Did We Have In 2012 A Unit As Good As The 2009 Units?

I think the 2012 "unit" was better, and here's why. In 2009 we had a good (but not great) team that had luck go its way at almost every conceivable turn. The 2011 "unit" was vastly better than the 2009 one, in my opinion, almost frighteningly so. I think one could easily argue that that team was one of the best to ever take the field in the NFL. For this reason, the loss to the 49ers hurt so badly. The 2009 team was a good team that won the SB with a lot of luck. The 2011 team DESERVED the SB due to its overall domination. In the offseason this year we more or less offset our losses in FA and made gains through our new draft and FA pickups. On paper, at least, this team should have been the 2011 squad plus a few positive additions (LB and D line especially). Unfortunately, the perfect storm of Goodell, the coaching carousel, Spags, replacement refs, injuries, etc. made us into a far worse team than any of the years we're discussing. I strongly believe, however, that if the circumstances were anything approaching "normal" this season, we would be playing in the dome in a week and there would be no question which squad was better. If 2009 was the year of magical luck, 2012 was the year we repaid our debt to the devil. Bring on 2013...it should be an exciting ride!