With Super Bowl LIX now in the books as the Philadelphia Eagles dominated the Kansas City Chiefs from start to finish Sunday in a 40-22 win, the 2024 NFL season has come to a close. Now, the focus shifts to the offseason as the NFL Scouting Combine is up next later this month before the start of free agency in early March.
For now though, it’s a good time to reflect on the Super Bowl that just occurred. With the way the Eagles dominated that game, many are wondering where they rank all-time when it comes to Super Bowl champions in NFL history. Fortunately for those asking that question, ESPN’s Aaron Schatz put together a definitive ranking of Super Bowl champions based on proprietary DVOA rankings.
While the 2024 Eagles come in at No. 39 overall as part of their two championships in franchise history, where do the past Pittsburgh Steelers championship teams come in at, and which of the six was the best?
According to Schatz’s rankings, the Super Bowl X team that defeated the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 was the best championship team in franchise history. It was also one of the best championship teams in NFL history, too, coming in at No. 8 overall in Schatz’s rankings.
“The 1975 Steelers had the highest regular-season rating of the pre-1981 teams but are also the only team in our top 15 that had an average winning margin of less than 10 points in the postseason. The Steelers ranked fifth in points scored and second in points allowed, and after a Week 2 loss to Buffalo, their only loss all season was in a meaningless Week 14 game against the Rams in which [Terry] Bradshaw sat in the second half,” Schatz writes of the Steelers’ best championship team in the Super Bowl rankings. “The Steelers whipped the Baltimore Colts 28-10 in the divisional round and then took out the Raiders 16-10 in the AFC Championship Game. Finally came Super Bowl X, when the Steelers held off the Cowboys 21-17.
“Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach threw a touchdown pass to Percy Howard with less than two minutes left. Then the Cowboys got the ball back with 1:22 left at their own 39, but Staubach threw a pick with 18 seconds left to end the game.”
That 1975 team went 12-2 on the year in the regular season, scoring 26.6 points per game to rank 6th in the NFL that season. Defensively though, the Steel Curtain continued to dominate as they allowed just 11.6 points per game, which was second-best in the league.
They had one shutout that season, which came in the season-opener against the San Diego Chargers. They also had a stretch mid-season where they allowed scoring outputs of 3, 9 and 7 points against the Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Oilers and New York Jets.
The Steel Curtain was a big reason the Steelers were so great that year as they intercepted 27 passes, forced 21 fumble recoveries and had 43.0 sacks, though sacks weren’t an official statistic until 1982. That defense also had five first- or second-team All-Pros, too, and saw cornerback Mel Blount win the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year award.
Star defensive end L.C. Greenwood, who was a first-team All-Pro that year, had a then-Super Bowl record four sacks in Super Bowl X. Let me take this time to say that Greenwood needs to be put into the Hall of Fame, ASAP.
Outside of the 1975 Steelers, Schatz ranked the 1979 Steelers, winners of Super Bowl XIV over the Los Angeles Rams, at No. 16 all-time. The 1978 Steelers, who might have been arguably better than them all and won Super Bowl XIII over the Dallas Cowboys, ranked No. 20 in Schatz’s rankings.
The 2005 Steelers, winners of Super Bowl XL over the Seattle Seahawks, checked in at No. 25 all-time, while 2008 Steelers with that vaunted defense ranked 38th overall. The 1974 Steelers, the ones that laid the foundation of a dynasty with the win over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX, ranked No. 44 overall out of 59 champions.
Schatz’s top 5 champions of all-time in NFL history included the 1992 Dallas Cowboys at No. 5, the 1996 Green Bay Packers at No. 4, the 1989 San Francisco 49ers at No. 3, the famous 1985 Chicago Bears at No. 2 and Washington’s 1991 team at No. 1.
