The best offensive team I've ever seen was the 1999-2001 St. Louis Rams. 1998 Vikings might be the best singe season offensive team I've ever seen even though they choked in the NFC Championship game. 1997-1998 Broncos are up there too. 1998 Jets. I don't remember being blown away by the 1996 Packers. I have to add the 2004 Colts. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mu...05/gallery.bestoffense/content.1.html?cnn=yes
I don't have any problems with that list. The 1994 49ers and 1999 Rams would be my top two choices. Then again, the Rams only scored 34 points in their final two postseason games. Screw them. I'll go with the 1994 49ers at the top spot.
i was just going to say that. the chargers from 79-82 (approx) had an awesome offense. Fouts at QB, John Jefferson, Charlie Joiner and Wes Chandler at WR, Kellen Winslow at Tight end and Chuck muncie running the ball. If they had a better "D" they may have won a Super Bowl. the 1981 season had them in the greatest game I ever saw when they beat the Dolphins and the next week they were in minus 59 degrees playing the Bengals. It was always fun watching that team.
I can't believe they have no Joe Montana-era 49ers. Their 1988-90 teams were awesome--Jerry Rice in his prime, John Taylor. Steve Young was the back-up, of all things. They won back to back Super Bowls, the beating they put on Denver was one of the most lopsided games I ever saw. Certainly better than Grenn Bay, but I guess they couldn't skip another chance to worship the most overrated QB of all time, Brett Favre.
1988 49ers (10-6): 369 points in regular season; 34, 28 and 20 in playoffs 1989 49ers (14-2): 442 points in regular season; 41, 30 and 55 in playoffs 1990 49ers (14-2): 353 points in regular season; 28 and 13 in playoffs 1996 Packers (13-3): 456 points in regular season; 35, 30 and 35 in playoffs
1979 Chargers 12-4, top seed in AFC They pummelled the eventual Super Bowl champion Steelers 35-7 late in the season, which was the tiebreaker for the top seed. 5th ranked offense 4th ranked defense leading rushers- Clarence Williams 752 yards Mike Thomas 353 yards Lydell Mitchell 211 yards leading receivers- John Jefferson 1090 yards Charlie Joiner 1008 yards Bob Klein 424 yards Shockingly, the Chargers flamed out in their first playoff game. They were defeated by Houston 17-14. Vernon Perry picked off four Dan Fouts passes. Perry also blocked a field goal attempt and returned it 57 yards to set up an Oilers field goal. Oilers QB Dan Pastorini and RB Earl Campbell both missed the game due to injuries. 1980 Chargers 11-5, top seed in AFC 1st ranked offense 9th ranked defense leading rushers- Chuck Muncie 659 yards Mike Thomas 484 yards John Cappelletti 364 yards leading receivers- John Jefferson 1340 yards Kellen Winslow 1290 yards Charlie Joiner 1132 yards Beat Buffalo 20-14 and lost in AFC Championship Game to Oakland, 34-27. 1981 Chargers 10-6, AFC West Champions 1st ranked offense 27th ranked defense leading rushers- Chuck Muncie 1144 yards James Brooks 525 yards John Cappelletti 254 yards leading receivers- Charlie Joiner 1188 yards Kellen Winslow 1075 yards Wes Chandler 857 yards (arrived after a Week 4 trade from New Orleans where he had 285 yards) Defeated Miami 41-38 in overtime and then lost to Cincinnati in AFC Championship Game 27-7. A temperature of -9 degrees and a 35-mile-per-hour wind created a wind-chill factor of -59. 1982 Chargers 6-3, AFC 5th seed in Super Bowl Tournament 1st ranked offense 26th ranked defense leading rushers- Chuck Muncie 569 yards James Brooks 430 yards leading receivers- Wes Chandler 1032 yards (played in only eight games) Kellen Winslow 721 yards Charlie Joiner 545 yards Defeated Steelers in Pittsburgh 31-28 and then lost in second round to Miami 34-13.
1,032 yards in eight games Wes Chandler's 1982 game-by-game stats at Denver- 4 catches for 120 yards, 0 TDs at Kansas City- 6 for 69, 1 TD at L.A. Raiders- 7 for 118, 0 TDs Denver- did not play at Cleveland- 5 for 84, 0 TDs at San Francisco- 7 for 125, 3 TDs Cincinnati- 10 for 260, 2 TDs Baltimore- 4 for 118, 2 TDs L.A. Raiders- 6 for 138, 1 TD Playoffs at Pittsburgh- 9 for 124, 0 TDs at Miami- 2 for 38, 0 TDs
And Gifford Nielsen was the QB for the Oilers. I remember watching that game and was convinced the Oilers woul get rocked because Pastorini and my favorite Earl Campbell were out. I cant' believe how long ago that game was.
Bum Phillips on the Oilers-Chargers 1979 divisional playoff game Oilers head coach Bum Phillips on the 17-14 upset of the Chargers- The biggest thing I remember was we didn't have Dan Pastorini or Earl Campbell or Kenny Burrough. Those were our key guys! But then our free safety Vernon Perry, who wasn't a widely known player, intercepted four passes and blocked a field goal. That was the contribution of one guy! That was the thing that amazed me the most that day. You don't see one guy do that very many times in football. Vernon was a free agent who had played some Canadian ball. He was in the right place at the right time against San Diego. I think he got a tipped ball or two that helped him with the interceptions. But it was amazing that we could come back and beat the Chargers. Overall, San Diego was a better football team than we were, but not that day. On Campbell's backup, Rob Carpenter, tripping over a blocking dummy in practice and playing the game with a sprained ankle- Rob just sucked it up and played. He played well. Phillips on the gameplan to stop the Chargers offense- We didn't really come up with anything special. Being fair, I think the Chargers were a little bit over-confident and didn't think they were going to have to play hard. You see that all the time on weekends, when good football teams that don't get themselves mentally ready to play. But you can be sure their opponents are mentally ready because it's a challenge for them. It's like being the Super Bowl champion- every team on your schedule the next year will play their best game against you. I don't remember a whole lot about the San Diego gameplan, but I remember we needed to rush Fouts up the middle and try to block his passes, rather than rush him from the outside. He was too good at sitting in the pocket and getting the ball off. We put a strong rush up the middle with the front three linemen we had, and tried to force his line back into his face. Evidently, he couldn't see very good because he made some bad throws that day. We didn't know if we'd knock him down, but we wanted to look him in the eye and rush straight on. If we couldn't get to him, we insisted our players get their hands up and try to block the ball. We did block some passes, and we forced Fouts to throw some with too much loft on them. That made it tougher on his receivers. In pass defense we played our regular zone coverage on them. Some man-to-man, but very little. We felt like we could get to the ball, maybe knock it loose or get an interception. You get way more interceptions with zone than you do with man-to-man. Their receivers were too good for us to turn both corners loose on them, to put a strong safety out there on Kellen Winslow. God, we didn't have anybody that could cover them man-to-man. They would have destroyed us had we tried to do that. Was that game Phillip's greatest win as a head coach? It was everybody on the team's greatest win because we did it without a lot of players that were important to us. It had to be the best game we ever won. We were playing away from home and the Chargers had a great football team, a Super Bowl caliber team. Like I said, I think they took us too lightly because we were so banged up. But whatever the reason, I'm happy we did it.
In looking at this, I'd give the nod to the 1989 49ers. The only number they trail is 2 TDs shy in the regular season, but they had a better record. They outperformed the 1996 Packers in the playoffs and Super Bowl, repeating as champions. Not to mention the personnel there, you're looking at HOFers in Montana, Rice, Young and I think they still had Roger Craig, but I'm not sure about that.
I would agree with that. '96 GB was 4-2 vs playoff teams and 9-1 vs non-playoff teams. They gained 5,776 yards on offense. '89 SF was 4-1 vs playoff teams and 10-1 vs non-playoff teams (loss came against GB who would have been the 6th seed). They gained 6,550 yards on offense.
granted the 49er teams above were great. However, in this is only my humble opinion, when I think of great offenses I think of air em out vertical teams. The 49ers and the west coast offense were potent but for pure aesthetics and quick strike potential I take the Chargers teams any day.
The 49ers had a much better defense than those San Diego teams, you're right. Their D was overlooked a lot, they weren't spectacular except maybe in the secondary, but they were solid for a long time.
