'73 Dolphins Ranked 6th Best Team of All-Time
No one will ever doubt the greatness of the 1973 Miami Dolphins.
They mauled opponents by an average of 13.8 points in the regular season, a number that swelled to 17.3 in the playoffs en route to a demoralizing 24-7 Super Bowl victory over the Vikings.
Many consider that 15-2 team (counting playoffs) to be superior to the 1972 team. While the latter was the only squad to be perfect in NFL history, they beat postseason foes by an average of 5.7 points, nearly a third of the '72 version.
In a study utilizing Elo ratings, FiveThirtyEight ranked the best NFL teams of all time, placing the 73' Dolphins sixth and the '72 Dolphins 17th.
The ratings used were described as a "pet metric for evaluating a team's skill level at any given moment."
The Patriots hold down the first and second spots with their 2007 and 2004 teams, respectively. Note: the 2007 Pats with Tom Brady and Randy Moss lost to the Giants in a whacky Super Bowl.
The study is clearly grading teams based on process and overall dominance over the course of a season rather than pure results but to have a team that lost the most important game of their season, whether bad luck had anything to do with it or not, as the best ever has to seem a bit ridiculous to anyone lacking Bostonian ties.
And having the only team to never suffer a loss not only outside the Top 10 but dragging beyond the Top 15? No chance.
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