After the losses suffered by the 49ers and the Eagles–on Sunday, October 15–the number of undefeated teams for the NFL 2023 season went down to zero in a matter of 6 weeks. In the history of the Super Bowl Era, there have only been two undefeated teams throughout the regular season, and only one perfect season (winning the Super Bowl): the 1972 Dolphins. The only other undefeated team was the 2007 New England Patriots, but lost in the 2007 Super Bowl. Many people are questioning if there will be another perfect season anytime soon. It seems as if teams nowadays are bound to lose a couple games a year.
Since the 2007-2008 Patriots, there have only been two teams to almost go undefeated (15-1): the 2012 Green Bay Packers and the 2015 Carolina Panthers. They wouldn’t have had a perfect season anyways since they didn’t win the super bowl that year.
So how hard is it to really have a perfect season?
The 1972 Dolphins were led by Hall of Fame Quarterback Bob Griese, and had many Pro Bowl and 1st Team All Pro players on their offense as well as their defense. They were coached by legendary coach Don Shula; who still holds the record for the most wins for a head coach all time. The ‘72 Dolphins had the #1 offense, defense, and special teams at the time as well. These are a few of the reasons for their great success. Some people say that they only had a perfect season because there were only 14 games to play before the regular season ended, instead of 17. Regardless of the fact, they still had to win all of their playoff games against many good teams. It's still not an easy task to win that many games in a row. For this reason, hundreds of people view the Dolphins as the greatest team of all time, as they are still the only ones with a “perfect season”.
There are expectations for many teams to do great each year. Yet not many are predicted to be ‘perfect’. This year though, many people on social media and online expected the 49ers to be ‘perfect’. With the flexibility of their schedule and the great games they played to begin the season, many talked about the possibility of the 49ers to reach an undefeated/perfect season.
In week 6 though, their hopes would be crushed as Kicker Jake Moody missed a 41-yard field goal to keep the streak alive. Their record worsened to 5-1 after a 19-17 loss to the Cleveland Browns. The Eagles on the other hand though have a pretty complicated schedule in the upcoming weeks. Many have a low expectation of them to have a perfect season. Their win streak was also snapped in week 6 though; after a 20-14 loss to the New York Jets.
6 weeks into the 2023 NFL Season, and the ‘72 Dolphins remain the only team to have a perfect season. A perfect season isn’t ruled out to happen next year or years to come, but for now, everything stands as it is.
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