There's a quote that gets dragged out all the time but actually means nothing. Parcells would use that as a motivator for his players and a way to deflect questions in press conferences; he didn't actually believe that all teams with the same record were the same.
Case in point: the Vikings went 13-4 last season despite being a below average team. They had absurd amounts of luck along the way, squeaking out one one-score win after another against mediocre competition. The folks over at Football Outsiders would tear their hair out every week because they'd have to keep explaining why this team with a great record would show up at the bottom of the league in their metrics. Well, those Vikings eventually had to play real teams without the benefit of miracles, and when they did it wasn't pretty: Dallas crushed them 40-3 and the Giants, who barely squeaked into the playoffs themselves, knocked them out of the playoffs in the first round.
The Vikings were not what their 13-4 record said they were. And I wish this expression would be retired for all purposes except talking about playoff seeding.