Super Bowl Upsets

In my post on Super Bowl XXXII, I stated that people have forgotten just what a huge upset Denver pulled off that night. If we define “upset” simply as when the team favored by the odds makers loses, then there have been thirteen upsets in Super Bowl history (through Super Bowl XLIII). Here’s a table showing all thirteen:

Super Bowl	Teams	Favorite	Final
III	Baltimore v. NY Jets	Baltimore by 17	NY Jets, 16-7
IV	Minnesota v. Kansas City	Minnesota by 10	Kansas City, 23-7
V	Dallas v. Baltimore	Dallas by 1	Baltimore, 16-13
VII	Washington v. Miami	Washington by 2	Miami, 14-7
XV	Philadelphia v. Oakland	Philadelphia by 3	Oakland, 27-10
XVII	Miami v. Washington	Miami by 2	Washington, 27-10
XVIII	Washington v. Oakland	Washington by 3	Oakland, 38-9
XXII	Denver v. Washington	Denver by 3	Washington, 42-10
XXV	Buffalo v. NY Giants	Buffalo by 7	NY Giants, 20-19
XXXII	Green Bay v. Denver	Green Bay by 12	Denver, 31-24
XXXVI	St. Louis v. New England	St. Louis by 14	New England, 20-17
XXXVII	Oakland v. Tampa Bay	Oakland by 3.5	Tampa Bay, 48-21
XLII	New England v. NY Giants	New England by 12	NY Giants, 17-14

Now I would not call of those games true upsets. In seven of those thirteen games the line was only 3.5 points or less so the matchups in those seven games were seen as essentially even or close to it. The other six games featured one team favored by a touchdown or more and five of those were double digit favorites. So really the Super Bowl has seen six big upsets in 43 years. Here are the six in order of the biggest pointspread overcome to the least:

Super Bowl	Teams	Favorite	Final
III	Baltimore v. NY Jets	Baltimore by 17	NY Jets, 16-7
XXXVI	St. Louis v. New England	St. Louis by 14	New England, 20-17
XXXII	Green Bay v. Denver	Green Bay by 12	Denver, 31-24
XLII	New England v. NY Giants	New England by 12	NY Giants, 17-14
IV	Minnesota v. Kansas City	Minnesota by 10	Kansas City, 23-7
XXV	Buffalo v. NY Giants	Buffalo by 7	NY Giants, 20-19

Based purely on pointspreads, Denver’s upset win over Green Bay in Super Bowl XXXII was tied for the third-biggest upset in Super Bowl history.

The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part V

Not one of the greatest plays ever.


At the time I watched this game play out before my eyes, I remember thinking it might wind up being the greatest Super Bowl ever. You had a close relatively high-scoring game, the Holy Grail, the Mecca of Super Bowls, what wasn’t to love. Well, with the passage of time I can now say it wasn’t the greatest ever. Why? Three reasons: (1) No lead changes; (2) No classic finish; and (3) No great plays. What’s that you say, there was a great play? Well, it’s true one play from that game has gone down in history as one of the most memorable plays in Super Bowl history. The Helicopter. Let’s set the scene: Late third quarter. Denver ball. Third-and-six at the Green Bay 12. Elway scrambles. Nobody’s open. Elway decides to run for the key first down. As he nears the first-down marker he launches himself in the air where he’s met by two Packers, the resulting collision spinning him 360 degrees in the air before he landed on his ass two yards past the marker. First down at the Green Bay four-yard line and Terrell Davis takes it in two plays later. Elway’s scramble remains THE signature play of that Super Bowl. The play where Elway, denied for so long, put the game on his shoulders/legs and willed his team to victory. The play that proved to Denver they could pull off the upset and win the game. Right? WRONG!

Let me expound a little. The reason we’ve heard so much about that play is: (1) people have retrospectively invested it with a lot more significance than it actually had during the actual game; and (2) 360-degree spins in mid-air are freaking cool! Point (2) speaks for itself. As for point (1), consider the game situation. The score was tied 17-17. If Elway gets stopped then his team either tries a chip-shot field goal attempt or goes for it on 4th-and-short and with the way Davis dominated that game he almost surely makes it. Denver would very likely have taken the lead even if Elway’s leap for the first down had come up short. As for momentum, any that his run and Davis’ TD gave the Broncos lasted exactly 23 seconds. In case you forgot Green Bay fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Denver recovered at the Green Bay 22. Denver had a shot at taking complete control of the game. And what happened? On the very next play Elway threw a pick in the end zone. Momentum gone. Four Favre passes, a penalty and 1:39 later the score was tied. Luckily for Elway Favre ran out of magic for the rest of the 4th quarter and Terrell Davis took over the game late. But if Green Bay had been able to pull it out I submit to you Elway’s end-zone INT would have been the game’s signature play and probably the signature play of Elway’s personal Super Bowl highlight reel. But Denver won so we remember the helicopter and forget the interception. That’s football. But spare the paeans to Elway and his six-yard run supposedly sparking his team to victory. That’s not what happened. A tough run and a tough hit with a spin, that’s all.

Besides Elway’s potentially costly INT, the other thing people forget about this game is what a gigantic upset it was. The Packers were the defending champs. The NFC had won 13 straight Super Bowls, only two of which were decided by less than double digits. Favre had won his third-straight MVP while Elway had lost in all three of his previous Super Bowl appearances and he’d played badly in all of them. The odds makers made Green Bay a huge 12-point favorite and deservedly so. Nobody considers this much of an upset anymore since Denver repeated a year later but at the time the Broncos’ win was a real shocker.



The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time

Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part I
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part II
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part III
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IV
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part V
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VI
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VIII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IX
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part X
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Conclusion

The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IV

"It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault."


When the final gun sounded in Super Bowl XXV, most football fans realized they may well have seen the greatest Super Bowl ever played. I’d say it’s certainly a strong candidate for three reasons: (1) A most interesting clash of styles—the old school smashmouth Giants vs. the no-huddle K-Gun quick strike Bills; (2) The teams played an even football game, competitive throughout, with four lead changes including two in the fourth quarter; and (3) The game didn’t just come down to the final seconds, it came down to the very last (non-kneeldown) play of the game.

Following his 47-yard missed field goal attempt, goat horns promptly sprouted on poor Scott Norwood and two decades later fans and the media still view him as the man who choked away the game for the Buffalo Bills. Hell, his miss may have scarred his team so badly they promptly went and got blown out in the next three Super Bowls. No, actually I don’t consider Norwood to be a choker. Consider this fact: Scott Norwood had never made a field goal of that length on natural grass in his entire NFL career. Let me repeat: Scott Norwood had never made a field goal of that length on natural grass in his entire NFL career. So the last play of the freaking Super Bowl is going to be the first? Anybody out there want to take odds on that?

Let’s take a closer look at Norwood’s ability to make that field goal. In his 7-year career Norwood converted 72.3% of his field goals. His best season was 1988 when his FG percentage was 86.5. That dropped to 76.7% in 1989 and 69.0% in 1990. After Super Bowl XXV, Norwood played but one more season and Norwood kicked himself right out the league following his 62.1 FG percentage in 1991. So when Norwood lines up to kick the football on Super Bowl XXV’s last play he was converting about only two of every three field goal attempts. Norwood converted about 58% of his FG attempts between 40-49 yards in his last two seasons, but for his entire career he only made two out of ten tries on FG attempts over 50 yards. And 47 yards is a lot closer to 50 than 40. Clearly that kick was at the upper end of Norwood’s range. Plus, the cool breeze and late hour wouldn’t have increased his chances. And I recently discovered one other interesting fact: the hold on that FG try was far from ideal. According to former kicker Jim O’Brien (who made the first SB winning kick ever) Jim O’Brien,

"That kick was bad the whole way…It was a bad hold. (Frank Reich) puts it down and the laces are to the right. Of course, the ball tails off to the right."

So the distance was at the very edge of Norwood’s ability, the conditions (grass, wind) were not ideal ones, and the hold was bad. Even if he was completely unaffected by the pressure of the moment is sure seems like Norwood’s chances of making that kick were well below 50%. It had to be more like one out of three. A “makeable” kick but nobody should have expected Norwood to save the day. Hell, Bill Parcells said later he knew Norwood wasn't going to be able to make it and the Tuna knows a lot more than you about football. Norwood actually did a hell of a job getting the ball as close as he did to the uprights. So get off his back already people. The man did not choke.

Allow me to proffer an alternative interpretation of the game identifying the game’s true goats. If you look at the game statistics, there’s one number that jumps out at you like it was lit up in neon: time of possession. The Giants held the ball for a staggering 40-plus minutes of gametime. So obviously the Bills’ defense deserves some blame for not getting the Giants’ offense off the field. But the flip side of time of possession is your offense keeping the other team's offense off the field. And here’s where the game was lost, not on Norwood’s desperate kick but on the Bills’ failure to sustain any drives. New York controlled the clock so well in part because Buffalo couldn't keep the ball away from them.

In terms of points scored and yards gained the game was a very evenly played game despite the enormous time of possession disparity. How could that be? Well big plays were the equalizer for Buffalo. The Bills completed a 63-yard pass on their first scoring drive, Thurman Thomas scored on a 31-yard run, and the defense scored on a safety. The team had only one sustained drive the entire game, moving 80 yards in 4:27 to score their first TD of the game. Their second-longest drive of the game was all of two minutes and 30 seconds! One stat tells the tale for Buffalo’s inability to chew up any clock: they went a pathetic 1 for 8 on third down (compare that to the Giant’s 9/16). The Bills lost because they missed a kick AND because they couldn’t convert on third down.

The way I see it Buffalo’s loss should be pinned on their offense’s failure to keep drives alive. Of the team’s trio of offensive stars, Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed, no blame can be affixed to Thomas. He rushed for 135 yards on 15 carries. He averaged over 7 yards a carry if you take out his 31-yard TD run! So if the running game wasn’t the problem then the passing game is all that remains.

Let me take you back to what I believe to be the key moment of the game for Buffalo (yes, leaving aside the Norwood miss). After falling behind early, Buffalo tied the game with a FG, forced the Giants to punt, put together an 80-yard TD drive to take the lead in the second quarter, and forced a three-and-out and another Giants punt. Andre Reed was a key player for the Bills to that point, catching six balls for 53 yards in just a quarter-and-a-half. Reed caught four passes and accounted for 44 yards on Buffalo’s go-ahead TD drive. Leading 10-3, Buffalo drove to midfield where they faced third-and-one. Buffalo was on the verge of taking complete control of the game. A TD on this drive would give them a commanding 14-point lead. No Super Bowl team, then or since has ever come back from that large a deficit to win a Super Bowl. Even a field goal would have given the Bills a 10-point lead and only one team has ever come back from that far behind to win a Super Bowl (Parcells’ 1986 Giants as it turns out). Bills coach Marv Levy tried to cross up the Giants and called a pass play. Given the success of the Buffalo ground game that night you can certainly question that call but Reed was wide open on the play and Kelly threw it to him. Reed dropped it. No Giant was near him. If Buffalo scores on that drive they probably win that game. Instead they had to punt.

Reed’s drop didn’t appear disastrous at the time. The punt pinned the Giants inside their own 10 and the Bills scored a safety three plays later. 12-3 Buffalo lead and the football. Now a TD would give the Bills a 19-3 lead and a near-certain victory in the pre-two-point conversion era. Even a FG would force the Giants to overcome a 12-point deficit, something no Super Bowl-winning team has ever done. But Buffalo couldn’t gain a single yard. They used a mere 34 seconds of clock and had to punt it away. And the defense stopped the Giants again, for the fourth straight time! Buffalo’s offense got yet another chance to put a hammerlock on the game and while they manage to move the ball into Giants territory they had to punt after blowing yet another third-down conversion attempt. In their three offensive possessions after taking a 10-3 lead Buffalo went 0-3 on third downs and used up all of 4:34 of clock. New York had three separate drives that game all longer than those combined three for the Bills. When the Giants got the ball back, they quickly and calmly drove 87 yards down the field against the tiring Buffalo defense to close to within two points at the end of the first half. Buffalo’s momentum was gone.

And the failure of their formerly high-powered offense can be traced to Reed’s drop. For the rest of the game Reed caught only two more balls. In the second half, in a close back-and-forth affair where every play was crucial, Reed caught one pass for four yards. He dropped three times as many passes that night as he caught in the second half. The Giants planned to hit Reed hard at every opportunity and they did so. It clearly affected him and after Buffalo’s first TD Reed was a nonfactor for the rest of the game. He bears a huge share of the blame for the loss. He has to.

As for Kelly, he played ok. For him anyway. This was the only Super Bowl where he managed to not throw any interceptions. But he couldn’t convert on third down and only once could he keep his offense on the field longer than two-and-a-half minutes. The defense put Kelly in position to take control of the game but he couldn’t do it. He had plenty of weapons besides Reed to get a few first downs, including two Hall-of-Famers, Thurman Thomas and James Lofton.

For two decades now Scott Norwood has taken all the abuse and all the blame for the loss. I’m here to say if you want to blame someone then put it where it really belongs. Andre Reed and Jim Kelly simply didn’t get the job done. Norwood’s taken hits for them long enough.

Ok, now that we've got the blame game out of the way, can we say this was the greatest Super Bowl ever? Like I said at the top of this overlong post the game was close, the lead changed hands several times, the teams presented interesting contrasts and it came right down to the wire. That's a lot on the "yes" side. And it was a well-played game too; no turnovers. On the "no" side? The game's most memorable play, the only memorable play really, was a missed field goal. At the end nobody on either side of the football made a play to win it or lose it. Should that keep Super Bowl XXV out of the top spot? We shall see.


The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time

Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part I
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part II
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part III
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IV
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part V
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VI
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VIII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IX
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part X
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Conclusion

The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part III

Let’s dispense with this one quickly. Once the gun sounded this game jumped to the top of the lists of great Super Bowls for one reason: Joe Montana’s instantly legendary 92-yard come-from-behind touchdown drive to win the game. But while the finish may have been tremendous, the rest of the game was shockingly dull. Halftime score: 3-3. Actually the dullness wasn’t shocking. We expected horrible games back then. No, the shock was that the Niners needed a comeback at all. They were big favorites and the NFL was in the midst of a huge streak where year-after-year the NFC would punk the AFC in the Super Bowls. They should have called the games in the third quarter to show mercy to the hapless AFC team.

If you look at the stats it’s hard to believe San Francisco needed Montana to play the hero. They almost doubled Cincinnati in yards and first downs. San Fran’s averaged almost three yards per play more than Cincy! How was this game even close? Well, the Niners kept shooting themselves in the foot. The offense anyway. They fumbled four times, only losing one, but that helped stall out several drives. They drove down to the Bengals two-yard-line but, already leading 3-0, on fourth-and-one San Fran unaccountably settled for a chip-shot field goals, botched the snap and got nothing. It should have been 10-0 and the Super Bowl probably would have been over at that point. Instead it turned into a boring battle of field goals, and when Cincy returned a kickoff back for a TD the Niners suddenly found themselves in serious danger of losing a game they should have already put away.

But I never felt like they were in danger. If the Bengals had been playing the game of their lives I might have but they weren’t. We all just waited for Montana to finally get his act in gear and with his two fourth quarter TD drives he did (with 32 whole seconds to spare). Here’s an interesting fact about that final drive: San Francisco faced only one third down (and no fourth downs). And the one third down was a third-and-two. The Niners did so well on first downs that of all their second down plays, only one was more than a second-and-three, that second-and-twenty at the Bengals’ 45 following a penalty. But a 27-yard strike to Rice immediately eliminated the drama potential. To me the winning TD was practically a fait accompli. The Niners were already in FG position anyway. Even Sam Wyche knew before his team kicked off that final time that his team left Montana too much time on the clock.

I have to say that sometimes it almost seemed like Montana was bored for three quarters and didn't wake up until his team was in a hole practically requiring a great comeback. Anyway, back then any close Super Bowl was a novelty and a last-minute TD drive had no Super Bowl precedent. But after so many great Super Bowls in the last decade Super Bowl XXIII no longer contends for the title of best ever. Great final drive yes. Great game no.



The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time

Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part I
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part II
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part III
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IV
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part V
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VI
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VIII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IX
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part X
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Conclusion

NFL Fun Facts 5: Super Bowl Comebacks

Two years in row?!?!? For 68 years the NFL saw only one quarterback ever lead a last-minute game-winning touchdown drive to win a championship: Bart Starr in the “Ice Bowl”. Twenty-one years later Joe Montana became the first QB to do it in a Super Bowl. And Montana remained the only QB to perform that feat for almost another 20 years. But now, incredibly, we’ve seen it happen twice in back-to-back Super Bowls. Eli Manning pulled it off in Super Bowl XLII and now Ben Roethlisberger brings the Steelers back late to win Super Bowl XLIII.

Of course, as I noted last year, Eli faced a little extra pressure. Starr, Montana and Roethlisberger all trailed by 3 at the start of their game-winning drives. A FG would at least have forced overtime. But not Eli. Trailing by 4 it was score a TD or go home a loser.

The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part II

"Vince, how did you miss Waddy on that post route? I mean he was wide open."


Super Bowl XIV

The Steelers and the Cowboys. In the Seventies, they were like Ali-Frazier. Two great champions with perfectly contrasting styles. And in ’79, with both teams again the best in their respective conferences, it looked like we were all set for Ali-Frazier III. Our third Pittsburgh-Dallas Super Bowl in five years. But the L.A. Rams, a 9-7 team just one game better than mediocre, a team that scored just 14 more points than they allowed, stunned the ‘Boys in the playoffs and denied us our football Thrilla’ in Manila. After beating the Bucs 9-0 in the dullest NFC Championship game ever, L.A. advanced to their first Super Bowl ever. As the worst Super Bowl contestant ever. Just compare the Rams to the 12-4 Steelers, defending champs, +158 in point differential and looking for their fourth championship in six years. Having these Steelers play the Rams? Like Emmitt Smith described his time as an Arizona Cardinal, “a diamond among trash”. To be fair the Rams had been one of the best and most talented teams in the league for much of the decade; only the lack of a quality starting QB held them back year-after-year. But by 1979 age and attrition had taken their toll and the Rams hadn’t exactly upgraded the quarterback position with new starter Vince Ferragamo (who?). No surprise the oddsmakers made the Steelers 11-and-a-half point favorites.

Quiz time! Can you guess what the following table shows?

I	0	XXII	1
II	0	XXIII	3
III	0	XXIV	0
IV	0	XXV	4
V	1	XXVI	0
VI	0	XXVII	1
VII	0	XXVIII	3
VIII	0	XXIX	0
IX	0	XXX	0
X	1	XXXI	2
XI	0	XXXII	1
XII	0	XXXIII	1
XIII	2	XXXIV	0
XIV	6	XXXV	0
XV	0	XXVI	1
XVI	0	XXXVII	1
XVII	1	XXXVIII	2
XVIII	0	XXXIX	1
XIX	3	XL	1
XX	1	XLI	1
XXI	3	XLII	4

Look closely at Super Bowl XIV. Does that help?


Ok, time’s up. That table shows the number of lead changes in every Super Bowl (I used a strict Vegas-style definition of lead change: one team takes the lead after trailing, there can be an intervening tie). Super Bowl XIV featured SIX lead changes! That’s two more than the first 13 Super Bowls combined! Thirty years later and Super Bowl XIV still holds the record for lead changes! Only two of 42 Super Bowls have had as many as four lead changes. Only six have even had as many as three. Instead of the expected blowout, the Steelers and the Rams gave the country the most exciting back-and-forth Super Bowl yet played. And yet, when people make their list of great Super Bowls, where the hell is this one?

The Rams gave Pittsburgh everything they could handle. For three quarters, every single time Pittsburgh scored the Rams immediately answered with a score of their own to either tie the game or take back the lead. It was unbelievable. The Rams led after one quarter. The Rams led at halftime. On the opening drive of the second half Pittsburgh scored on a 47-yard TD bomb to Lynn Swann. But the Rams came right back with a 50-yard bomb of their own followed by a 24-yard halfback option TD pass to take the lead right back (they missed the extra point to add a little thrill). Pittsburgh got the ball back and Terry Bradshaw threw a pick. He got the ball back again, drove his team into field goal range, and threw another interception, his third! It was crazy. Was the Steelers dynasty really unraveling right before our eyes? That last pick did stick L.A. back at their own 4 but on the final play of the third quarter an end-around netted the Rams 13 yards, a first down and seeming momentum. To this day my number one memory of that game is this: the Rams offensive players en masse sprinting down to the other end of the field as the teams changed sides to start the fourth quarter. They were so confident they were going to pull off the biggest upset of the decade. And why not? They led 19-17. They had led at the end of each quarter. Ferragamo (who?) hadn’t turned it over once while Bradshaw was averaging one pick per quarter.

But in the final 15 minutes, either through superior talent or some sort of collective residual Super Bowl memory, the Steelers entirely erased the memory of those first three quarters. Big plays turned the game decisively in Pittsburgh’s favor. First, a sack of Ferragamo helped force a punt. Three plays later, Bradshaw hit John Stallworth deep for a 73-yard TD to put Pittsburgh back on top, 24-19. After the teams exchanged punts, the Rams took possession with perhaps one last chance for a game-winning TD drive. Ferragamo moved his squad from its own 16 into Pittsburgh territory. On third-and-thirteen he hit Billy Waddy for 15 yards to keep the drive alive, 32 yards from paydirt with under 6 minutes to play. This just wasn’t just looking like the best Super Bowl ever. For one very brief moment, everything was suddenly set up for one of the all-time most memorable games played anytime, anywhere, in any sport. The aging dynasty trying to squeeze out one last championship. The underachieving underdogs trying for an upset for the ages. The seemingly endless swings of momentum with the tension slowly building all game until maybe a classic final drive. And then pop! All the air went out of the balloon. Ferragamo (who?) didn't see a wide open Waddy on the post route and instead tried to hit Rod Smith over the middle. Jack Lambert made him pay and picked it off. Comeback killed. No more lead changes. Two plays later Bradshaw-to-Stallworth 45-yarder to set the Steelers up in scoring position and Franco Harris scored a few plays later with 1:49 left. Ballgame. Fittingly four fourth quarter plays(alliteration), two defensive, two offensive, made all the difference. The sack, the pick, and the two bombs to Stallworth.

When people think about the Steelers in the Super Bowl they inevitably remember the classic Super Bowl XIII shootout with the Cowboys. Or maybe the Super Bowl X clash with Dallas and Swann’s transcendent performance. And for longtime diehard Steelers’ fans Super Bowl IX has a special place. A horrible game but the franchise’s first title ever after over 40 years of futility. Few remember a 12-point win over a crummy Rams team. But Super Bowl XIV had more lead changes than those other three games combined. It stayed competitive until the final minutes. And it was the last hurrah for arguably the greatest team in NFL history. Maybe not the best Super Bowl ever, but a forgotten classic.


The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time

Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part I
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part II
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part III
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IV
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part V
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VI
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VIII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IX
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part X
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Conclusion

The Greatest Super Bowl Of All-Time, Part I

After the New York Giants shocked the world in Super Bowl XLII by knocking off the undefeated New England Patriots, sportswriters and pundits instantly debated whether the game was the greatest Super Bowl ever played. Now maybe it was and maybe it wasn’t but here at Past Interference we frown on such knee-jerk reactions. It’s too easy to get swept up in the hype and the immediacy of a big game or a great performance, especially when magnified by the non-stop fact-free bullroar too often emanating from our 24-hour sports-talk and cable stations (i.e., see this week's topic du jour: Is Fitzgerald better then Rice?). At Past Interference we prefer, no, we demand careful analysis before making any sweeping conclusions. So now that a year has passed since that historic upset, it is finally time to determine if in fact Super Bowl XLII was the greatest Super Bowl ever played. And we’ll do this by taking a look at every Super Bowl that might reasonably be nominated for that honor.


Super Bowl XIII
Pittsburgh 35 Dallas 31

No Super Bowl before or since matches this one for pre-game anticipation or expectations. Why? Because it was the one and only time a great NFL rivalry played out in a Super Bowl. The Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Dallas Cowboys. The Steel Curtain vs. America’s Team. Every Super Bowl features its share of pre-game hype but this one completely justified it all. Consider these factors.

--Prior to this game you could pretty much count one thing from the Super Bowl: it would suck! Super Bowl XIII wasn't only the first Super Bowl rematch, it was a rematch of the only good Super Bowl ever--Super Bowl X.

--The Steelers and the Cowboys had each won two Super Bowls in the previous six years. The Cowboys were defending champs. The Steelers owned the league's best record, 14-2. For once, without question, the two best teams in football were taking the field.

--The teams presented a fascinating contrast in styles. The Cowboys: a finesse machine designed and programmed by the computerized mind of the emotionless genius Tom Landry and led by Captain America himself, clean-cut Navy man Roger Staubach. The Steelers: Intimidating, hard-hitting defense and a big-play offense led by big-armed country boy Terry Bradshaw.

--And for a little extra juice, during Super Bowl week Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson told the press Bradshaw couldn't spell cat unless you spotted him the "a" and the "t".

All the pieces were in place for a classic football game and the teams didn't disappoint. The first half was about as great a half as one could have hoped for. Long drives, short drives, lead changes, big plays, questionable playcalling, a TD bomb and a defensive TD. When the dust settled, the Steelers took a 21-14 lead into halftime. It wasn't only the highest-scoring half in Super Bowl history, the teams had outscored the final score of 6 of the previous 12 Super Bowls.

The third quarter turned into a defensive struggle. Pittsburgh went three-and-out on its first two drives and Dallas mounted a potential game-tying drive that took them to the Steelers' ten-yard-line. And then, facing a third-and-three, Dallas' next play began a catastrophic series of events for Dallas that suddenly saw every conceivable break go Pittsburgh's way. Check it out:

a) Dallas sends in an extra tight end and shows run. The formation results in tight end Jackie Smith breaking wide open in the end zone. Instead of zipping the ball in to Smith however, Staubach throws the ball a little low and slightly behind Smith. Smith, one of the great tight ends in NFL history, slows up and either slips or goes low for the ball and he wound up dropping the less-than-perfect but still catchable pass. The Cowboys settled for a field goal.

b) On their first drive of the fourth quarter, Pittsburgh advanced the ball to their own 44. On second-and-four Bradshaw threw deep to Lynn Swann who was being covered by Benny Barnes. The ball hit the turf as did Swann and Barnes as they appeared to trip over each other's feet. Then field Judge Fred Swearingen threw perhaps the worst flag in Super Bowl history. Pass interference on Barnes.

c) The 33-yard phantom penalty sets up a 22-yard TD run by Franco Harris three plays later. Franco received some extra assistance from the umpire who managed to get himself in between Franco and a Cowboys safety Charlie Waters, preventing Waters from making a tackle.

d) And then the deathblow for Dallas. Steelers' kicker Roy Gerela slipped on his ass on the subsequent kickoff, so instead of a deep kick the ball bounced down the middle of the field toward the Manster, Cowboys DE Randy White. White, not exactly sure-handed at anytime, was playing with a cast on his left thumb. Why the hell he was on the kick return team in the first place I have no idea but he wasn't able to corral or lateral the ball and Pittsburgh recovered. On the very next play Bradshaw threw to Swann who made a beautiful over the shoulder catch to put away the Cowboys with 6:51 to play.

Well, not exactly. Staubach marched the Cowboys down the field for a TD but with Pittsburgh playing prevent the drive ate up 4 minutes and 24 seconds of clock. Dallas recovered an onside kick and incredibly Staubach led his team to yet another TD. But that drive used another two minutes. Only 22 seconds remained and when Pittsburgh recovered an onside kick it was all over.

Unparalleled pre-game excitement. A fantastic game between the best teams of the era. But the game is missing one essential ingredient to be considered the greatest Super Bowl ever. It didn't really come down to the wire. The Steelers properly traded points for time at the end. The game was not as close as the final score indicated. Plus, aesthetically the game was slightly marred by two things: the horrible PI call on Barnes and the fact the game's biggest and most memorable play was a dropped pass.

Still, those two great teams played one of the most memorable football games I have ever seen. Super Bowl XIII may have featured the greatest collection of talent ever assembled in a Super Bowl. Forget the "may". Bradshaw, Staubach, Dorsett, Franco, Swann, Stallworth, Pearson, Jackie Smith, Mean Joe Greene, Randy White, Lambert, Ham, Harvey Martin, Too Tall Jones, Mel Blount, Cliff Harris, Mike Webster, Rayfield Wright. What can you say? If you got to watch that game as it unfolded live you were one lucky football fan.


The Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time

Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part I
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part II
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part III
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IV
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part V
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VI
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part VIII
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part IX
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Part X
Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time, Conclusion