No. 10) 2004 Jets
Gang Green still is oh-for-the-post-Parcells Era in advancing to the AFC Championship Game, but it came tantalizingly close in 2004.
After a 5-0 start, the Jets finished 10-6 – behind Curtis Martin’s NFL-best 1,697 rushing yards – to earn a wild-card berth, then upset the Chargers in overtime in the first round.
It appeared they would eliminate the Steelers, too, but Doug Brien missed late field-goal attempts of 47 and 43 yards – the first bouncing off the crossbar – and Pittsburgh won in OT.
The Jets, who also had reached the second round in 2002, have not been back since.
The best New York teams of the decade
For most of the 2000s, New York sports fans did not have a championship team truly to embrace.
The 2000 Yankees? No slouches, but the fact is their 87 regular-season victories were the fewest for any Yankees team this decade, even the one that missed the playoffs. Plus, that was a long time ago.
Then this: In February, 2008, the Giants stunningly won the Super Bowl, and just last month the Yanks returned to glory by dismissing the reigning champs to complete a season of excellence.
That’s more like it. Those two late-decade entries top Newsday’s list of the 2000s’ top 10 teams in New York sports.
After that? Tricky. How to balance regular-season success with a postseason payoff?
For the sake of consistency – and to keep the Yankees from completely taking over the list – let’s make this rule: Only teams that won in a playoff round are eligible.
Thus the 2000 Yankees are in; the ‘02 Yanks (103 wins, first-round bomb) are out. Same goes for the 2007 Giants vs. the ’08 version.
-Neil Best
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