Top 12 NFL regular season Power Rankings, 1993

[74_75_78_79_]

Surprisingly we haven't done this one yet. This a rare year in that '92-thru-'95 stretch where Dallas and San Fran were likely not considered the 'top-2'. A relatively weak year in the Steve Young era despite the offense they had. 10-6, lost to Houston at home who very well is in that top-2. Perhaps Montana's Chiefs, Bills, and even 11-5 G-men may be above SF as well! Okay, let's shuffle 'em up!

[Citizen]

Take away the two early-season losses when Emmitt Smith was holding out (and the fluky Thanksgiving loss to Miami), and the Cowboys were close to being as dominant as they had been the year before. This was one season when the two best teams were in the Super Bowl, and at least for one half, it had the makings of a classic.

Houston ended the season like a house afire, but by clearly K.C. had the book on them. The 49ers took their foot off the gas once they had their division sewn up.

1. Dallas
2. Buffalo
3. San Francisco
4. Kansas City
5. Houston
6. L.A. Raiders
7. N.Y. Giants
8. Green Bay
9. Pittsburgh
10. Detroit
11. Minnesota
12. Denver

[ChrisBabcock]

1. Cowboys... This was the best early/mid 90s Dallas team. Could have been 15-1 if not for Smith's holdout and Leon Lett.
2. Oilers... 11 game win streak puts them here. Too bad the wheels came off next year.
3. Bills... cruised into the playoffs by winning their last 4 but that offense was not as dominant as years prior.
4. 49ers
5. Chiefs... swept the Raiders and beat the Bills convincingly.
6. Giants... 6-2 finish
7. Steelers... other than one playoff game, it seems they always had the Bills number. When the schedule came out I said, "oh great, in Three Rivers on a Monday night. There's a loss."
8/9/10... Packers/Lions/Vikings... This was a strange transitional era for the NFC Central between the 80s Bears and mid 90s Packers. It seems like they were always bunched together.
11. Raiders... Tim Brown and not much else on offense. I was surprised they kept it close in the playoff game @ frigid Buffalo.
12. Broncos... got swept by the Raiders.

[74_75_78_79_]

1. Cowboys... This was the best early/mid 90s Dallas team. Could have been 15-1 if not for Smith's holdout and Leon Lett.

Exactly! Like the '79 Steelers before them...a 1-loss team in disguise of 12-4.

#2 Oilers - forget about obvious Texas-Bowl, Jimmy getting another shot at Buddy (whom he ended up 0-4 against) likely the bigger storyline!

#3 Chiefs - Montana Magic!
#4 Forty Niners - amazing O down stretch until last two games. You're right, Citizen, SF was on cruise-control by then. Just the same, hard to ignore Oilers dominant finish and as for KC...I'll take Joe Cool over Young had the two played in an important '93 game. Late the following year (key word - "late")? Another story.

#5 Bills - relatively unimpressive amongst Bills' early-'90s SB squads, especially that 1-3 stretch vs cream-of-crop where they get doused MNF at the 'Burgh and two weeks later at Arrowhead; then lose at home to...

#6 Raiders - though I'll place 'em beneath the 3-time-defending-AFC-champs anyways; quite an exciting, dangerous offensive squad just the same!

#7 Vikings - 4-1 finish winning at Det, at GB (completing sweep), and home vs KC; win at Den earlier
#8 Lions - "avoided" KC/Raiders/Den, 17-55 loss at home to SF takes the air out of that 3-1 finish (which followed that 0-3 stretch within division).
#9 Giants - lack of quality wins hurts along with 0-2 finish, still a nice return however to their meat-and-potatoes winning days a few years back in both LT and Simms's final year (though 3-44 at SF not the best sendoff).
#10 Packers
#11 Broncos
#12 Steelers - really took a dump after "looking like an NFC team" vs Bills to make it 6-3 (6-1 after that 0-2 start), I didn't want them in playoffs after loss to Seattle penultimate week; however, I became impressed with they bringing Joe & Co to OT at Arrowhead which made me consider it a better overall campaign than 11-5 top-seed the year prior; gave me hope for deeper playoff runs to come.

[7DnBrnc53]

I'll take Joe Cool over Young had the two played in an important '93 game.

Imagine the fallout from the SF sports talk circuit if the Chiefs beat the 49ers that year in SB 28 (that would have taken the Giants beating Dallas in Week 17 for that to happen, though. The Niners didn't have a chance in Dallas in the NFC Title Game). The fans probably would have been all over Steve Young no matter what happened because he couldn't beat their demigod. That could have gotten ugly.

My rankings for 1993 (before playoffs):

1. Cowboys: Not as high on the 90's Cowboys as a lot of people, but the 93 and 94 teams were their best in that era.
2. Oilers: Looked like they were ready to take that final step.
3. Chiefs: Had some quality wins over the Raiders, Bills, and Broncos. They also had veterans like Montana and Allen on their side.
4. 49ers: Not as good of a team as they would be in 94, but clearly the fourth-best team that year.
5. Raiders: Ended the year on a high note. Even though they were flawed (no running game, not a great O-line), they also were a team that other teams really didn't wanna play come playoff time.
6. Bills: I have to put them here because of the other options, but let's face it: This team was a few plays away from being 7-9. The team they were in 94 was the team that they also should have been in 93. I remember watching NFL Primetime in Week 1 of the 1994 season. The Bills hosted the Jets, and there was a play where the Jet RB fumbled the ball, and it bounced right to the Jet TE (I think Fred Baxter, but I am not sure). Tom Jackson said something about how they would have gotten that ball the year before, and I nodded with him in agreement.
7. Giants: Had a nice year, but weren't able to beat teams like the Bills and Cowboys.
8. Steelers: Practically backed their way into the playoffs after a 6-3 start, but were without Foster.
9. Broncos: They beat the Steelers and Chiefs that year at home, but they blew their last two games, and they wouldn't have RB Rod Bernstine for the Raider WC game. Also, their pass defense was exposed against LA in the season finale.
10. Lions: Won the NFC Central.
11. Packers
12. Vikings

[lastcat3]

1. Cowboys... This was the best early/mid 90s Dallas team. Could have been 15-1 if not for Smith's holdout and Leon Lett.

Actually think the '93 Cowboys were far weaker than both the '92 squad and the '94 squad. Yes if Smith never held out they likely would have gone 14-2 or 15-1 however I think that is mainly due in large part because the nfl was overall pretty weak in 1993. Dallas was really the only team that you could categorize as being really really good that year. You couldn't say anybody else was anywhere close to being considered a great team.

The AfC was close to being the weakest it had ever been before (I think the AFC hit its low point in '94) and you knew the best opportunity to knock off the Cowboys was going to be in the NFC Championship game. The Cowboys were able to blow out the Bills in the Super Bowl practically with one hand tied behind their back with Aikman still recovering from his concussion the week before.

[NWebster]

I suppose it's a matter of personal preference but I'm happy that the NFL has never really embraced the 'power ranking' concept, not even sure what the difference between a power ranking and just a ranking is. Everyone hates College Football rankings, seems the NFL resolves the most important issue just fine with a playoff.

[JWL]

I suppose it's a matter of personal preference but I'm happy that the NFL has never really embraced the 'power ranking' concept, not even sure what the difference between a power ranking and just a ranking is. Everyone hates College Football rankings, seems the NFL resolves the most important issue just fine with a playoff.

I think "power" is used so that people know the teams are being ranked based on how well they have played as opposed to ranking them by any number of other reasons.

[Rupert Patrick]

According to my Playoff Prediction System, teams ranked in order from best to worst, with each team ranked defeating all teams below it on the list in round robin play with conference home field advantage taken into consideration (probability of winning conference and Super Bowl in parenthesis):

1 - Dallas (51, 38)
T2 - San Francisco (32, 18)
T2 - Houston (51, 22)
4 - NY Giants (12, 5)
T5 - Buffalo (25, 9)
T5 - Denver (8, 2)
T7 - Kansas City (6, 1)
T7 - Pittsburgh (7, 2)
T9 - Detroit (2, 1)
T9 - Minnesota (1, <1)
T9 - Green Bay (2, 1)
12 - LA Raiders (3, 1)

Tie between San Francisco and Houston occurred because the two teams actually tied in a matchup in round robin play. The other ties were due to A defeats B, B defeats C, C defeats A cycles which sometimes happen with this system.

[sheajets]

That Lett game was ridiculous. Irritated me to no end watching Miami benefit from that. Still remember the announcers reacting incredulously when it happened. "IT'S LEON LETT. LEON LETT. OH NO NOT AGAIN!"

Curious what his excuse was? Did he not know the rule? (if he didn't why would he even be on special teams?) was it just a slip?