If individual NFL seasons received names, 2009−2010 would likely have gone down as the Year of the Dominant Teams.
In the NFC, the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints almost became the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to run the table straight through the postseason. The Saints won 13 straight before finally falling to Dallas at home in Week 15. Although the Saints would end up losing their final three games of the regular season, they finished strong in the playoffs and ended the season with a Super Bowl victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
While the Colts came up short in the Super Bowl, they managed to give the '72 Dolphins even more of a scare than New Orleans did. Indianapolis won 14 in a row before head coach Jim Caldwell controversially rested many of his starters during the final two regular season games. In both contests, Indy's backups simply couldn't get the job done, ending the team's shot at perfection.
Although neither New Orleans nor Indianapolis achieved football perfection in 2009, both teams definitely made a real run at it. The two were clearly the two best teams in the NFL this past season, and it seemed inevitable from day one that they would meet at Super Bowl XLIV in Miami.
This year, that type of dominance does not appear to exist among the 32 teams of the NFL, and it seems extremely unlikely that any squad has a chance at dethroning the '72 Dolphins. In fact, instead of striving for perfection, several NFL heavyweights from past seasons are stuck searching for answers and wondering if they have what it takes to even make the playoffs this season.
Just take a look at the Minnesota Vikings. Minnesota won 12 games in 2009 and advanced to the conference championship, carried by running back Adrian Peterson and the immortal quarterback himself, Brett Favre. Behind New Orleans, the Vikings were clearly the NFC's second−best team and seemingly had all the weapons in place to challenge the Saints once again this season.
But everything that went right for the Vikings in 2009 has gone horribly wrong in 2010.
Brett Favre has a 60.4 passer rating, Percy Harvin hasn't caught a pass for more than 25 yards and an aggressive Minnesota defense that recorded 48 sacks in 2009 has had only four sacks thus far. The Vikings finally picked up a win in Week 3 against the pathetic Detroit Lions, but Minnesota still finds itself at 1−2, chasing Green Bay and Chicago for first place in the NFC North.
The story is very much the same in Dallas, where the Cowboys went into their typical December slump a few months early this season.
The 'Boys dropped their first two games to the Redskins and Bears while turning the ball over four times and committing 18 penalties. In Week 3, a desperate Dallas team committed another eight penalties but managed to play through its mistakes and avoid a 0−3 start with a 27−13 win at Houston.
San Diego is yet another member of the 1−2 club.
The AFC West winner only a year ago, San Diego has struggled to put together victories, despite ranking first in the league in total offense and fourth in total defense. Despite a home thrashing of Jacksonville in Week 2, in which Philip Rivers threw for 334 yards and three touchdowns, the 1−2 record is still far short of its potential.
The Chargers have failed to get it done on the road, losing at Kansas City and Seattle — both places where they were expected to win. To add injury to insult, the team is dealing with the health problems of Ryan Mathews, Shawne Merriman, Stephen Cooper, Larry English and Louis Vasquez, all of whom may miss time in the upcoming weeks.
Left tackle Marcus McNeill is finally ready to return to the team after a lengthy holdout but is unlikely to be in "football shape" and is not eligible to play until Week 6 anyway.
As some of the league's top dogs sweat it out early in 2010, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Bears are much more comfortable as the league's only undefeated teams. While it is possible that one of these squads may string together an improbably long series of wins, odds are that members of the '72 Dolphins will, for the 38th straight season, be sipping champagne at the end of 2010.
