Best Single-Season Win Streak by Team Since the AFL/NFL Merger

Drew Brees and the Saints matched a franchise record with their ninth consecutive win in Week 10 and there's no telling how long the ride will last. Here's a look at the longest single-season winning streak of every team in the NFL since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger -- regular season games only. The previous Saints record was set in 1987 by a Jim Mora-coached team that won its final nine to get New Orleans into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.

After the offseason addition of receivers Randy Moss and Wes Welker, Tom Brady set a league record with 50 touchdown passes and won his first MVP award as the Patriots became the first NFL team to go 16-0. Moss set an NFL record with 23 TD catches and Welker led the league in receptions.

The season by which all others are measured. A perfect regular season (14-0) followed by a perfect playoff run.

The Colts won their first 13 games, including a 40-21 Monday night win over New England that snapped Peyton Manning's 0-7 streak at Foxboro. San Diego ended the talk about a perfect season with a 26-17 win at the RCA Dome. (This year's team was 9-0 through Week 10 and had won 18 consecutive regular season games over two years, tied with the Patriots for the second longest such streak in NFL history.)

In John Elway's last season, the future Hall of Fame quarterback led the Broncos to a 13-0 start, regrouped after back-to-back losses to the Giants and Dolphins, and then marched Denver all the way to a Super Bowl XXXIII win over Atlanta.

The only blotch on this Super Bowl-winning team's record all season was a 38-24 loss to the Dolphins in Week 13. Before that defeat, the Bears had outscored their previous three opponents 104-3, led by such defenders as Mike Singletary, Richard Dent and Dan Hampton.

The only Super Bowl team in Seahawks history, the 2005 squad ran off 11 straight from Weeks 5 to 16. They famously survived a Week 12 scare at home, winning 24-21 in overtime (inset) after Giants kicker Jay Feely was barely wide left on a 40-yard field goal attempt at the end of regulation, and then missed 54- and 45-yard attempts in overtime. Shaun Alexander & Co. weren't so fortunate in the Super Bowl, losing 21-10 to the Steelers.

Jimmy Smith led the league in receptions (116) and finished second in receiving yards (1,636) as Tom Coughlin's Jaguars won the AFC Central with a 14-2 record. Jacksonville won its first two games before losing 20-19 to Tennessee, then won the 11 straight before falling to Tennessee again (41-14). Adding insult to injury, Tennessee defeated the Jaguars again in the AFC Championship game, denying Jacksonville a trip to the Super Bowl.

It's remarkable that after losing Jerry Rice to injury for 14 weeks in a season-opening 13-6 loss to Tampa Bay and Steve Young suffering yet another concussion the same game, the Niners rebounded and won their next 11. Give credit to a defense led by defensive tackle Dana Stubblefield (94), which held seven of the 11 victims to 12 points or fewer.

In the franchise's fourth-to-last season in Houston, Warren Moon was at the controls of the run-and-shoot offense and helped the Oilers win 10 consecutive while Cody Carlson got the start in the record-setting 11th win. Perhaps most memorable about the final win was that head coach Buddy Ryan punched offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride right before halftime in a disagreement over offensive philosophy.

The defending Super Bowl champions stumbled in Week 2 as O.J. Simpson ran for 227 yards in a 30-21 Buffalo victory, but Pittsburgh won its next 11. The only other loss the Steelers suffered en route to a 21-17 triumph over Dallas in Super Bowl X was a Week 15 setback at the hands of the L.A. Rams (10-3).

Three-point road losses at Baltimore and Kansas City were the only setbacks in a 14-2 regular season that featured 10 consecutive wins from Weeks 8 to 17. LaDanian Tomlinson won the rushing title with 1,815 yards and set the NFL record for touchdowns (31) and points scored during a season (186).

Lawrence Taylor spearheaded a defense that led the NFL in fewest points allowed (211) as the Giants went unbeaten from Weeks 1 through 11. Their first loss in the Super Bowl-winning season came at Philadelphia, where the Eagles scored twice in 22 seconds during a 31-13 victory.

The Raiders began their first Super Bowl-winning season with three wins before being upset by the Patriots. Ken Stabler, Mark Van Eeghen & Co. didn't lose again, including in their final 10 regular season games. The narrowest margin of victory during the run, 28-27 over Walter Payton and the Bears on the strength of a 49-yard TD pass from Stabler to Cliff Branch in the fourth quarter with an Errol Mann PAT.

During Fran Tarkenton's MVP-winning season, the Vikings got off to a 10-0 start that might have extended to 11 if not for a missed conversion kick during a 31-30 loss to the Redskins.

The Eagles won nine in a row and 10 of their last 11 to win the NFL East for a third consecutive year. Brian Westbrook got the streak going with a punt return touchdown in the last two minutes of a 14-10 win over the Giants. Nine weeks later the 49ers ended the run by intercepting Donovan McNabb in overtime and taking a 31-28 victory.

In a season in which Priest Holmes broke Marshall Faulk's single-season touchdown record and Dante Hall tied an NFL single-season record with four kickoff returns for touchdown, the Chiefs got off to the best start in team history. Cincinnati snapped the streak with a 24-19 win at home.

Quarterback Chris Chandler and running back Jamal Anderson helped the Falcons win their final nine in 1998, even with second-year head coach Dan Reeves missing Weeks 15 and 16 after undergoing quadruple bypass surgery. The winning ways continued all the way to the first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history, but ended with a 34-19 loss to the Broncos. The 1980 Falcons also won nine in a row, led by quarterback Steve Bartkowski (inset), and almost ran their streak to 10, but lost 20-17 in overtime to the Rams in the final regular season game of the year.

A team that lost its last five games of the season and still qualified for the playoffs did so in part because of a nine-game unbeaten streak from Weeks 3 to 11. It started with a 51-45 overtime victory over Dan Marino (6 TD passes) and the Dolphins, a game in which Ken O'Brien connected with Wesley Walker on a 43-yard pass for the final touchdown.

The 1983 Redskins of Joe Theismann and John Riggins didn't match the 1982 team's success by repeating once it reached the Super Bowl, but it did match the franchise record with nine straight victories at the end of the regular season. The only other Washington team to rip off nine straight during a regular season was the 1972 squad, which also made it to the Super Bowl and lost.

Buffalo was unstoppable from Weeks 3 through 11, defeating the Patriots and Jets twice, as well as the Raiders and Broncos en route to the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance.

Only three teams in Cowboys history have finished with two losses, but the 1977 squad holds the distinction of owning the best winning streak in franchise history. The eventual Super Bowl winners won their first eight, lost two in a row, and never lost again as Roger Staubach and rookie Tony Dorsett paced a unit that led the NFL in scoring, while Harvey Martin (79) and Randy White (54) led a defense that had the fewest total yards allowed.

Say this much about the Rams, they can certainly get on a roll. All four teams that won seven straight also ended up taking the NFC West title. The L.A.-based '78 and '85 squads won their first seven of the season; the St. Louis-based '03 went undefeated from Weeks 10-16 and the St. Louis-based '99 team enjoyed two seven-game streaks in the same season en route to winning the Super Bowl behind Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk.

Brett Favre and the Packers won seven straight, beginning in Weeks 3, but failed to overcome a Metrodome jinx that had seen Green Bay lose eight out 10 in Minnesota. The 8-1 Packers lost 31-21 to the Vikings, who entered the game 2-7.

En route to winning that season's Super Bowl over the Giants, the Ravens got the momentum going by winning their final seven of the regular season. The closest game during the run -- a 24-23 thriller over Tennessee in which Baltimore drove 70 yards and scored on a two-yard pass from Trent Dilfer to Patrick Johnson with 25 seconds remaining.

In their second season, the Panthers won their last seven to finish at 12-4 and atop the old NFC West with Kerry Collins under center and Anthony Johnson the leading rusher. Their victims during the streak: the Giants, Rams, Oilers, Bucs, 49ers, Ravens and Steelers.

The Cardinals won their first seven, including two over the Redskins, giving the team the tiebreaker it would need at year's end to make the playoffs for the first time since being based in Chicago in 1948. Jim Hart led the NFC in TD passes that season with 20.

The Bengals and quarterback Virgil Carter were 1-6 midway through the first season after the NFL/AFL merger, but didn't lose the rest of the way, taking the AFC Central at 8-6. The closest they've come to matching the streak of late was a six-game run by Ickey Woods and the gang to open 1988, which was snapped by a 27-21 loss to the Patriots that wasn't that close.

En route to wining the NFC Central and finishing with an 11-5 record, the Bucs won six straight and eight of their last nine in the regular season. The Tony Dungy-coached team lost Trent Dilfer to a broken clavicle during the six-game run and turned to rookie quarterback Shaun King.

The six-game winning streak began on the afternoon in which right guard Mike Utley suffered a blow to the head against the L.A. Rams and was paralyzed from the chest down. He flashed the thumbs up sign as he was being taken from the field, not knowing the severity of his injury. Detroit made the playoffs that year for the first time since 1983.

As six-game streaks go, the Browns are certainly proud of theirs. With Mike Phipps under center, they finished 10-4 that season, wining eight of their last nine. They made the playoffs and lost a respectable 20-14 to the eventual Super Bowl-champion and undefeated Dolphins.

The Texans' got their fourth in a row by upsetting, of all teams, the 12-1 Tennessee Titans at Reliant Stadium. Trailing 13-12 and facing fourth-and-3 with two minutes left, Tennessee passed up a 49-yard field goal attempt to try a fourth down pass. Houston got the ball back after the incompletion and ran out the clock. Andre Johnson caught 11 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown in the game.Send comments to siwriters@simail.com