The Best Post-Season Team In The Superbowl Era!

Well, another NFL Season has come and gone and save for the Superbowl there's not much to do this week. But fear not turf-loving brothers and sisters!! Our Boredom = Your Knowledge! We got to wondering, "Who is the greatest post-season NFL team of the Superbowl Era?" Of course, while millions of armchair coaches have contemplated this question, none have ever bothered to answer it with more than a beery, "MY TEAM!!" So we got out our trusty slide rule, a piece of string and a box of paperclips and set ourselves to task! (Hold onto your vodka kids, this is gonna be a long one!)

After some thought we came to the conclusion that the laurels would rest on three statistics:
1 - percentage of post-season games played
2 - post-season depth
3 - post-season win/loss record.

Post Season Appearance Percentage:
This is simply a percentage of how many post-season games a team has played versus the amount of post-season games they could have actually played in. Most NFL teams have been around since Superbowl I and could have played in 167 post-season games. This includes all wildcard, divisional and conference championship rounds, and of course, the Superbowls. The Following table uses the following abbreviations:

PPSG = possible post-season games
APSG = actual post-season games played
PSG% = percentage of post-season games played
Rnk = Ranking of teams by percentage

Note: Some teams have bounced around the league a bit so I used the NFL's rule of thumb for stats. The Raiders, Rams, Cardinals and Colts retain all stats played under their respective team name regardless of city. The Browns retain all stats from Cleveland and the Titans retain all stats from the Houston Oilers. The Ravens and Texans start fresh from when they entered the league. Also, the Packers and Steelers have not yet played in SB 45, so each teams stats includes a loss for that game. I checked the numbers, giving each team a preliminary win, and it doesn't really move them up or down in any category. After the game, I'll edit the stats to reflect the winner.

Team	Seasons	PPSG	APSG	PSG%	Rnk
DAL Cowboys	45	167	58	34.73%	1
PIT Steelers	45	167	52	31.14%	2
MIN Vikings	45	167	45	26.95%	3
OAK Raiders	45	167	43	25.60%	4
SF 49ers	45	167	42	25.15%	5
BAL Ravens	15	60	15	25.00%	6
MIA Dolphins	45	167	39	23.40%	7
STL Rams	45	167	36	21.56%	8
IND Colts	45	167	36	21.56%	8
GB Packers	45	167	35	20.96%	10
PHI Eagles	45	167	34	20.36%	11
NE Patriots	45	167	34	20.36%	11
WAS Redskins	45	167	33	19.76%	13
DEN Broncos	45	167	32	19.16%	14
TEN Titans	45	167	30	17.96%	15
JAC Jaguars	16	64	11	17.19%	16
NY Giants	45	167	27	16.17%	17
CAR Panthers	16	64	10	15.63%	18
BUF Bills	45	167	26	15.57%	19
NY Jets	45	167	25	14.97%	20
CHI Bears	45	167	23	13.77%	21
SEA Seahawks	35	138	19	13.76%	22
CLE Browns	42	155	20	12.90%	23
SD Chargers	45	167	21	12.58%	24
KC Chiefs	45	167	21	12.50%	25
TB Buccaneers	35	138	15	10.87%	26
ATL Falcons	45	167	16	09.58%	27
CIN Bengals	43	162	14	08.64%	28
NO Saints	44	165	12	07.27%	29
DET Lions	45	167	10	05.99%	30
ARI Cardinals	45	167	10	05.99%	30
HOU Texans	9	36	0	00.00%	32

Who's amazing? Well, clearly Dallas and Pittsburgh shine here with over 50 post-season appearances apiece but what really caught my eye was the Baltimore Ravens… while they only have 15 appearances, that's out of 60 possible games!! That's a better percentage than New England or Green Bay! But then look at San Francisco in fifth place… behind Minnesota and Oakland? Seriously? Well, that's why we have the other categories…

Depth:
Depth is calculated by adding the points for each post-season win or loss, by round, and dividing that number by the total post-season games played. Essentially, depth reflects how far a team goes once it makes the playoffs. For teams with a full 45 seasons, the depth score tops out at around 3.61. This is due to the first 12 years of the NFL having less than four post-season rounds.

The following table shows post-season games played, (PSPG), depth score, number of byes, wildcard wins, divisional wins, conference championship wins, superbowl wins, post-season losses and depth ranking. Points are scored as follows: bye (2), wilcard (2), divisional (3), conference (4), Superbowl (5) and loss (1). Byes score the same as wildcard wins because that's essentially what they are.

Team	PSGP	Depth	Bye	Wild	Div	CC	SB	Loss	Rnk
SF 49ers	42	3.07	12	4	12	5	5	16	1
PIT Steelers	52	3.04	12	4	15	8	6	19	2
DEN Broncos	32	2.91	9	1	8	6	2	15	3
NE Patriots	34	2.85	8	3	7	6	3	15	4
NY Giants	27	2.74	5	5	4	4	3	11	5
CHI Bears	23	2.74	9	2	5	2	1	13	5
DAL Cowboys	58	2.67	9	5	15	8	5	25	7
WAS Redskins	33	2.61	4	6	6	5	3	13	8
OAK Raiders	43	2.53	5	5	12	5	3	18	9
CAR Panthers	10	2.50	2	2	3	1	0	4	10
GB Packers	35	2.49	3	7	6	5	3	14	11
TB Buccaneers	15	2.47	4	1	3	1	1	9	12
BUF Bills	26	2.42	6	3	5	4	0	14	13
MIA Dolphins	39	2.41	6	6	7	5	2	19	14
NO Saints	12	2.33	2	1	2	1	1	7	15
BAL Ravens	15	2.33	1	5	3	1	1	5	15
STL Rams	36	2.31	7	2	9	3	1	21	17
SD Chargers	21	2.29	6	4	4	1	0	12	18
IND Colts	36	2.28	5	4	6	4	2	20	19
ATL Falcons	16	2.12	4	3	2	1	0	10	20
CIN Bengals	14	2.07	2	1	2	2	0	9	21
MIN Vikings	45	2.07	6	6	9	4	0	26	21
CLE Browns	20	2.05	5	1	5	0	0	14	23
KC Chiefs	21	2.05	3	2	2	2	1	14	23
PHI Eagles	34	2.03	5	7	6	2	0	19	25
NY Jets	25	1.92	1	6	4	1	1	13	26
JAC Jaguars	11	1.91	1	4	2	0	0	5	27
TEN Titans	30	1.87	4	7	4	1	0	18	28
SEA Seahawks	19	1.84	2	5	2	1	0	11	29
ARI Cardinals	10	1.80	0	3	1	1	0	5	30
DET Lions	10	1.60	2	0	1	0	0	9	31
Hou Texans	0	0.00	0	0	0	0	0	0	32

Now that looks a little more like a list of World Champions. Granted Dallas falls to seventh because even though they have five Rings, they also have 25 post-season losses which really hurts their depth score. But don't worry, we still have one more category…

Wins and Losses:
The last category is a simple percentage of post-season wins and losses. I don't think that needs much more explanation, so here we go…

Team	PSGP	PSGW	PSGW%	Rnk
BAL Ravens	15	10	66.67%	1
PIT Steelers	52	33	63.46%	2
SF 49ers	42	26	61.90%	3
WAS Redskins	33	20	60.61%	4
CAR Panthers	10	6	60.00%	5
GB Packers	35	21	60.00%	5
NY Giants	27	16	59.26%	7
OAK Raiders	43	25	58.14%	8
DAL Cowboys	58	33	56.90%	9
NE Patriots	34	19	55.88%	10
JAC Jaguars	11	6	54.55%	11
DEN Broncos	32	17	53.12%	12
MIA Dolphins	39	20	51.28%	13
ARI Cardinals	10	5	50.00%	14
NY Jets	25	12	48.00%	15
BUF Bills	26	12	46.15%	16
IND Colts	36	16	44.44%	17
PHI Eagles	34	15	44.12%	18
CHI Bears	23	10	43.48%	19
SD Chargers	21	9	42.86%	20
MIN Vikings	45	19	42.22%	21
SEA Seahawks	19	8	42.11%	22
NO Saints	12	5	41.67%	23
STL Rams	36	15	41.67%	23
TB Buccaneers	15	6	40.00%	25
TEN Titans	30	12	40.00%	25
ATL Falcons	16	6	37.50%	27
CIN Bengals	14	5	35.71%	28
KC Chiefs	21	7	33.33%	29
CLE Browns	20	6	30.00%	30
DET Lions	10	1	10.00%	31
HOU Texans	0	0	00.00%	32

So, now that we've ranked our teams by categories, all we need to do is average those rankings for an overall score and see just who is the best post-season NFL team in the Superbowl Era!

OA	Avg	Team	PSA	Depth	W/L
1	02.00	PIT Steelers	2	2	2
2	03.00	SF 49ers	5	1	3
3	05.67	DAL Cowboys	1	7	9
4	07.00	OAK Raiders	4	9	8
5	07.33	BAL Ravens	6	15	1
6	08.33	NE Patriots	11	4	10
	08.33	WAS Redskins	13	8	4
8	08.67	GB Packers	10	11	5
9	09.67	DEN Broncos	14	3	12
	09.67	NY Giants	17	5	7
11	11.00	CAR Panthers	18	10	5
12	11.33	MIA Dolphins	7	14	13
13	14.67	IND Colts	8	19	17
14	15.00	CHI Bears	21	5	19
	15.00	MIN Vikings	3	21	21
16	16.00	BUF Bills	19	13	16
	16.00	STL Rams	8	17	23
18	18.00	JAC Jaguars	16	27	11
	18.00	PHI Eagles	11	25	18
20	20.33	NY Jets	20	26	15
21	20.67	SD Chargers	24	18	20
22	21.00	TB Buccaneers	26	12	25
23	22.33	NO Saints	29	15	23
24	22.67	TEN Titans	15	28	25
25	24.33	SEA Seahawks	22	29	22
26	24.67	ARI Cardinals	30	30	14
	24.67	ATL Falcons	27	20	27
28	25.33	CLE Browns	23	23	30
29	25.67	CIN Bengals	28	21	28
	25.67	KC Chiefs	25	23	29
31	30.67	DET Lions	30	31	31
32	32.00	HOU Texans	32	32	32

And there you have it! Is our reasoning sound? Pittsburgh, with six World Championships and another possibly on the way, places at the top followed by the two teams with five WC's. San Fran over Dallas? Yep, they're undefeated in the Superbowl and they got their five rings in less games than the Cowboys. The Raiders in fourth? Damn right! They have three rings and have been to a quarter of the post-season games they could have played in and they won 58% of those! Baltimore in fifth? One ring and an amazing 67% W/L record in the playoffs in just 15 years!

About the only surprise we found was that the Detroit Lions were not the team in last place. That spot goes to the Houston Texans who have never made a post-season appearance, but take heart Texans fans… it took some teams over twenty years to reach the post season, (SF and NO come to mind,) and you guys have only been at it for nine!

So, questions? Comments? Advice on the numbers? Be our guest and rattle off a comment! We'd love to hear from you!

-M Styborski