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ShareThisThe Greatest Drive in NFL History
Eighty-seven yards away from the end zone. 119 seconds on the clock. One timeout remaining. Down by six. The Super Bowl is on the line. This is the stuff football fans dream of watching, and players dream of performing on the biggest stage. This is the stuff legends are made of.
This is what the Steelers had staring them down at the end of Super Bowl XLV against the Packers. If they were successful, there would be only one way of describing it. The Steelers may not have known it when they took the field, but they were looking at the greatest drive in NFL history.
What is currently the greatest drive in NFL history? There are many great moments that stand out in NFL lore, but this is not a question that has had a definitive answer to it. I will go back now and review the candidates.
What should the greatest drive in NFL history be about? Significance and excellence. For starters, I think it obviously has to be about the fourth quarter and overtime, and be a drive that ties or wins the game. It probably has to be from a postseason game so that the drive had a high amount of significance. When you think of the famous drives your team went on to win games, how many of them are from the regular season? How many regular season games get drives or games that have their own nickname? Then I think it should include at least one memorable play that will stand the test of time. I think any fan would also prefer a touchdown over a field goal.
Let's start the timeline of candidates.
1958 NFL Championship: Colts at Giants - "The Greatest Game Ever Played", this is the first NFL game to ever go to sudden-death overtime, and it's NBC broadcast is considered to be a large factor in the NFL's rise to popularity. Trailing 17-14 with just over two minutes left, Johnny Unitas and the Colts took over at their own 14. He drove them 73 yards in what was a true two-minute drill before the phrase was coined, for the tying FG to force the first ever overtime session. Raymond Berry, a championship-game record 12 catches on the day, had some highlight-worthy catches on the drive that you have probably seen before. The Colts won the game in overtime, 23-17, after Alan Ameche's famous one-yard TD plunge capped off the eighty yard drive.
1967 NFL Championship: Cowboys at Packers - "The Ice Bowl". Down 17-14 in brutal conditions, Bart Starr and the Packers take over with 4:50 left at their own 32 yard line. On third and goal with just 16 seconds left, Starr's quarterback sneak into the end zone won the game for Green Bay, 21-17. Had Starr been stopped, the clock would have likely expired before Green Bay could run another play. The Packers went on to win Super Bowl II.
1975 NFC Divisional: Cowboys at Vikings - "The Hail Mary". Down 14-10 with 1:51 left, Roger Staubach and the Cowboys had 85 yards to go. After getting to midfield with twenty-four seconds left, Staubach launches a deep pass to Drew Pearson, and it is caught for the game-winning touchdown. This was the first known use of the term "Hail Mary" to describe a desperate pass thrown deep down the field. The play is also famous for Pearson apparently pushing off the defender to make the catch. Dallas would later lose the Super Bowl to the Steelers.
1981 NFC Championship: Cowboys at 49ers - "The Catch". Dallas fans sure had a lot of excitement back in the day. In a game that featured nine turnovers (six by the 49ers), the 49ers were behind 27-21 with just under five minutes left, and the ball at their own 11. Joe Montana led his first classic winning drive, as he rolled right and seemingly throws the ball out of bounds on 3rd down, only to see Dwight Clark snatch the ball high out of the air for the winning touchdown with fifty-one seconds left as the 49ers would then go on to win their first Super Bowl.
1986 AFC Championship: Broncos at Browns - "The Drive". John Elway and the Broncos trailed 20-13 with 5:32 left in Cleveland, and had 98 yards to go. They used 15 plays to go the distance, with the tying touchdown coming with thirty-seven seconds left. Denver would go on to win the game in overtime, 23-20, but would lose in the Super Bowl to the Giants.
1988 Super Bowl XXIII: 49ers vs. Bengals - Finally a Super Bowl makes the list. Joe Montana, the game's best quarterback, had a 16-13 deficit with 3:20 left and starting at his own 8 yard line. After spotting John Candy in the crowd, Montana went to work on the Bengals' defense, hitting 8/9 passes for 97 yards and the winning touchdown pass to John Taylor with thirty-four seconds remaining. While the Taylor play is shown the most, the play that stands out for me is when game MVP Jerry Rice catches a pass over the middle on 2nd & 20 for 27 yards. At this point, it was almost inevitable Montana was going to finish the Bengals off. The Super Bowl finally had a great last-minute score to win the championship.
2007 Super Bowl XLII: Giants vs. Patriots - The Patriots were 2:39 away from the perfect season. Except the Giants pulled off the greatest drive in NFL history. Yes, we have a winner. You want significance? The Patriots were trying to become the only team to ever go 19-0 in a season. You want a tough situation? Try 2:39 left, down 14-10, and 83 yards away from the end zone (the Giants did have all three timeouts). A field goal would not work. It was touchdown or bust. Of all the games I listed, this is the only one where a team absolutely had to score a touchdown in the biggest championship game of them all to win, and that is exactly what New York did.
It was far from the prettiest drive. The Giants faced a 4th & 1, and as Patriot owner Robert Kraft stood up to adjust his belt with hopes of jumping for joy after a stop, Brandon Jacobs was able to power ahead for two yards and a first down. Asante Samuel just missed out on a game-ending interception. Then, the Giants produced the greatest play in Super Bowl history. Eli Manning, getting out of a sack for probably the first time in his life, somehow escapes and fires a pass downfield, that is caught with his helmet by little-known David Tyree. Steve Smith, a rookie at the time, does a great job near the sideline for a first down on 3rd & 11. Then Eli lobs the game-winning touchdown to Plaxico Burress with thirty-five seconds remaining, putting the Giants ahead 17-14. It was 12 plays, 83 yards, and it was frantic, challenging, impressive, and beautiful. It is the greatest drive in NFL history, and it had a chance to be dethroned three years later.
Ben Roethlisberger is no stranger to late game-winning drives in the Super Bowl. Two years ago, down 23-20, he moved the Steelers 78 yards (88 after a penalty to start the drive) in the final minutes of Super Bowl XLIII against Arizona, finishing the drive with a game-winning touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes with thirty-five seconds remaining in the 27-23 victory. The Packers were also well aware of Roethlisberger's fourth quarter magic.
Late in the 2009 season the Steelers and Packers engaged in one of the greatest passing games in NFL history. Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers combined for 886 yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions. Trailing 36-30, Roethlisberger took over with 2:01 remaining, one timeout and 86 yards away from the end zone. Sound familiar? He threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Mike Wallace on the final play of the game, giving the Steelers a 37-36 victory and 503 yards passing for Roethlisberger. Faced with almost the identical situation a year later in Super Bowl XLV, you had a feeling we could be watching greatness unfold. What was at stake for Pittsburgh? A record seventh Super Bowl title, and a third for this core group of Steelers. It would also complete an 18-point comeback, the largest in Super Bowl history, and tied for the largest in any NFL championship game (2006 AFC Championship, Colts vs. Patriots).
But we all know what happened this time. After moving the ball twenty yards, Roethlisberger's 4th & 5 pass fell incomplete to Mike Wallace, securing Green Bay's fourth Super Bowl victory. In the 2009 game the Steelers faced a 4th & 7 early in the drive, and Roethlisberger was able to stand tall in the pocket and complete a 32 yard pass to Holmes for the first down. This time, he was unable to connect with Wallace on the 4th & 5.
Was the moment too big for Roethlisberger and the Steelers? Hard to say. They are an experienced group, yet Mike Wallace was visibly unaware of his routes for the final plays of the game. What about Roethlisberger? He stayed in the pocket for the drive, unable to display his playmaking ability with his legs to set up throws that demoralize defenses in this situation. Roethlisberger, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have lost their latest Super Bowl. Is there some negative effect of being asked about enhancing your legacy and hearing how great you are for two weeks leading up to the big game?
While nothing that happened in Super Bowl XLV can change the great game-winning drives the Steelers had against Arizona and Green Bay in previous seasons, one thing is for sure. Roethlisberger and the Steelers had an opportunity for the undisputed greatest drive in NFL history. The Packers stopped them.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 at 8:03 am and is filed under Best/Worst Ever, History, Quarterbacks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
I admit I was thinking of that Super Bowl against Arizona a couple years ago and the game against the Packers last season and was thinking "here we go again". It was nerve wracking to say the least.
My initial gut reaction (being a Packers fan) is that the Ice Bowl was the greatest on this list. The Packers could have tried a game-tying field goal in that situation to send it to over time. Not many people remember the game situation (of course neither do I since I had yet to be born when the game occurred). Lombardi decided to go for the win - and in hindsight it was a gutsy call that if it had failed, the Packer dynasty perhaps would have looked much different.
Nonetheless, it's hard to match an epic drive against an undefeated team with that catch by Tyree which must have gotten help from angels - because that was a crazy catch.....which all would have been for naught had Eli not made that final touchdown throw. I concur with your choice.
The probability of pulling off that drive was extremely low. Pittsburgh failed to score not because the moment was too big or because Ben was thinking about his legacy, they failed because the majority of the time teams do not score touchdowns when facing that situation.
Brian Burke had their probability of winning at 16% when the Steeler offense took the field, meaning a team should be expected to lose 84% of the time when put in that situation. That they had won in 2008 when facing 19% WP should not have been seen as predictive this time; if anything, you would say the law of averages finally caught up to them.
I always hear about how Johnny Unitas "invented" the two-minute drill, and I wonder: What did teams do before Unitas when they trailed late? Did they just think, "We're down by four with 1:30 to go, I guess we'll just keep rushing the ball"?
Jason W - they took a knee.
I think the difference is that Unitas would lead a drive, taking what he could get, using as much of the field as he could, and doing whatever necessary to conserve time as opposed to telling everyone to go deep and trying to make a big play.
1975 - I wouldn't include this with the list even if it was THE 'Hail Mary'. It's sort of like winning on a long field goal or a fluke play like the immaculate reception or the music city miracle. It just doesn't seem to be like there is as much work/effort involved.
Good thing there isn't a vote. I've seem films of most of those drives from start to stop. Don't think I could pick between the Greatest Game Ever, the Drive, the Catch, or Montana in SB23.
One of the remarkable events in the 1975 Hail Mary game was that Drew Pearson caught a sideline pass on 4th down and more than 15 yards that put Dallas at midfield. It was as fantastic a play as the Hail Mary pass. And in response to Jeremy above, maybe it was not the greatest of drives, per se, but it was quite an amazing last minute come back.
I'm confused about the point of the original post. It argues that, had the Steelers scored a TD against Green Bay, it would be the "undisputed greatest drive in NFL history." Pretty strong claim.
But the Steelers did exactly this in the Super Bowl against the Cardinals - the circumstances were almost identical. And yet the post doesn't seem to give that drive much consideration as the greatest in history.
Great post otherwise, and I hope this isn't a nitpick, but I found this confusing.
I would say that although the Giants drive had the most riding on it, I would say that the Colts' drive(s) were the most significant. It gave fans, esp. those seeing a football game for the first time, the feeling that anything could happen at the end. Baseball, the most popular sport at the time, had witnessed Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World" a few years before, and one year later would have Bill Mazeroski's unlikely HR to win the World Series. IMO, to compete, fans needed to believe that their team would have a chance at the end, no matter how improbable it seemed.
(And I have no dog in this fight--the 2 greatest drives by my Saints ended in Tom Dempsey's FG [and that wasn't much of a drive], and of course the best one was in OT in the NFCCG that ended with a Garrett Hartley FG putting them in the SB).
On TMQ on ESPN.com they talked about the difference between the 09 game and XLV. The biggest difference is that the Packers rushed 3 every down and Big Ben picked apart an inferior pass defense in 2009 season. In the Super Bowl, the Packers rushed 5 and blitzed EVERY down. That's a large difference and as was also mentioned the odds of a perfect drive are quite low simply because they HAD faced each other just a year earlier.
Karl, the Steeler drive in 08 isn't as good as the Giants drive from the year before. They were very similar in terms of yards and time, but the Giants absolutely had to score a TD, they were playing the perfect Patriots and not the ragtag Cardinals, and the Tyree play is even better than the Holmes catch. The Arizona drive is one of the best ever (maybe I should have headlined it but I had it set up where the NYG drive was the best and that gave me a transition into talking about Ben and the Steelers).
This time the Steelers faced a more difficult situation and against a better defense.
I would go with the Montana drive, but that's no surprise to anyone that knows me. I'm an unapologetic Montana-fanatic.
Still, trying (emphasis on "trying") to be objective, there are some strong points to be made for that SB-winning drive being the best:
1) Difficulty: they had 97 yards to go, the longest distance other than "The Drive" of all mentioned in the post. I would give it the nod over "The Drive" because it not only won the game (versus tying it), but it was in a SB as opposed to a playoff game
2) Won the game: as stated, unlike some of the other drives listed, this was a game-winner, not a tying score that later led to victory
3) Grand stage: Again, took place in the championship game, not a regular season or playoff
4) "Go-for-the-win" - yes, a FG would have sent the game into overtime, and I suppose it's this issue that those in favor of the Giants' drive being the greatest would harp on the most. However, the 49ers opted to go the gutsy route, similar to Green Bay in the Ice Bowl, and go for the throat, calling a pass that could have been intercepted, QB could've fumbled, etc, and game-over, rather than just getting into FG range and going the safe route. Then again, you had Montana, in maybe his finest moment (save perhaps for his SB performance the following year, IMO maybe the greatest QB performance of all-time, where he completely shredded a #1 defense for a near perfect QB-rating), so the risk was, in reality, pretty minimal. He was not going to screw that up. As you stated, Scott, "At this point, it was almost inevitable Montana was going to finish the Bengals off"
5) Style - all of the points I've listed so far, save length of drive, could still be argued in favor of the Giants drive you picked as the greatest; they were in the SB, won the game, etc . Before I get into my final argument, let's not overlook that length of drive issue. Starting on the 3-yard line vs. the 17 presents a much greater obstacle, both psychologically and physically. There's the thought of a potential safety, you're basically driving the entire length of the field, and so on.
Ultimately, my final two points as to why I consider this drive truly better than the Giants' winning moment are more esoteric than fact-driven, but still important I believe.
6) First, the 49er drive just looked better. I know, in the end it's all about who has the most points, did you get it done, pretty or ugly, but in this kind of an argument, you have to look at all aspects (it's all about how you define greatest in the end, which is a endless debate).
Scott, you stated yourself that the Giants was "far from the prettiest drive". It was really based around what was a great play, yes, but a play that also has to go down as one of the flukiest of all-time, involving a receiver not even deemed good enough to be in the league anymore to boot!
Now let's look at the 49ers drive: Montana's numbers say it all - 8/9 for 97. Doesn't get much better than that. And those are just the numbers. Actually watching his play on that drive, his command of the field, as I'm sure all of us have many times as they endlessly replay the highlights of the drive... he was just flat-out flawless. I agree, btw, about that pass to Rice over the middle. I go to that play when people try to denigrate Montana's arm-strength - he rifled the hell out of the ball, squeezing it into Rice's hands in perfect stride 15 yards down the field, in between three Bengal defenders. Absolutely no margin for error, and if it's not drilled in there at fast ball speed, the pass never makes it before the defenders converge. The TD pass looks like one of the most effortless plays you'll ever see, which is Montana in a nutshell - most pressurized play of his career and he makes it look like a guy throwing the ball around in his back yard.
7) Lastly, and again this is an aesthetic point, I give the nod to the 3-time SB MVP in his greatest moment performing surgical precision on the field in the greatest of pressures vs. an average QB stumbling into a miracle.
Same reasoning I pick SB XIII as the best SB ever - The best doing what they do at their pinnacle always impresses more and should leave greater resonance than lesser players stepping up in anomalous situations.
You missed one.
Oakland's game winning drive against Miami in the 1974 AFC Divisional Playoffs.
Better known as "The Sea Of Hands" game.
Oakland's game winning drive ended the great Miami team's attempt at a 3-peat.
"Then, the Giants produced the greatest play in Super Bowl history."
Not sure about that. It wouldn't be my pick. Giants had better plays in SBXXV that actually featured more skill than luck.
Harrison's 100 yard INT was a much better candidate for greatest play in SB history.
The Catch drive and Elway's drive against Cleveland were also better drives to me.
In fact most of SBXLII was tedious and rather boring.
Brett Favre's first career win when he came in to replace Majkowski, Sept 20 1992. 54 seconds left, Packers down 6, on their own 8 yd line with 0 time outs and Sterling Sharpe was out. What is the WinEx for that?
5 plays later Favre connects with Kitrick Taylor for the TD and then is too scared to hold the ball on the extra point so he lets it go, although it remains vertical, and Chris Jacke kicks the game winning extra point.
Travis, the 49ers started at their own 8, not the 3. Montana threw for 97 yards because of the penalty on SF (holding on 2nd & 10 at the CIN 35).
I wasn't alive for many of these examples, or too young to watch. But I do alot of reading on the history of the NFL, and I'm partial to the 1950 NFL Championship Game between the Rams and Browns. The Browns overcame a 28-20 4th quarter deficit (no 2-pt conversions then), and won the game on a Lou Groza FG with 20 seconds left on a drive that started on the Cleveland 32. Those Rams were (in my opinion) the greatest offense of all time, and the Browns were playing in thier first NFL season. It was a great game, with the Rams taking a 14-7 lead, falling behind 20-14, then retaking the lead before Otto Graham brought them back. Reading some newspaper accounts of the time, it was then viewed as the greatest game of all time. (Here's a link to one account: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jAgNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PmoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3411,4475335&dq=cleveland+browns+1950+championship&hl=en
Pg 32 and 34.)
The boxscore here at p-f-t: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/195012240cle.htm
The QB's (Graham and Bob Waterfield, both HOFers) combined for 610 passing yards, a testament to the passing ability at the time.
2.Neil Paine Says:
February 9th, 2011 at 8:26 am .The probability of pulling off that drive was extremely low. Pittsburgh failed to score not because the moment was too big or because Ben was thinking about his legacy, they failed because the majority of the time teams do not score touchdowns when facing that situation.
Brian Burke had their probability of winning at 16% when the Steeler offense took the field, meaning a team should be expected to lose 84% of the time when put in that situation. That they had won in 2008 when facing 19% WP should not have been seen as predictive this time; if anything, you would say the law of averages finally caught up to them.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Game situations absolutely should temper judgement.
At # 10...
I believe it was a 92 yard drive. Not to nitpick. It's not like being on your own 8 is good field position-------but it might be a lot better than the 3, as the backs are standing in the endzone with that scenario.
Oooops. Scott beat me to it. Didn't mean to pile on.
At Mike in #11....
Ahhh.... the Sea of Hands Game. The END of THE Dynasty of the early 70s. The Snake's knee was barely off the ground as he threw to a guy who could catch a cold (Clarence Davis) who was surrounded by defenders. Unreal game. Historically fantastic ending.
I think the Steeler's drive this year coulda been greater than the one VS Arizona partly because of the deficit the Steelers would have overcome.
I meant to say that Clarence Davis COULDN'T catch a cold.
What if Ben Roethlisberger had tossed a TD pass on the second play of the final time against green bay?
Would that be considered a "drive"? How many plays make up a drive?
Travis ...you make some points. The 49ers drive was prettier and far more efficient. However the Giants needed the td and the 49ers didn't. It's either td or nothing. Plus the Giants beat a better defense in their final drive.
I knew that Super Bowl V featured a game-winning field goal at the end of the game. I didn't know the game situation until I just looked it up.
Game tied at 13 with 1:52 left in the game. Dallas takes over at the Baltimore 48-yard line.
first down: Duane Thomas loses 1 yard
second down: Craig Morton sacked by Miller for a 9-yard loss
third down: Morton throws an interception
So Dallas had a chance for the first big drive in Super Bowl history, but instead has one of the most incompetent drives in Super Bowl history. With the game on the line, they had 3 consecutive "negative" plays.
Instead, Baltimore takes over on the Dallas 28 and 3 plays later Jim O'Brien kicks a 32-yard game-winner with 5 seconds remaining.
I'm a little surprised no consideration is given to Brady's Super Bowl-winning drive over the Rams. Granted, the game was tied, and it ended with a field goal, but the Patriots were huge underdogs, and it was clear that practically speaking, they had to score. The defense had already told Belichick that they were basically done, and if the Rams got the ball first in OT, it would be over.
The Giants over the Patriots isn't the best ever. IT'S THE WORST EVER! THE WORST!!! MY BELOVED PATRIOTS WERE CHEATED OUT OF THE GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SPORTS HISTORY BY... BY... well, I don't know, BUT THEY WERE CHEATED, DAMN IT.
Freakin' Eli Manning, and stupid David Tyree, I hope there's a special place in hell reserved for... well... okay, maybe I'm overreacting a little.
Jeremy #25, I agree with you about that drive that Brady pulled off in '01. There were so many things that could have gone wrong on that drive considering that a League Championship was on the line, but Tom pulled it off. The thing that I still marvel at for that "01 Pats Team is that they were officially Ranked 19th on O and only 24th on D and still won it all. When you add those Rankings up (43), you get by far the highest total of any S.B. participant. The only other Team that was above 30 was the Kelly led Bills of '93 (they added up to 33).
the thing is this Steeler "drive" was horrible. so it seems a funny way to introduce the topic.
I say this as someone that hates the 49ers and loved the Cowboys growing up, but the greatest I have ever seen, which is since around 1980, was the Montana drive with The Catch. Not only was it a great drive, but it signaled the end of an era of dominance for one team and the beginning of a dynasty for another team.
And come on, Brady's game winning, FG drive with the game tied? Doesn't belong in the same conversation with the others.
And don't get me started about the Pats having a low ranked D in 2001. From the middle of the season on, the D did not allow any team to score more than 20 points a game and they were 6th in points allowed that year. so to paint them as some low ranked D that managed to win with offense is completely untrue. The defense and Special teams accounted for 21 of the 60 points the Pats scored in the playoffs that year.
I am admittedly a homer on this, but the afc title game in 06 where manning drove to beat the patriots was somewhat of a microcosm of the whole game. One last drive to complete the comeback that had been in the works that had stretched all the way back to the final 2 minutes of the first half. It was also a drive that basically started way back in the colts territory. It was a very special drive indeed.
By the way, I am way less impressed with tom brady's winning sb drive against the rams than i was with his previous td drive against the giants in the sb. In that first sb, he basically checked down against an all out prevent defense where the rams mistakenly(and later admittedly) said they just assumed the pats would mail it in for overtime and underestimated the amount of time left.
Contrast that to the sb loss where brady was under duress for most of the game, having absorbed punishment and gutted his way to the end zone where he found moss the moment when they decided to go man to man. That was a very tough drive that is utterly and shamelessly dismissed because his defense did not stop the giants last minute heroics.
The pt is, greatness has no clear definition and too many times, people mistake end result for context and massage the meaning by whatever arbitrary judgments they like. Personally, i think the best way to measure a great drive, given things like the end of the 4th quarter, to tie or to win, is to ask, did the opposing defense play well but the offense just managed to execute better?
In this light, the best drive i've ever seen was the giants over the pats. To be fair, the giants drive was a bit helter skelter with several gaffed plays, including a near game ending pick and several near miss sacks. But, i attribute that to good defense and in the end, it took some by the inches type of plays to finally make it. Even before the burress td, giants fans should appreciate that critical amani toomer 3rd down conversion that happened just after the tyree catch. Then there was the 4th down dive by jacobs. That drive alone made that game the best sb ever.
Now I realize I am a little biased as it is one of the memories that made me a football and Broncos fan early on, but what beats 98 yards to get a touchdown that they had to have just to extend the game?
The title of the post is "The Greatest Drive in NFL History," and what could be the answer to the question then a series of plays know as "The Drive." Elway went 6 for 9 for 78 yards including a 20 yard pass on 3rd and 18. He also ran for 20 yards, although he was sacked once for 8 (Sammy Winder rushed for the remaining 8 yds of "The Drive"). It meets every single criteria to the letter: AFC Championship, had to have the touchdown, fourth quarter, and the 3rd and 18 and the touchdown were both memorable plays. More importantly, one of the best urban legend quotes from a Broncos lineman when they huddled up in their own endzone: "We got 'em right where we want 'em."
How about the 1967 Green Bay Packers 68 yard championship game winning drive eating up the remaining four minutes and fifty seconds in the Ice Bowl? That wasn't just any old championship game winning drive. That drive had some serious historical significance. First, that drive was on a skating rink or sheet of ice. Take your pick. Second, that drive made the Green Bay Packers the ONLY three-peat National Football League champions. Third, they followed that NFL championship win up by winning Super Bowl II closing out Vince Lombardi's fabulous Green Bay tenure. Lombardi's Green Bay Packers won five NFL championships and two Super Bowls in eight years. Go Pack Go!
Let's see, the NFL started in 1920 and in discussing the "GREATEST DRIVE EVER" we look back as far as 1958 - I guess not much happened in the first 40 years of the league.
Since 92% of the playoff games in league history have occurred since 1958, it's not really that odd that that's where the "greatest drives" would be.
Fair enough, but these "greatest ever" conversations always seem to overlook a lot of the old timers in favor of the more recent fan favorites. The assumptions stated about " the fourth quarter and overtime, and be a drive that ties or wins the game - probably has to be from a postseason game" favor the modern game - but they are assumptions. When the Frankford Yellow Jackets played the Bears in December 1926 it wasn't a playoff but it was a game that decided the championship with a Frankford drive in the last 90 seconds that sealed the deal. Hust Stockton (grandfather of NBA great John Stockton) was the hero on that day. What about the 1943 of the Bears against the Cardinals for the division championship and Nagurski went in at fullback and the old man hammered into the line time and time again right into the endzone - it's immortal, remembered in books and movies - maybe the greatest drive ever.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1075481/1/index.htm