Any given Super Bowl Sunday…
Many see the Super Bowl LII matchup between the Eagles and Patriots as a mismatch with New England as the overwhelming favorite. That’s no reason to give up hope, Philly. Even if the Eagles are seen as the much weaker team on paper (though that thinking is flawed for several reasons), there have been plenty of times that the better team failed to win the Super Bowl. Let’s take a look back at the six most obvious examples…
(AP photo)
Joe Namath may have been confident that the Jets were going to beat the Colts, but nobody else was. Vegas had New York as an 18-point underdog. And for good reason: Baltimore was a dominant team in a better league. It had lost only one game going into the Super Bowl. But it had also lost Johnny Unitas going into the game. Unitas was nicked up so Earl Morrall got the start for Baltimore and struggled. A hobbled Unitas eventually got into the game and led the Colts to their only touchdown. If only he had played the entire game.
Giants fans are torn over which team to root for in Super Bowl LII, but they really have no reason to root against Bill Belichick. If not for him, and his brilliant gameplan for Jim Kelly’s Bills, New York has one less Lombardi Trophy. Even with Belichick’s gameplan, which is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Giants needed to survive a missed field goal by Scott Norwood to pull out a win.
Buffalo was the better team on the field that day. The Bills were the favorites coming into the game. They scored almost 100 more points than the Giants did that season while allowing only 52 more points. And despite holding the ball for less than 20 minutes, they were in position to win the game. Kickers, man.
Oh look, another game that Bill Belichick won on his own with a brilliant defensive gameplan.
The 2001 Rams team, which finished 14-2, was actually much better than the 1999 team that won it all. The Patriots probably shouldn’t even have been in the Super Bowl to begin with. (I’m assuming you are familiar with the Tuck Rule Game.)
The Rams were favored by 14 points coming into the game. They had beaten the Pats in Foxboro by the same margin earlier in the season. Everyone expected a rout, but this was before Belichick had reclaimed the title of genius, so we were all sleeping on him. His plan to hit Marshall Faulk wherever he went and to get physical with Rams receivers worked early on, but St. Louis eventually adjusted and tied things up late.
If the game had gone another 30 minutes, the Rams probably blow it out. It didn’t, though, and the Patriots were able to escape with their first Super Bowl win thanks to Tom Brady and Adam Vinatieri’s late-game heroics.
The 2007 Patriots are one of the greatest teams in NFL history. The 2007 Giants weren’t even the best team in the NFC East that season.
But everything went right for New York against undefeated New England. They recovered all three fumbles in the game and a dude caught a football with his helmet after Eli Manning, of all people, somehow escaped a sure sack. Usually Eli just instinctively falls down in those scenarios. The play before that, Asante Samuel dropped what would have been the game-ending interception.
(Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Sports)
The 49ers had the best roster in the NFL at the time. They were stacked on both sides of the ball. They could run, they could pass and the defense was suffocating. A slow start and giving up a kick return touchdown ultimately did the Niners in. San Francisco actually out-gained Baltimore in yards and converted more first downs. That wasn’t really a surprise. The 49ers had been the much better team — on both sides of the ball — all season. They ranked third in offensive DVOA and fifth in defensive DVOA, while the Ravens didn’t crack the top-10 in either category.
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Carolina was the best team in the NFL all season and were only getting better heading into Super Bowl 50. The Broncos, on the other hand, were relying on a historically good defense to carry Peyton Manning’s corpse into the big game. This was a mismatch on paper.
The Panthers would have to play their worst game of the season to lose it. And that’s exactly what happened. Receivers dropped key passes, one of which bounced right to a Broncos defender for a red-zone interception, the kicker missed an easy field goal, a questionable catch ruling set up a defensive touchdown for Denver and Mike Tolbert, who hadn’t fumbled all season, coughed up the ball ending a promising possession.
There were seven fumbles in the game. The Broncos recovered five of them. The Panthers had more passing and rushing yards. They had 10 more first downs. They were the better team and still managed to lose by 14 points.
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