As Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium draws near, The Post ranks the 10 best teams ever to make it to the big game:
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1. 1985 Bears, Super Bowl XX
AP Mike Ditka’s bunch was so cocky, they made the 1986 Mets look humble. They had the hubris to not only record but release the Super Bowl Shuffle before the playoffs had even started. As Bear Bryant said, “It ain’t bragging if it’s true,’’ and this team was The Truth.
They had Walter Payton in the backfield, plucky Jim McMahon under center and the arguably the NFL’s greatest defense, led by Mike Singletary and coordinated by Buddy Ryan. They went 15-1 in the regular season, outscoring their foes 456 to 198, and just got better in the postseason. They drilled the Giants 21-0 and devastated the Patriots 46-10, with New England offensive lineman Ron Wooten admitting, “Before the end, it kind of felt like we were the team that the Globetrotters play all the time.’’
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2. 1972 Dolphins, Super Bowl VII
AP Still the NFL’s only unbeaten team, Don Shula’s Dolphins finished first in both offense and defense, boasted 10 Pro Bowlers and won by an average of 15 points per game. So why aren’t they No. 1? They were unblemished, but not perfect.
They had one of the softest schedules ever, their foes combining for less than a .400 winning percentage and their 11.0 on Pro Football Reference’s Simple Rating System was middling at best. While the Bears mauled their victims, the Dolphins squeaked by theirs, edging the Steelers 21-17 in the AFC Championship, and were underdogs in their 14-7 Super Bowl victory against the Redskins.
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3. 1991 Redskins, Super Bowl XXVI
AP The Cowboys may have been the Team of the ’90s with their three Super Bowl wins, but their NFC East rivals may have had the single best team of the decade, with a hefty 16.6 Simple Rating.
The Redskins outscored their opponents 485-224 — an average of 16 points a game — and went 17-2, beating the Falcons, Lions and Bills in the postseason by a 102-41 margin. It’s easy to see how, with eight Pro Bowlers and an offensive line that gave journeyman quarterback Mark Rypien more time than he’d ever need to find receivers Art Monk, Gary Clark and Ricky Sanders.
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4. 1984 49ers, Super Bowl XIX
AP It’s hard to determine which team from the great 49ers dynasty was the best, but the ’84 unit stands above the rest, perhaps the most underrated squad of all time. Like the 1998 Yankees, they were so good they made winning look boring. That’s high praise.
The 49ers rolled to an 18-1 record and dominated their foes by an average of 15 points a game. They led the league in defense despite Fred Dean holding out until mid-November, finished second to Dan Marino’s Dolphins on offense and sent 10 players to the Pro Bowl, including the entire secondary. They faced a high-scoring 14-win Dolphins team in the Super Bowl and harassed Marino in an easy 38-16 win.
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5. 1999 Rams, Super Bowl XXXIV
AP The Rams went from 4-12 a season earlier to winning the Super Bowl, and Kurt Warner went from bagging groceries four years earlier to winning the league MVP.
The Greatest Show on Turf sprinted their way to 526 points in a 13-3 regular season, averaging nearly 33 points a game. They had six Pro Bowlers, including Warner and Marshall Faulk. And just in case you think their defense stunk, think again; the Rams ranked fourth in the NFL, allowing just 15 points, beat the Buccaneers 11-6 in the NFC Championship and the physical Titans 23-16 in the Super Bowl thanks to a tackle at the 1-yard-line.
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6. 1989 49ers, Super Bowl XXIV
AP The 49ers went from grinding out wins earlier in the decade to the Montana and Jerry Rice aerial show. Despite Bill Walsh moving into the broadcast booth after their 1988 title, they went 14-2 in the regular season, Montana setting a career-best with a 112.4 QB rating and Rice adding 1,483 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns.
The two losses they did suffer were by a total of five points. They were so dominant in their title defense, Terry Bradshaw said of their Super Bowl matchup against Denver: “There’s no way the 49ers can lose. It could be 55-3 by halftime.” It was only 27-3 at the break, but the final score hit that famous double-dime: 55-10.
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7. 1975 Steelers, Super Bowl X
AP Much like the 49ers of the 1980s, it’s difficult to pick one Pittsburgh team to stand above the rest during the 1970s, when they won four Super Bowls. The 1979 squad had a stellar offense and still-stout defense, but the nod goes to the ’75 bunch.
They went 12-2, won by an average of 15 points a game and boasted a stunning 11 Pro Bowlers. They allowed just 162 points all season, and got four catches for 161 yards from Lynn Swann — who had been hospitalized with a concussion just two weeks before — to beat the Cowboys 21-17 in the Super Bowl.
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8. 2007 Patriots, Super Bowl XLII
AP No, they didn’t win, but they belong on this list as probably the best of Bill Belichick’s teams and possibly the greatest team never to win (the 1968 Colts might argue that, however). Even though they fell short in the Super Bowl against the Giants, the ’07 Pats remain the only team to go 16-0 in the regular season.
Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Wes Welker helped the Patriots shatter the all-time NFL scoring record. They routed their victims by more than 19 points a game, and if not for David Tyree catching a ball with his head, likely would be atop this list.
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9. 1971 Cowboys, Super Bowl VI
Tom Landry alternated quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Craig Morton for the first half of the season, and Dallas went just 4-3. But after Landry stuck with Staubach in the second half, the talent-rich Cowboys — with eight Pro Bowlers — went undefeated the rest of the campaign.
Staubach’s scrambling, the running of Duane Thomas and speed of Bob Hayes made them dangerous, while Bob Lilly anchored the defense. They smothered the 49ers 14-3 in the NFC Championship, and the Dolphins 24-3 to win their first Super Bowl.
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10. 1986 Giants, Super Bowl XXI
AP It sure didn’t start out looking like Big Blue’s year, with running back Joe Morris holding out until four hours before the opener, which they lost to Dallas, and top WR Lionel Manuel hurt much of the season. Oh, but was that defense good — no, make that great.
League MVP Lawrence Taylor had 20½ sacks, Carl Banks was great, and after routing San Francisco, 49-3, and Washington, 17-0, they closed the deal with a 39-20 rout of Denver in the title game. Quarterback Phil Simms went 22-of-25 for 304 yards, three touchdowns and no picks to earn the MVP and spur the Giants’ first Super Bowl win.