Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Seeing both the Pats & Bears respectively ahead of each conference thus far, and many likely not seeing either of them as 'best' in their conference, inspires this thread. From Colts/Vikings in '70 to all the way thru last year's Chiefs/Eagles, and all in-between, who do you consider the weakest such two-some?

Me? I admittedly think '92. San Fran was SB-caliber to me, but not too much so; I thought Dallas was better going in (winning at Candlestick by 10 did not surprise me). It's my 11-5 Steelers in Cowher's first year who may be weak enough to bring both of them down.

2021...considering that I felt defending-Champs, Tampa Bay, were the best team all along and not Green Bay, and thinking Titans not being all that special, makes that two-some a candidate as well.

If you like, you can also mention a late-season two-some such as aforementioned current Pats/Bears.

My first thought was 2021 when seeing this thread.

Not sure I'd call this a "weak" such twosome, but how about this year? I, personally, see Denver winning the AFC but they're not a consensus shoe-in going into these playoffs. And I respect Seattle enough, but they seem like an even lesser consensus. Stafford's Rams (and Eagles still) seem to be getting more talk and yet LA lost to Seattle last week. These two are no '92 or '21, but no one seems to be mistaking this very Den/Sea pairing for 2013.

A trivia question that came up on 'Get Up' this morning - who was the first HC to finish top-seed in both conferences being that Sean Payton obviously just accomplished it? Andy Reid, they said, was the second one to do so and then they said Tom Coughlin was the first ('99 Jags, '08 Giants).

They didn't mention Holmgren!

EDIT - wait, Mike indeed did it with two different teams, but in the same (NFC) conference!

Dan Reeves finished just 2nd-seed in '98, and the same with Parcells in '96 and also '98. Maybe (maybe) 2007 had he hung with Big D in 2007, but - like Holmgren - it would have been both in same conference.

It, admittedly, would have taken me a while - or maybe never - for me to guess Coughlin being the first.


PS - another one to, maybe, at least mention...1970? Colts, of course, seemed flawed. And though Vikings looked quite very strong, downgrade at QB from the year before. And another thing about them that seems to get lost in it all...not much a running game either (Foreman years away).