, and again in 1942, the Bears posted undefeated and untied regular season records. Shocking losses suffered in the championship games in both seasons are what have kept their name from being mentioned in the same breath as the 1972 Miami Dolphins (Related story: Undefeated Teams).

In 1934, the Bears were heavy favorites to win their third straight league title. The team opened the season at Green Bay where they made easy work of the Packers with a 24-10 win. More lopsided scores followed including three shutouts. The biggest scare of the season came against the Giants in New York on November 18. The Bears slipped past New York with a narrow 10-9 win with just three games remaining in the season. Chicago made history when they bested the Detroit Lions, 10-7, in the season finale.

hicago finished the season with a 13-0 record as they outscored their opponents by a whopping 286-86. The Bears looked to cap the season with another victory over the Giants in the title game. However, the dreams of the NFL’s first “perfect” season went out the window when New York dominated the Bears, 30-13, in the championship game.

Eight seasons later, the same scenario presented itself to the “Monsters of the Midway.” The 1942 Bears were coming off of back-to-back championship seasons that included the famous 73-0 drubbing of the Washington Redskins in the 1940 NFL Championship Game, and a 37-9 manhandling of the Giants in the ’41 title game.

Unlike the first time, the Bears marched to a perfect 11-0 season without any bumps along the way. The narrowest margin of victory for Chicago all season was two touchdowns. The Bears outscored its opponents, 376-84.

But, yet again, the hopes of the league’s first undefeated, untied season ended when the Redskins clipped the Bears 14-6 in the 1942 championship game.

http://www.profootballhof.com/history/release.jsp?release_id=1879

And the Browns in 1948, though that was the AAFL.

The 1940s and Pro Football's Other Undefeated Teams

1948 Cleveland Browns and 1942 Chicago Bears

You won't find it in the NFL Record and Fact Book but there was another team that like the 1972 Miami Dolphins, experienced a perfect season, undefeated and untied through regular and post-season play. The Cleveland Browns, then members of the All-America Football Conference finished 15-0 in 1948. Two years later the AAFC folded and the Browns became members of the NFL.

While the NFL does recognize the records of the American Football League (1960-1969), it does not include AAFC marks in its record keeping.

The Browns, coached by Paul Brown, after whom the team was named, dominated the AAFC all four years by compiling a 52-4-3 record and winning all four league championships. But they reached their zenith in 1948 when they marched through 14 regular season games and the AAFC championship without a blemish.

The perfect season came in the middle of a 29-game unbeaten string that began in October 1947 and continued until October 1949. By 1949, even Browns followers were so weary of constant and even predictable victory celebrations, they simply stopped coming to the games. Thus the Browns, because of their overwhelming domination, contributed to the demise of the AAFC.

No one team ever seriously challenged the Browns but the San Francisco 49ers, also destined to wind up in the NFL, came the closest. They defeated the Browns in 1946 and again in 1949 and came close twice in the flawless 1948 season.

Both teams were 10-0 when they met in Cleveland before 82,769, the largest crowd in pro football history up to that time. Cleveland won 14-7 and had an even closer call two weeks later in San Francisco in a 31-28 squeaker.

The Chicago Bears sailed through the 1942 NFL schedule undefeated and untied. The reigning NFL champs, the Bears, were favorites to win their third consecutive title when they met the Washington Redskins in the 1942 Championship game. However, the Redskins defense was up to the task and surprised the Bears 14-6. The Redskin victory had an extra measure of satisfaction, since it was the same Bears team that two years earlier humiliated Washington 73-0 in the 1940 title game.

Having an undefeated and untied regular season, only to lose in the championship game, was not a new experience for the Bears. In 1934, the New York Giants upset the 13-0 Bears were upset 30-13 in the championship game.

http://www.profootballhof.com/history/decades/1940s/undefeated.jsp

[Lord Avalon]

There were undefeated (but tied) teams in the pre-championship game era (when you just had to finish with the best record to be the champion):

American Professional Football Association/NFL
1920 Akron Pros 8-0-3
1922 Canton Bulldogs 10-0-2
1923 Canton Bulldogs 11-0-1 (APFA changed name to NFL)
1929 Green Bay Packers 12-0-1

Also http://www.nfl.com/history/chronology/1921-1930

[-Jrabbit]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
What if it was a forfeit? The way it works in the olympics, you cheat you get stripped of your medals. The players who didn't cheat get rewarded. To me the appropriate penalty would have been a forfeit of the game against the Jets, until the Pats came clean and stopped cheating. Suspension of Belichick as well, something that would actually mean something and not a wrist slap.

All righty then. Ben, your finely-honed sense of moral righteousness is impressive. But frankly, no, it does not apply to videotaping in the same way it does to blood doping. Both are "cheating."

Just like murder and shoplifting are both "crimes."

Let the punishment fit the crime.

I know I'm not going to change your mind, Ben, and I do respect your opinion, however myopic and misguided it may be IMO. The videotaping incident was a blip, and to my understanding, had no effect on that day's game. New England's stated use of the tape was to study opponents signals FOR LATER USAGE. (And of course, a smart team would change its signals, just like a smart catcher does in baseball.)

The idea that a team should forfeit a game over a minor off-field event is overreaction in the extreme. Again, IMO. OK, I've had my say. Moving on.

BTW, very cool option pass from The Original Adrian Peterson to Bernard Berrian while I was typing this...

[Theben]

The Saints fans are really gonna hate the Bears if they rob them of playoff hopes 2 years in a row...

[Lord Avalon]

So, as expected, the Lions do not win 10 games even if you add in pre-season. They did do a little better than I thought they would. Starting 6-2? Whoda thunk it? But they were only setting up their fans for the 1-7 finish.

[-Jrabbit]

The Saints blew their chance last week. It was a fun game today in Chicago, with the Saints going for it on 4th down a bunch of times, even early in the game.

[Donegeal]

Damn bastards running up the score.

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Donegeal
Damn bastards running up the score.

Oh Donegeal, old Cowboys and Indians having a fight down in Washington, apparently someone questioned someones level of testosterone

[Lord Avalon]

Despite the Boys' getting the turnover and FG, things are looking good for the Skins, up 10-3, as the Vikings are losing 14-3 to the Broncos, and the Saints already lost.

[-Jrabbit]

It's amazing to me that the Redskins will end up in the playoffs, especially considering that Santana Moss and Portis were less than dependable, and they lost their starting QB a few weeks ago.

Pretty darned impressive.

[SlowwHand]

Three NFC East teams in playoffs.

[Lord Avalon]

FWIW, playoff team results for last (meaningless) game:

Won: Pats, Pack, Bolts

Lost: Giants, Boys, Bucs, Seahawks, Jags, Steelers

Colts yet to play the Titans, for whom the game is important.

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Three NFC East teams in playoffs.

Wasnt some so called expert declaring the NFC EAST pushovers or maybe unworthy?

I must be wrong

Still....

[SlowwHand]

That does sound true. I think you're right. Who could it be?