Tournament of Past Champions - 2013 Title Defense of the '99 St. Louis Rams

During the Spring of 2011, 128 of the greatest teams in football history came together and competed in Creative Misfortune’s Tournament of Past Champions. The tournament, comprised of 35 league champions (teams from the NFL, AFL and AAFC, who won their titles between 1941 and 1965), 45 Super Bowl champions, 45 Super Bowl runner-ups looking for redemption and 3 wild-cards pulled from the ranks of those modern-era teams so great during the regular season the football world was shocked when they did not make it to the Super Bowl (the 1998 Minnesota Vikings, the 2005 Indianapolis Colts and the 1987 San Francisco 49ers), proved to be a grueling task for all but the hardiest of teams.

In a single elimination tournament, with virtual game results determined by What If Sports computer simulations, 128 of the greatest teams in football history fought for supremacy and only one team – the 1999 St. Louis Rams, aka The Greatest Show on Turf – emerged victorious.

The road to the title for St. Louis was not an easy one. The Rams opened their tournament with a dominating 21-13 victory over the 1958 Baltimore Colts and really hit their stride in the second round when they absolutely crushed the 2001 New England Patriots, 29-12, in a matchup where they won every possible simulated game and avenged a real-world loss by the 2001 St. Louis Rams in the process.

St. Louis struggled mightily against the ’95 Cowboys in round three, advancing despite winning less than half of the simulations, but managed to find their high gear again when they defeated the 1962 Packers in their Fortunate 16 matchup, 21-14.

The Greatest Show on Turf punched their ticket to the Elite 4 with a gutty, one-point victory over the #1 seeded, 1985 Chicago Bears and then rolled into the title game after defeating Brett Favre and the 1996 Green Bay Packers. A victory over the 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers completed St. Louis’ championship run.

Three years removed from their outstanding Tournament of Past Champions victory, two new upstarts are set to challenge the ‘99 Rams for the title of greatest team ever – this season’s Super Bowl entrants, the 2013 Denver Broncos and the 2013 Seattle Seahawks.

The Tournament of Past Champions games are played using the What If Sports SimMatchups software (try it for yourself here) that allows you to simulate historical games as many times as you would like with teams using different “offensive playbooks” while competing in both home, away or neutral game sites. To determine the title defense results, each matchup will be based on the result of 20 head-to-head simulations.

For example, to decide who would prevail – the 1959 Baltimore Colts or the 2009 Indianapolis Colts, 20 game simulations will be run – 10 at the home stadium of the ’59 Colts and 10 at the home stadium of the 2009 Colts.

Each of those 10 simulations will be broken down into “playbook” matchups in order to better gauge the overall strength and weaknesses of each team taking part in the tournament. The What If Sports game engine provides four separate playbook options – Balanced, Run Heavy, Pass Heavy and West Coast style. Over the course of a single, 20-game sim matchup, teams will play eight Balanced sims, four Pass Heavy sims, four Run Heavy sims and four West Coast style sims.

The final score for each team in the virtual matchup will be the average of the team’s scores over the course of all 20 simulations. The higher average “wins” the virtual matchup. In case teams are tied after 20 simulations, an additional 10 overtime sims, five at each team’s home stadium, will be played until one winner emerges. 

Results for each virtual matchup are recorded as follows:

                                                          

			1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final
		1959 Baltimore Colts	7	7	10	0	24
		2009 Indianapolis Colts	7	7	0	7	21
		*Baltimore won 14 of 20 simulations

Now, without further ado, the 1999 St. Louis Rams defend their Tournament of Past Champions title against this year’s Super Bowl teams…

1999 St. Louis Rams vs 2013 Denver Broncos

			1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final
		2013 Denver Broncos	0	7	0	14	21
		1999 St. Louis Rams	7	3	14	0	24
		*St. Louis won 10 of 20 simulations

   
            The Broncos stayed close with the Rams until halftime, then stumbled after the break. Peyton Manning led them down the field and threatened in the 4th quarter, but it was too little, too late and Denver fell short of dethroning the Greatest Show on Turf.  

1999 St. Louis Rams vs 2013 Seattle Seahawks

			1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final
		2013 Seattle Seahawks	0	7	10	0	17
		1999 St. Louis Rams	0	7	3	10	20
		*St. Louis won 11 of 20 simulations

            Seattle fared slightly better against the Rams and played them dead even through the first half. The Seahawks even managed to take the lead into the 4th Quarter, but could not hold on to it when their offense sputtered in the final stanza. Kurt Warner led the Rams to two late scores to overtake the Seahawks and retain their title as the greatest statistical team of all time.

Congratulations again to the 1999 St. Louis Rams.

Still Creative Misfortune’s reigning Champion of Champions.

           


On Friday, the final blog announcement of Creative Misfortune’s third season…