'74 Steelers would beat '07 Patriots???

I know the '84 49ers team has been mentioned on this thread, but I think they are often overlooked as one of the greatest teams ever. They were 15-1, and their only loss was by 3 pts to the Steelers. In the playoffs, they won their last two games 23-0 (against the Bears who won the super bowl the next year) and 38-16 (against an exceptional Dolphins team). I would peg their dominance as in the same leauge as the '85 Bears. Just seemed like they didn't get the same media hoopla as the Bears, partly because Mario was so great during the '84 season and partly because the Bears defense in '85 was so exciting.

You don't go undefeated simply by being a good team. It involves an insane amount of luck and willing not to rest any of your players late in the season.

Pats still have to win out to be included in any "greatest ever" discussion. They won't. All it takes is one week. The Eagles nearly got there. Teams will learn from what the Eagles almost accomplished.

Alan

Runningart2004 wrote:

Pats still have to win out to be included in any "greatest ever" discussion. They won't. All it takes is one week. The Eagles nearly got there. Teams will learn from what the Eagles almost accomplished.

Not at all. They don't have to win out to be included in the "greatest ever" discussion any more than the '85 Bears or '84 Niners did. If they go 15-1 in the regular season and win the SB, they'll have just as much of a claim as those other teams. But if they go 19-0, they'd get the clear nod over the others.

In addition, all the talk about how the Eagles found a "blueprint" to beat the Pats is pretty hilarious. It assumes that Belichick is a moron and didn't see the things that everyone else did. The Pats can and likely will lose a game this season, but it won't be because of a un-fixed weakness that the Eagles exploited.

I don't know if this is just a bad article or if this guy is just a bad sportswriter in general but look at this analogy:

"can we declare the University of Hawaii the greatest college football team of all time if the Rainbows finish this season unbeaten?"

First, in terms of quality opponents, Hawaii has only played Boise St. at home while the Pats beat the Colts and Cowboys on the road. Second, in order to go 19-0, the Pats will have to win the playoffs against the best teams in the NFL, and unforunately there are no playoffs in college football. Third, there have been many teams that have gone undefeated in college football while only one in the NFL. Nice try Eddy.

The Steelers best team was probably '76. They had a lot of injuries early, then their defense gave up 28 points in their final 9 games. Both of their 1000 yard running backs (Harris/Blier) were injured for a playoff game that they lost to eventual champion Oakland, a very good team historically as well. A lot of things go into an undefeated season, primarily the luck of avoiding injury.

What these comparisons ask is that, all other things being equal (age, coaching information/tactics, weight machines, drugs, etc.), which team would be better. So, if the mid-70s Steelers all had access to the same drugs, weight machines, surgeries, sophisticated film study, etc. they would presumably be much stronger, faster, more sophisticated in game strategy, than they actually were. And now compare those Steelers in the context of their league to these Patriots. Those Steelers were absolutely loaded, relative to the league at the time, with Hall of Famers all over the place on both sides of the ball, whether Franco Harris, Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, John Stallworth (later in the decade), L.C. Greenwood, Jack Lambert, Mean Joe Greene, ..., whereas these Patriots probably have significantly fewer hall of famers, thanks to free agency, no good running backs, and some excellent talent at a number of positions (Brady, Moss, ...). My money's on the Steelers, all other things being equal.

Well, that's one way to consider that question. Personally, I think the context-be-damned, objective "Who would win if they played?" is a more exciting question.

The Colt's weren't that injured? Harrison did not play. Gonzalez was in the game for only 1 play and Ugoh was out as well. The defense was also missing 2 of the starting linebackers (not stars, but vital role players).

Having two of your top three receivers out of the game is a very big problem. Imagine is Moss was injured and could not play in that game. I think the outcome might have been a little different. Manning was throwing to guys that were on the practice squad a few days earlier.

However, that pats were missing a couple of key guys on defense. Hopefully, these two teams will meet up again in the playoffs for another classic game.

HRE wrote:

That last sentence really shows what a genius you are. So, yeah, the guy is serious and maybe correct.

Any modern football team would wipe the field with a team from that era. You wouldn't even need to pass the ball. With the size and speed of today's lineman and the athletic abilities of the skill players, it wouldn't even be close. No matter how dirty or rough the Steelers were, they wouldn't make an impact as they would be out of the play.

The other thing that people seem to ignore is the complexity of the game. Frankly, the coaching is a lot more sophisticated and Jack Lambert would just be another yahoo overrunning plays today.

In this hypothetical game are the Patriots blatantly cheating? Check out the asterisk on the NY Post NFL Lines. It's funny because it's true.

http://www.nypost.com/sports/betting/postline.htm

pvs wrote:

If they played today Patriots would win. Played in the 70's, it would be a WHOLE new world for the young puppies when they experienced Joe Greene's head slap after every snap and Lambert's spitting while you were down on the ground .

Whatever, I assume the Patriots would play just as dirty if they were transported back to play by those rules. The difference in the game would come down to today's athletes being much larger and faster, and the offensive and defensive schemes being much more complex on the Pats' side. It would be a bloodbath, and Joe Greene wouldn't seem so mean after that.

mangenius wrote:

In this hypothetical game are the Patriots blatantly cheating? Check out the asterisk on the NY Post NFL Lines. It's funny because it's true.

http://www.nypost.com/sports/betting/postline.htm

That may not be the best thing for the post to be putting in every box where it mentions the Patriots. When the Jets have to travel north to massachusetts, an enlarged copy of the "* Caught Cheating" will be all over the Patriots locker room. I am not sure the Patriots need more motivation to beat up and run up on the Jets.

Of course it can't be any worse than what the Celtics did to the Knicks last night. When a bunch of bench warmers increase an already astronomical lead it is time to get a new coach.