Who was the best team in the NFL last year?
 

On another board I'm in a fued with some other Redskins fans that say the Giants were the best team last year because they won the Super Bowl. I say that they weren't the best team and that the winner of the Super Bowl isn't always the best team in the NFL.

So I'm just looking for objective views from fans of all teams so I posted here.

San Francisco 49ers.

For my money it was the Packers.

The Giants were the best team at the right time. Throughout the whole season hard not to go with the Packers though. You get this argument almost every year.

This is an american sport, not soccer where the title is given to the team that gets the most points throughout the season. Playoffs are what matter and the Packers got spanked in their only playoff game.

They certainly did. I see and understand both sides of this argument though. Using a Rolleism at the end of the day we won the Super Bowl so I don't care what others think. I think we're going to do well this year similar to 2008 and prove it wasn't a fluke.

I don't think anyone is saying the Giants didn't play well, but let's face it, they got hot at the right time, had some very fortunate things happen, and did a good job captializing. Every team needs a mixture of good play and luck to win unless you're absolutely dominant. But I think it's hard to look at the season as a whole and say that the Giants were the best team, simply because they weren't.

The NFC East is so tough that they'll have a tough time following it up. I see it shaping up to be much like last year where most teams in the division are one game away from a playoff birth. If you win 10 games in this division this year, you're doing good IMO.

the giants were certainly not the best team last year, barely squeaking into the playoffs and all. They were best when it mattered for them but best overall not even close.

steelers were extremely good all year and then ben got hurt and they just started to **** the bed, but that happens to teams every year. 12-4 with the 4 being swept by the ravens (one week 1, and one abortion of a defensive stand with the game all but won :-( ), an away loss to the niners where ben had a bum ankle and no business in that game, and a loss to the texans....a pretty awesome team last year.

not saying the steelers were the best, just saying they were better than the giants. Id say packers were discount double checking everyone all year and looked like easy SB favorites

Giants. Being "better" only matters if you win the game.

Not sure who the best team was. If it was the regular season which is a marathon, then the Packers just by their insane regular season record. If it's the whole season which includes the playoffs, then obviously us. We were the last team standing. So it all depends what you mean. Regular season I'd go with the Packers.

I just mean, overall, all things considered who do you think the best team was? I guarantee at 8-7 you didn't think your team was the best in the NFL.

Who was 8-8? The Eagles? Well, I liked the Packers all season, but I always go with the last team standing at the end of the marathon, which includes the regular season and playoffs. This past season it was us, and before it was Packers. That's the beauty of it. It's not the BCS or anything like that. Last team standing from the regular season, and playoffs is the best team. I always stuck to that.

Woops, I meant 8-7...

The logic you use doesn't make any sense because the best team doesn't always win. That's the whole premise behind "Any Given Sunday" and "That's why they play the game". I don't even know if the Giants were favored in any of their playoff games or the Super Bowl. I know that right now the odds in vegas are that the Pack are 5:1 and Giants are 25:1 to win the big one and they're usually pretty good at hedging their bets.

I think it's pretty obvious that the Packers were the best team in the NFL last year. Losing one game in a tournament format does not make you a worse team than the team that beat you.

The best team doesn't always win in the NFL. That's one of the great things about this game. The Giants won the Super Bowl, and in the end that's all that matters, but that doesn't mean they were the best team.

Last year the best team was the Packers, just as in 2007 the Patriots were the best team. The Giants and their fans shouldn't give a damn because they have the trophies.

That's sports though. This is nothing new. In my opinion the best team will win, and that's not always the team with the best record. If the best record team wants to be considered the best, then win. Win on that given day when you need to. If you can't then that's tough luck for you. That's the thing, I don't care about the best overall to tell you the truth. It's the best team on that given day.

That's the thing, on that given day, we were the best day. If we weren't we don't win either super bowl.

We strung together days where we were the best team when it mattered the most, hence 2 SB. And true, it really don't matter, like you said at the end of the day 2 SBs is great results for me.

Best team, medium team, terrible team, when the time came when it mattered the most our play was the best. At that given day, we were the best team.

I don't disagree with that train of thought.

I think it was definitely the Packers. When they played the Giants in the playoffs it seemed like a completely different team than what we had seen all season. Like no one had practiced for a month.

I hate these arguments. I know I might come off as a homer, but I would honestly say this no matter what team won last year:

The Super Bowl champion will always be the best team that year. If we were to second-guess seemingly "weaker" champions, whether it would be by total wins, easy paths to victory, and so on, we would go against the very point of competing in the National Football League. Which is finding out which NFL team is the best each year.

Now can you find faults with how the competition is set up? Of course you can disagree with that. For example if you would think that it would be more fair if the twelve teams with the best regular season records advanced to the playoffs, thats totally fine by me.

But to go from there, to use potential flaws of the competition as arguments against the champion? That's silly. The players on those teams don't make the rules. They just compete to win the competition they are currently participating in.

This applies to every team sport, btw.

Champion is a short term type word. The best prove it over and over again.

The Giants have won 2 SB's in the last 4 years but neither year did ANYONE consider them the best team in the NFL. Last year it was the 15-2 Packers and in 2007 it was the 18-1 Pats. Both those teams beat the Giants during the regular season but just because they lose one game in the tournament to the Giants does not mean the Giants were better. It simply means they won at the right time. You play those games over 4/5 times I think the Giants lose.

That's certainly possible. But again, now you're using the "flaws" of the competition format to diminish the Giants' status as champion. The reality of it is that the competiton is built up so that a loss in the playoffs or super bowl is equal to elimination from the competition, and a loss in the regular season can be meaningless.

That's my main point. The champion of any given competition is always the rightful winner. They executed the navigation through the given competition the best of all teams. I'm certainly not arguing that for months last season, the Packers were playing the best football in the NFL. But best team overall? No, that will always be the team who wins it all when it's crunch time.

No one is arguing against the champion. No one is trying to take anything away from the Giants. They won the Super Bowl, that is the greatest achievement in the game. They earned it and will always have it. That said, the Super Bowl Champion and the best team aren't always the same.

Giants fans shouldn't be whining about this topic so much. You don't get a trophy for best team, you don't go in the history books for best team, you don't get much glory for being the best team. At the end of the day, the Super Bowl is all that matters. But just because they won the Super Bowl doesn't mean they were the best team that season.

this is the stupidest topic. every god damn year. If my team won or not, the best team is the champs. the best teams win in crunch time. it's what makes them the best and the champs.

the giants were good enough to make the playoffs and won when it mattered. therefore, they were the best team.

were they the best REGULAR SEASON team? **** no. But that's not the question meow, is it?

Exactly what I wanted to write but could not find the words. Thank you good sir.

Well, I disagree, and I would have disagreed even if the Eagles won the Super Bowl last year in exactly the same fashion as the Giants did.

Would I have posted in this thread to defend them? Well, that's another question, and I probably wouldn't have. But my feelings would be the same.

The champion of any league or tournament or cup or whatever, will always be the best overall team that year. Maybe not the best team for the longest stretch of the season, but the best team overall.

but I'll stop my seemingly homerish whining. Can't wait to get this upcoming season started!

The Packers are probably the most logical choice here; they looked unbeatable for almost the entire season, even when Aaron Rodgers sat out.