There have been very few legitimate challengers of Miami’s sole claim to “Perfectville”. Ever since early in 1973, the Dolphins have held the title as the only Super Bowl champion to finish their season completely undefeated — running the gauntlet and finishing the year with an unblemished 17-0 record.

To mark the start of the 2019 Dolphins season being 72 days away, we’re celebrating the No Name Defense, Zonk and all the rest of the Perfectville Dolphins today. For 47 years, the Dolphins have held the title — but they’ve almost had the party crashed a few times along the way. Which three NFL teams were closest to joining the Dolphins in perfection?

2007 Patriots

The Patriots actually did finish the regular season 16-0, becoming the first team in NFL history to finish a 16 game regular season schedule without a loss. And quite frankly, the Patriots were a juggernaut that year. 11 of the Patriots’ 16 regular season wins were by more than two touchdowns.

A few midseason close calls got Dolphins fans excited — a 24-20 win over Indianapolis, a 31-28 win over Philadelphia and a 27-24 win over Baltimore all came within 5 weeks of each other.

But the Patriots managed to scrap out wins along the way before the routing much of the competition the rest of the way. That is, of course, until Super Bowl XLII, when the New York Giants completed a miraculous comeback in a late flurry of scoring.

Tom Brady infamously laughed at Plaxico Burress’ prediction that the Patriots would only score 17 points in the game — before the Patriots scored 14 and lost by 3.

1985 Bears

The Bears, unlike the 2007 Patriots, won the Super Bowl during their challenge of Perfectville. Arguably the greatest defense of all-time served as the backbone of the Bears’ run through the league — only once in the Bears’ final 16 games (including three postseason games) did the team allow more than 20 points. Heck, the Bears allowed 10 points or fewer in 13 of those last 16 games.

The lone blemish? That, of course, came at the hands of a young quarterback from Pittsburgh named Dan Marino. Marino and the Dolphins jumped on the 12-0 Bears early on Monday Night Football — taking a 31-10 lead into halftime and burying the Bears’ dreams of an undefeated season.

1984 49ers

The 1984 49ers will always be a hated team for Miami Dolphins fans. The 49ers defeated Dan Marino in his only Super Bowl appearance that year, holding Marino and the Dolphins to just 16 points — their lowest point total of the 1984 season. This was, of course, Marino’s legendary 5,000 yard passing season — a feat so far ahead of his time that the NFL wouldn’t see another man pass the mark for nearly 25 years.

The ’84 49ers went a total of 18-1, their lone loss coming at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 7, 20-17. Pittsburgh needed 10 unanswered 4th quarter points to put the 49ers down, otherwise we’d potentially be talking about hating the 1984 49ers for a completely different reason — crashing Perfectville.