YoMamma said:
Bingo! That's the answer. I scrolled this thread and couldn't believe the early '80s Raider combo of Mike Haynes and Lester Hayes had not been mentioned. If you ask this question to NFL historians I bet that duo would get the plurality of votes as best combo ever.
That was a monster team, period, the '83 Raiders. I attended that game in Tampa. They destroyed an excellent Redskin team. Haynes and Hayes blanketed Art Monk and Charlie Brown with tenacious man-to-man coverage. My USC friend Mark was right on the money with his analysis before the game. He said Joe Gibbs was with San Diego before Washington and the Raiders had shut down the Charger WRs with physical tactics in the '80 AFC title game. Mark forecast it would happen again, but be much more decisive this time because it was a neutral site not the home field like San Diego enjoyed in '80. I called him immediately after the game in awe. I thought the game was a tossup.
IMO, it was by far the most impressive Super Bowl performance ever. The string of dominant NFC victories in the late '80s thru the mid-'90s came against soft AFC mush, pantyhose passing teams as I call them. The '83 Redskins were a legit power with plenty of Hall of Famers and only two losses all season, both by 1 point. I wouldn't count out that Raider team against any of the best single season NFL teams of all time.