Super Bowl Winning Team's Record the PREVIOUS Year | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Super Bowl Winning Team's Record the PREVIOUS Year

mikethewreck

mikethewreck

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I did a little research on how the Super Bowl winning team did the year before winning the Super Bowl. I went back 15 years. Here are the Super Bowl winners and their records the year before:

YEAR RECORD __SB WINNER
2008_ N/A _______Pittsburgh Steelers
2007 10-6 (Pit)___NY Giants
2006 8-8 (NYG)___Indianapolis Colts
2005 14-2 (Ind)___Pittsburgh Steelers
2004 15-1 (Pit)____NE Patriots
2003 14-2 (NE)____NE Patriots
2002 9-7 (NE)____Tampa Bay Bucs
2001 9-7 (TB)____NE Patriots
2000 5-11 (NE)___Baltimore Ravens
1999 8-8 (Bal)____St. Louis Rams
1998 4-12 (StL)___Denver Broncos
1997 12-4 (Den)___Denver Broncos
1996 13-3 (Den)___Green Bay Packers
1995 11-5 (GB)____Dallas Cowboys
1994 12-4 (Dal)____San Francisco 49ers
1993 10-6 (SF)

Average: 10.3 wins, 5.7 losses

I was pretty surprised looking at these records. Only two teams went from losing schedules one year to winning the Super Bowl the next (the Bradys and the Warners, both teams having "found" a probable Hall of Fame QB), and only one team (Baltimore with the awesome D) went from 8-8 to Super Bowl the next year. For 12 of the 15 years, the winning Super Bowl team had a winning season the year before, sometimes a very good winning season (meaning they had poorer draft picks, etc.).

I had thought the Dolphins might profit from a losing season in 2009 to set up for a Super Bowl run but the statistics are not kind. Perhaps this is the year to make the run instead since Miami is in the "sweet spot" record wise.

What do you think?
 
Miami likes making History. The only undefeated team for instance. They want to win the Super Bowl this year. To be the only team to win the bowl in their own stadium.
 
Another thing that jumped out at me was how many Super Bowl teams had Hall of Fame (or future HoF) QBs. One could argue only the 2002 Bucs (Brad Johnson) and the 2000 Ravens (Trent Dilfer), both teams with very very good defenses, had average QBs (although the books for Eli Manning and Ben Rothlesburger are incomplete, and their teams had good defenses too). Young, Aikman, Favre, Elway, Warner, Brady, Peyton Manning...hmmm....although SB wins are also bonus points for Canton.
 
I'm a big Chad Pennington fan, but looking at the QBs that won the SB in the past 15 years...unless you have a very very good defense your QB better be Canton-ready. And I don't know that our defense is THAT good. And Chad is up for the Hall of Very Good, not the Hall of Fame.

That being said, it looks like most SB teams were good to very good teams that took the next step the next year (or maybe the breaks lined up their way). Why not us?

NE went from 5-11 in 2000 to 3 of 4 SB wins in the next 4 years. Will the key for the Dolphins be a Michigan QB too? Looking at the results from the past decade and a half (and going back further would get me into more Aikman and Montana SBs), maybe we do need to play the kid.

But if our D is VERY stout and Chad P plays well, there is the TB/Bal/Pitt (Rothlesberger year 1) model where a non-superstar QB can ride a killer D all the way (and the Giants may have been that kind of team in 2007, too).
 
The 10 wins doesn't guarantee the SB win. I think you have to be a good team ready to make the next step to win the SB unless you pick up a crushing D (2000 Baltimore) or a HoF/near HoF QB (Brady/Warner). It'd be interesting to study why the "good' teams so often DON'T make the improvement to win the SB.
 
I think that the biggest thing that I don't see talked about often enough on this board, from last year, and how it translates to this upcoming year, is injuries. I really do. We were relatively unscathed last year, which I know is a benefactor of our new training program, also some part good luck, but we have several key positions where an injury can doom any playoff hopes, let alone SB hopes. Pennington, Ronnie, Jake Long, Jason Ferguson, and Channing are irreplaceable to me. We are not going to all of a sudden be turnover prone because of a difficult schedule, nor do I see that having any bearing on our ability to not have a lot of penalties. I believe we will be very competitive, and all you can ask is to get into the playoffs, anything from there, is anyone's guess. You look at that list, the 1st year PIT won, if you remember they went from 7-2 to 7-5 really fast, and were by no means the fav to win it all. Same thing with IND, they got killed when JAX ran for 375 on them. And I don't need to say much about NYG, at NO POINT in that season did anyone think big things from them. And last year, any one of about 8 teams could have won, and you wouldn't have been surprised. We are built alot like those PIT and NYG teams, though I think the one thing you have to remember this is still only year 2 of the Trifecta, and yes we have really fixed many of our gaping holes, we haven't had the drafts yet to build the depth necessary. You saw all the injuries PIT had last year, a testament to their drafting ability. Our 2009 season comes down to our injury list, if you ask me.
 
Just wanted to point out that Chad Pennington is currently the most accurate passer in NFL history.

Maybe that doesnt qualify him as a HoF QB, but it certainly shows he isnt a chump that needs to be replaced.
 
I think it'd be more accurate to view the QB's on the given teams in light of their situations - rather than the blanket "HOF or great defense."

I think Aikman was a very good - probably great - QB. I do think he had maybe the best situation of any QB ever. To start, the Cowboys had a great defense, so he rarely had to force things. Speaking of the offense, though, he had one of the top 2 or 3 most dominate O-lines in NFL history - resulting in an almost unstoppable rushing attack. E. Smith wasn't so bad, either. Then, he had Irvin and Harper on the outside and Novacek at TE. Pretty much any and every luxury a QB could hope for.

S. Young's legacy would have been much greater were it not for those Cowboys.

Favre was a dominate QB at the time of his SB win. But, he also had a very good - to great - D, and a ton of weapons.

Elway was not in his prime when he won his SB's. He was still a very good QB, but he benefited from a situation much like Aikman's - minus the great D. T. Davis - with the help of a great O-line - was the most dominate player in the NFL at the time. If the opposing D didn't sell out to the run, Denver's ground game would crush them. At TE they had Sharpe; at WR's they had Mccaffrey and Smith. People forget just how good they were.

Warner - to me - is not a HOF QB. He's excelled in two situations: with the Rams, where he had maybe the greatest all-purpose back in NFL history (Faulk) and spectacular group of WR's. The other last year, where he had the best WR tandem in some time. Also, the Rams had a great O-line, allowing him to throw 20-yard square-ins to Holt and Bruce.

While Brady is definitely a HOF QB, his SB teams were lead by the defense. He put up big points in those SB's, but throughout those seasons, his offenses were hardly explosive.

P. Manning, again, is obviously a HOF QB, and the Colts had a great offense for a long time, but the year they won, their D lead them through the playoffs (after being terrible all year) with the return of B. Sanders. Manning didn't play well for most of the Playoffs.

. . .

So, to me, it seems that a great O-line and/or great D predict a SB winner just as much as a great QB - especially in recent years.
 
j-off-her-doll said:
Warner - to me - is not a HOF QB. He's excelled in two situations: with the Rams, where he had maybe the greatest all-purpose back in NFL history (Faulk) and spectacular group of WR's. The other last year, where he had the best WR tandem in some time. Also, the Rams had a great O-line, allowing him to throw 20-yard square-ins to Holt and Bruce.
Click to expand...

You tell ME then why Leinart didn't lead them to a Superbowl
 
The Chaos Path said:
You tell ME then why Leinart didn't lead them to a Superbowl
Click to expand...

and why Marc Bulger couldn't duplicate the same success?

Kurt Warner is a great QB, especially in the post-season (unlike Peyton Manning who also has had great weapons). He's not some guy who's the product of players around him like Bulger.
 
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