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#1 Seattle - I almost wanted to do 1A & 1B but to me Seattle is the best team the Pats beat in a SB and one of the best teams of the salary cap era. They dominate on D and are scrappy on O. Their O is overlooked at times but when they need to they usually find ways to generate points. They were a top 10 O in PPG this year remember. Lynch truly is beast mode and their WRs though not super talented are fairly savy particularly Baldwin. Wilson is getting a lot of crap but he is usually pretty good. Honestly he played well this game and didn't really make a mistake. That Int is no more Wilson's fault than that Wager int on Brady was his fault. Just a good play.
#2 St. Louis - A lot of people remember the greatest show on turf but forget their D was pretty darn good. 7th in PPG if I recall. It took a pick 6 to beat them cause their D shut down our O so well.
#3 Eagles - A team that does a lot of things well but not truly elite. They are solid and underrated. Truly a SB caliber team in other years but the 2004 Pats were just a horse that year. Still arguably the best salary cap era team.
#4 Panthers - A lot of people are not giving them their due cause of lack of talent but they are scrappy. Not as talented as other teams but that had more heart than any team on this list. They played really good D and it took Brady having an amazing 4th quarter to win. This team (from a mental drive never give up come back and punch you in the mouth standpoint) reminds me the most of this 2014 Pats team.
Just for fun let me shortly rank every Pats SB opponent
#1 85 Bears (duh)
#2 14 Seahawks
#3 96 Packers (#1 O, #1 D #1 (IMO) STs but against a weak NFC)
#4 01 Rams
#5 07 Giants (when healthy that pass rush was deadly and the rest of the team was scrappy)
#6 04 Eagles
#7 03 Panther
#8 11 Giants (should have won this game for sure).
The 1996 packers were one of the beat teams in NFL history. No way are they ranked below the 2014 seahawks.