Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

But how would that apply to a brand new playoff alignment ?
The Rams got screwed ... Even John Unitas felt the teams should have played again the following week, unaware of how the points tie-breaker worked ...

I think statistically the best overall Rams team was the 1973 team. Whenever I would run "best ever" computer simulations on my IBM, the 1973 Rams would always do well. They were tough on defense, incredibly efficient on offense, and could both run and pass. Hadl's injury during that season really hamstrung the Rams in the postseason. That said, the Rams played in the 3 stooges division and tended to beat up on weak NFC West competition. The 1975 Rams won their division by 7 games in a 14 game schedule (12-2, 5-9, 4-10, 2-12).

Brian wolf wrote:But how would that apply to a brand new playoff alignment ?
The Rams got screwed ... Even John Unitas felt the teams should have played again the following week, unaware of how the points tie-breaker worked ...

I have sometimes wondered if Pete Rozelle rewarded the Green Bay Packers for winning the first Super Bowl by giving them the home field advantage in the playoffs.

ChrisBabcock wrote:To answer you original question... I'm tempted to go with 1967. First in scoring, first in points allowed. Their greatest championship team I'd pick 1999.

Regular season-wise, the '67 Rams were quite excellent! Having to run into Lombardi's last championship team for the very first playoff game clearly didn't help. Not that it should be an excuse, but playing at County instead of the Coliseum didn't help...and then the next year they not making the playoffs at all due to being stuck in the same division as the 13-1 Colts! Their '69 installment a little like the Saints forty years later in that they lost their last three after being unbeaten up until; only they go one-and-done due to having to play...at 12-2 SB-bound Minnesota right away! But they gave them all they could handle! It was almost they vs Cleveland instead for the League Championship!

As for other great non-title Ram-squads, you can also mention '49 & '50 whose regular season body-of-work looked better than '51; just as 2001's looked better than '99!

Saban wrote:

Brian wolf wrote:But how would that apply to a brand new playoff alignment ?
The Rams got screwed ... Even John Unitas felt the teams should have played again the following week, unaware of how the points tie-breaker worked ...

I have sometimes wondered if Pete Rozelle rewarded the Green Bay Packers for winning the first Super Bowl by giving them the home field advantage in the playoffs.

I also think it was no coincidence that Lombardi's Packers got the home advantage for the first playoff game.

In some ways, maybe that 2001 Rams team was their best of all-time despite Warner having thumb issues. Despite the officials allowing the Patriots defenders to mug and brutalize the Rams skill positions in the SB, Warner still tied the game towards the end but nobody thought Weis and a cool headed kid named Brady would execute the clock that well and win it with a FG in regulation. The Rams really got lax in their zone defenses on that drive ...

Were a lot of those '70's Rams teams a product of playing in a poor division?

This has got me thinking. How would you rank the Rams teams of the 70's (or at least once they started winning their division on a consistent basis starting in the '73 season)?

The one that ended up making it to the Super Bowl was arguably the least impressive Rams team since the early 70's. They just happened to upset a Cowboys team that was having a relatively down year (by Cowboys teams standards of that era and the '79 Dallas team may have been the worst Cowboys team from the '75-'83 time period). And then that Rams team got "Hey Hey Tampa Bay' in the conference championship game who they beat 9-0.

The 79 Ram team rallied at the end of the year and played good football. They had the Steelers on the ropes in the SB but allowed big pass plays to Stallworth that killed them. If Ferragamo doesnt throw that interception late in the game they may have won ...

Brian wolf wrote:In some ways, maybe that 2001 Rams team was their best of all-time despite Warner having thumb issues. Despite the officials allowing the Patriots defenders to mug and brutalize the Rams skill positions in the SB, Warner still tied the game towards the end but nobody thought Weis and a cool headed kid named Brady would execute the clock that well and win it with a FG in regulation. The Rams really got lax in their zone defenses on that drive ...

Yes, the Greatest Show on Turf in 2001 was probably clicking on all cylinders more so than that 1999 team. But the 2001 defense was absolutely atrocious. That team won a lot of games with scores like 51-38.

^^^^^^
EDIT!.... My bad. That was the 2000 team!