Top 8 NFL regular season Power Rankings, 1972

[74_75_78_79_]

Who's going to hold Miami's notoriously 'soft' schedule against them and not place them at #1? Just how high can Green Bay be ranked considering wins vs Dallas & SF, at Clev in opener, and sweeping 8-5-1 Lions? That said, Redskins & Raiders did beat them as well as each having a better record. Just the same, Devine's Pack had to have had the toughest schedule of all playoff teams. Dallas are defending-Champs (who pounded Mia in that very SB), they beat Steelers, Lions, and FWIW G-men in Week #2, but in addition to losing to the Pack as already mentioned, they also lost to SF & Wash (really shouldn't count their rematch win against them on Week #13 considering that Redskins already clinched the division).

[74_75_78_79_]

1) Dolphins
2) Redskins
3) Packers
4) Forty Niners
5) Cowboys
6) Steelers
7) Raiders
8) Browns

I tried to entertain a reason to place someone else at #1, but easy-enough decided not to. 14-0 is 14-0 and it's not as if Miami "came out of nowhere" nor didn't have a coach named Shula. Redskins were 'new' to the playoffs albeit having Allen as their coach so #2 is where I placed them. They beat the Pack, swept 8-6 G-men, beat Dallas and their Week #13 loss to them...yes, it's already been said. Didn't think I'd place Raiders as low as I did, but at Green Bay and splitting with 8-6 KC were their only two wins vs above-500 teams. The Pack winning against who they won against gives them an easy #3 with me. Funny how they laid such an egg in their rematch playoff at Wash. I allowed SF beating Dallas and Dallas beating Steelers and Steelers beating Raiders to dictate #4-thru-#7. As for an 'honorable-mention', I think it's a pick-em between just two. You got the Bengals who split with Steelers, beat KC (on the road) & Giants; and then you got Vikings who split with Green Bay and swept 8-5-1 Detroit, but is it saying much considering that Lions' only win vs an above-500 team was the opener vs G-men?

[ChrisBabcock]

Nearly identical to my list other than I have the Steelers up a few notches.

1. Dolphins
2. Redskins
3. Steelers
4. Packers
5. 49ers
6. Cowboys
7. Raiders
8. Browns

Like you said, going into this I really thought a team would pop out to me other than Miami and take the #1 spot. But you can't argue with how they rolled through the regular season, although with a soft-ish schedule. I thought maybe I'd give Washington the top spot but I can't overlook dropping their last 2. Speaking of Miami, were they actually the favorites to win it all? I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't and that the thought would have been they'd lose to stiffer competition at some point in the playoffs. Granted they were underdogs in the SB, correct? What was the perception back then? I'm curious. Hopefully someone can chime in.

[JohnH19]

The Dolphins were 2 point underdogs in the SB because they struggled to beat both Cleveland and Pittsburgh while Washington steamrolled Green Bay and Dallas. In retrospect, it's clear that Tom Landry made an error when he gave Roger Staubach the start in the NFC Championship game but the Redskins definitely looked primed to win it all while Miami looked anything but invincible.

[Jay Z]

GB against Washington wasn't a blowout, it was 10-3 after 3 quarters.

Packers did not match up well against the Redskins. Packers had a big special teams advantage all over, but Redskins special teams were always great too, and with Kilmer they were willing to play ball control. The advantage should have been Marcol vs. Curt Knight, but Knight suddenly got hot and made 7 straight in this game and against the Cowboys.

[JohnH19]

Right, and it finished 16-3, so the victory was fairly decisive. I was simply trying to explain why Washington was favored in the SB. I didn't say I agreed with it. In fact, at the time I was quite surprised that the perfect Dolphins were the underdog.

[BD Sullivan]

The Dolphins were 2 point underdogs in the SB because they struggled to beat both Cleveland and Pittsburgh while Washington steamrolled Green Bay and Dallas. In retrospect, it's clear that Tom Landry made an error when he gave Roger Staubach the start in the NFC Championship game but the Redskins definitely looked primed to win it all while Miami looked anything but invincible.

For the first quarter of the Browns game, Miami was dominating, picking up their first touchdown on a blocked punt return. Then they fell behind and even with the lead had to pick off a pass in the final minute to clinch the game, with Cleveland sitting on the Miami 35.

[74_75_78_79_]

With a clear head, not knowing what would actually happen, I would have placed Miami #1 at regular-season's end in Power Rankings as I already did here on this thread. However, after the championship games I likely would have leaned toward Washington to win it. The way they held Packers & defending-Champ Cowboys to 3 pts apiece as Miami, yes, allowed Cleveland and new-to-playoffs Pittsburgh to give them good games (even if the latter was on the road). And I would have been surpirsed at the convincing (should have been 17-0 instead of 14-7) result. Just like the '89 Forty Niners actually truly "arrived" that previous January ('88 playoffs), the more-dominating '73 Dolphins arrived...Super Bowl VII itself.

[Rupert Patrick]

My postseason prediction system, which is 70 percent accurate in picking the winners of postseason games based on information available before the fact, can be used to play out a postseason. I played out all possible postseason games for 1972, applying home field advantage when AFC teams played AFC teams and NFC teams played NFC teams, and disregarded home field advantage was when teams from different conferences played one another (i.e. the Super Bowl). These are the won lost records of the eight playoff teams:

1 - Miami 7-0
2 - Pittsburgh 6-1
3 - Washington 5-2
4 - Oakland 4-3
5 - Green Bay 3-4
6 - Dallas 2-5
7 - San Francisco 1-6
8 - Cleveland 0-7

It sometimes works out this way, where each team on the list beat every team on the list below it.

[74_75_78_79_]

My postseason prediction system, which is 70 percent accurate in picking the winners of postseason games based on information available before the fact, can be used to play out a postseason. I played out all possible postseason games for 1972, applying home field advantage when AFC teams played AFC teams and NFC teams played NFC teams, and disregarded home field advantage was when teams from different conferences played one another (i.e. the Super Bowl). These are the won lost records of the eight playoff teams:

1 - Miami 7-0
2 - Pittsburgh 6-1
3 - Washington 5-2
4 - Oakland 4-3
5 - Green Bay 3-4
6 - Dallas 2-5
7 - San Francisco 1-6
8 - Cleveland 0-7

It sometimes works out this way, where each team on the list beat every team on the list below it.

Pretty interesting. Steelers vs Washington seems to be the most intriguing matchup we didn't get to see between these eight playoff teams. It was made into a MNF game the following year at the 'Burgh with Steelers winning, 21-16. Three different QBs threw 2-INTs apiece: Kilmer, Hanratty, Gilliam (Bradshaw didn't play).