Ranking all 52 Super Bowl games Patriots played in 5 of top 10

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Ranking all 52 Super Bowl games: Patriots played in 5 of top 10 Published: Jan 28, 2019 at 01:56 AM Elliot Harrison What's the greatest of all time? That's what I've endeavored to answer here, with the help of former personnel guru and NFL.com analyst Gil Brandt. You'll see his recollections in some of the game descriptions. As for the other analysis, well that's mine. I took this list seriously, but not so seriously that I can't take some guff. Hit me up @HarrisonNFL if you think I mi sed the mark on one -- or many -- of these Super Bowls. Gil Brandt's take: "The 55-10 game in New Orleans might have been the worst. The just didn't match up with the . They couldn't stop them." Uh, ditto. If the Pleiadians or some other alien race finds our planet in 200 years and discovers NFL Films, let's hope this isn't the one film canister they discover. XXIV was brutal from start to finish. Really, it was never a game. It was 27-3 at halftime. Get excited. Gil Brandt's take: "I was not expecting that kind of dominance by the . That said, based on the display of strength I saw, I do think that Seattle team could match up well against almost any past winner in history, including the 1977 ." You got an ominous feeling the moment you saw the shotgun snap whiz past Peyton Manning and into the end zone that it wasn't going to be the ' day. To be perfectly frank, it wasn't the 's day, either. The ' 43-8 pasting of Denver was even more of a blowout than the score indicates. To say the were out of sync is like saying Pete Carroll would get a wee bit buzzed when ran through three guys ... or when three guys. Any drama in this game was stepped on and sprinted past the moment Percy Harvin took the second-half kickoff to the house. Suddenly, a 22-nuthin' nail-biter was 29-zip. Your serve, Peyton! Gil Brandt's take:"That wasn't a very good game. It was played in old Tulane Stadium. It was not an exciting game and the killed them. Everyone remembers that Kansas City's head coach, Hank Stram, was mic'd the whole time." Keep "matriculating the ball down the field, boys," Stram would say for the NFL Films crew. Now that's some football talk right there. Gil Brandt didn't really like this game, and nor do I. It was the ' last stand, and it was ugly. They were really never in the game. The final tally was 32-14, but it really wasn't that close. wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff was named game MVP, but really, the ' ground attack dominated the ' famous front four ... 266 rushing yards is no joke. This is also famous for the NFL Films sound, "Old man Willie!" The Hall of Famer took one to the house, 75 yards for the 36-year-old corner. This felt like the Who's-gonna-be-the-sacrificial-lamb-to-the-winner-of-the-Cowboys-49ers-NFC-Championship-Game Bowl. It was. **Gil Brandt's take:** "That club got off to a slow start and really shouldn't have even been there." No, they shouldn't have. quarterback Steve Young and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan went over all 300 plays beforehand and knew they were ready. Young' Hector Rondon Jersey s line: 24-36 for 325 yards and six touchdowns. That would indicate he was probably ready to play. Miami ran Larry Csonka counter to the flow of traffic, making the impact of the knifing Alan Page -- the ' defensive tackle -- almost negligible. Csonka ran for 145 yards, and quarterback Bob Griese threw seven pa ses all game. This was pretty much awful. For you lovers of fun facts out there: VIII was played at Rice Stadium. You know, the Rice Owls, a Division I powerhouse. Who would've thought? The ' momentous franchise victory -- their first NFL championship in 40 years as an organization -- came at the expense of fans. What a snoozer, made up for by the fact there was no offense. And when I mean no offense, I mean no offense. The ' 10,000 lakes offense* -- the precursor to the West Coast offense -- racked up 119 yards. Franco Harris rushed for 158 by himself. Uh, no offense intended, fans. The offense wasn't really called that. I needed something for this lousy game, and that's all I had. Awful conditions in a game that featured Rex Gro sman at quarterback. Peyton Manning shot a commercial with a colleague of mine after this and told him the "could've scored 70 that game." I believe it. The ' Cover 2 scheme left Reggie Wayne open by about a dozen yards on his 53-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter. Perhaps my least favorite , made worse by Steven Tyler doing a halftime show with Britney Spears. This game was saved, at least from an entertainment standpoint, when three touchdowns were scored on three straight plays: The scored a touchdown, the ' Ron Dixon brought the kickoff all the way back, and then kick returner Jermaine Lewis answered. Dallas' second win was an unexciting game, with the Cowboy defense dominating throughout. Gil Brandt recalled safety Randy Hughes' performance, and laments that a player with such potential had his career ruined by shoulder injuries. Hughes and the secondary played well, but co-MVPs Harvey Martin and Randy White were downright suffocating for the quarterbacks, who combined to go 8-25 for 61 yards and four interceptions. After much reflection on this game, I came up with this: Rich Gannon played poorly, the Tampa 2 did not. This made football America aware of defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin. For a relatively close game, this one was not liked, on any level, by anyone I've spoken with. This featured a horrific uni matchup, bad calls by the refs and a storyline that centered on Jerome Bettis finishing his career in his hometown of Detroit. Yippee. Other than Thurman Thomas misplacing his helmet prior to the game, causing him to mi s the start, this was devoid of excitement. The 37-24 lo s was the first of three consecutive awful lo ses for Marv Levy's , and perhaps the only time anyone thought the ' Mark Rypien might be the best quarterback in the NFL. Come on, somebody did. Gil Brandt's take: "The Packer receivers, Boyd Dowler and Max McGee, were in the old locker rooms there at the L.A. Coliseum before the game. McGee says to Dowler, 'Hey, you can't come out of the game. I can't play today. I was out all night and got in at 7 a.m.' Well, of course Dowler gets knocked out and McGee comes in and catches that slant for a big touchdown." McGee would go on to catch seven pa ses for 138 yards, and added a score. **Brandt:** "We lost in the championship to the that year because a lineman we traded for, Jim Boeke, jumped offsides when we had first-and-goal from the 2. Don Meredith ended up having to try to pa s to get the touchdown and threw the interception to Tom Brown." </content:power-ranking> Leon Lett's non-touchdown fumble return has been a teaching video for literally a million junior high football players, courtesy of former wideout Don Beebe. Who sprints that hard to stop a 52-17 game from being 59-17? Beebe did. linebacker Rod Martin intercepted the ball three times. It's hard to win when the other team's linebacker gets three picks. This 27-10 ballgame was mostly a snoozer, although Philadelphia was in the game up until the dominated the fourth quarter. Gil Brandt's take: "The might have been the best team that year but, you know, they mi sed the field goal. Gary Anderson mi sed it. But it was more than just that kick. Remember, Atlanta's Chuck Smith came around the end and forced the fumble. That led to a touchdown (right before halftime.) Minnesota didn't need to be throwing in that situation." The had a 20-7 lead with just over a minute left in the first half, and the ball at their own 18-yard line. Brandt has a point. "In the , I remember the kid (Darrien Gordon) they got from San Diego got a big interception in that game, a really important play. He was a first-round draft pick of the ." While the media circus centered around quarterback Doug Williams being African-American, perhaps some reporter should've noticed his quick release and 80 yards worth of arm strength. A record 35-point second quarter served notice in the ' 42-10 beatdown of the . Gil Brandt's take: "There's always a few plays that alter the outcome. If you go back and look at games where a team gets a quick touchdown right before halftime, that team usually wins. Joe Theismann threw that little pa s out in the flat, and No. 58 (Jack Squirek of the Los Angeles Raiders) intercepted and scored. That was a big factor in the game." People forget that the 1983 were considered almost unbeatable. Their turnover differential that season was an absolutely mind-boggling plus-46. Still, I would say a 38-9 lo s constitutes a beating. Gil Brandt's take: "They were a good football team because of their defense. However, in the we were able to get Nick Buoniconti blocked. Hell, we ran for 250 yards on them. Then, Larry Csonka fumbles the ball away. He hadn't fumbled in 300 some odd touches that year before the ... and then there was the big sack. "That was our best Cowboy team. We just had a reunion. You look at our running backs in that Super Bowl: Duane Thomas, Calvin Hill, Walt Garrison, Dan Reeves. Who had four running backs like that? Our whole roster was like that. We had Mel Renfro and Herb Adderley at corner (both are in the .) We also picked up Forrest Gregg and Lance Alworth (two more Hall of Famers) during that season!" The dominated the in Vince Lombardi's last game as Green Bay's head coach and most famous citizen. Brandt remembers the subtleties of how the advanced to the . **Gil Brandt's take:** "We lost in the (NFL) championship in Green Bay, the Ice Bowl, at the end of the game. Their fullback, Chuck Mercein, made a couple of big plays on the game's last drive ... then Bart Starr scored the winning touchdown on the sneak. "Well, earlier that year we had lost a running back to injury, and so had Green Bay, so we both needed someone. I called Chuck, and he told me that the had already called him, and he felt they had a good shot of making the , so he was going to sign with them. He made the plays down the stretch to beat us." While 50 was the golden anniversary of pro football's biggest game, it was far from a shining reflection of the NFL's best product. The promise of a defensive slugfest in the first half morphed into are-the-Panthers-ever-going-to-mount-a-serious-drive in the second. ... 's questionable effort in the late stages was followed by his much-maligned postgame demeanor. Juxtaposed with all of this was one of the all-time great quarterbacks walking off into the pizza sunset, Lombardi Trophy in hand. The greatest offensive season in NFL history, namely Dan Marino's 5,084-yard campaign, came to a resounding halt against the ' quartet of Pro Bowlers in the secondary. For one season, Eric Wright, Ronnie Lott, Dwight Hicks and Carlton Williamson were as elite as any back four in NFL history. Their play, along with Joe Montana going 24-35 for 331 yards and three touchdowns, won the day. Gil Brandt's take: "The lost 16-13 to the on Jim O'Brien's field goal. We were a better football team, talent-wise. We had come so close the previous years, losing back-to-back championship games to the , then in '68 in Cleveland and to the again in '69. So, now we lost on a 32-yard field goal by O'Brien after he had mi sed an extra point earlier in the same game! "Duane Thomas fumbled at their 1-yard line. I still remember Jack Fette's big fat butt running over and giving the ball to the . Our center, Dave Manders, got up from the pile and handed him the football. He still pointed the other way and gave them po se sion! And then there was the tipped pa s off their receiver Eddie Hinton's hands. It bounced right to John Mackey, and they got a touchdown!" The complete the 17-0 season with a 14-7 win. It would have been 17-0 if kicker Garo Yepremian made a late field goal, rather than serving a volleyball up after catching his own blocked kick. The ' Mike Ba s plucked it out of the air and scored the ' only touchdown. Oh well, undefeated is undefeated. A blowout, yes, but a demolition made fun by, well, the most fun team in league history. I asked Gil Brandt if the defense was the most dominating he's seen in his six decades in the NFL. **Gil Brandt's take:** "The beat us 44-0 that year at Texas Stadium." Point made. </content:power-ranking> Gil Brandt's take: "Tom Landry and I thought Bill Parcells had an excellent defense. We played them early in the year, in the opener, and beat them for a touchdown on a screen pa s down the sideline. We won that game, and that was one of only two lo ses the had that year. In the -- even though they were a defensive team -- offensively, Phil Simms (22-25, 268 yards and three touchdowns) really played over his head. That was the difference." Simms' performance might have indeed been the difference, but defensive coordinator Bill Belichick ran a unit that would not let John Elway off the hook. This rematch from the prior season wasn't as bad a game as everyone remembers. In fact, Buffalo led 13-6 at halftime. But talent decided the day in the second half, as well as some costly turnovers. The shut out the 24-0 in the second half to win their second straight under Jimmy Johnson. The better team won, on the strength of special teams. Desmond Howard's kick return put the game away in theory; Reggie White and the defense ensured it. White wrapped up the ' Drew Bledsoe three times while the Brett Favre-led offense did enough to keep control of the game, and ultimately prevail, 35-21. Donovan McNabb's puking habits became all the rage in the media after Terrell Owens let the world in on his interpretation of why Philadelphia failed late: McNabb's conditioning could use the NordicTrac. Watch this game again, if you happened to DVR it back in February of 2005. The looked awfully lethargic getting in and out of the huddle, despite trailing 24-14 with five minutes left. If there is a that no one remembers, it's XVII. The quite po sibly had the worst starters in history at the skill positions, with quarterback David Woodley hitting the immortal Jimmy Cefalo for a touchdown early. Still, this game wasn't decided until the Diesel (John Riggins) got going in the fourth quarter. Neil O'Donnell to Larry Brown. That's all this will be remembered for. Pittsburgh laid some wood in the second half but was let down by two bad throws, or bad routes, depending on your perspective, of course. Either way, Dallas won its fifth Lombardi Trophy with the 27-17 victory. The franchise has only won three playoff games since. Standing on the catwalk of Lucas Oil Stadium, at about the 35-yard line of the , I had a perfect view of 's 38-yard completion to Mario Manningham to set up Ahmad Bradshaw's go-ahead touchdown run ... er, fall. Bradshaw tried to stop himself from scoring and fall on the one-foot line, so as not to give the any time to mount a comeback. It didn't matter. New England's last-gasp drive didn't get far. Meanwhile, the lasting memory of this game was Manning's picture-perfect throw, dropped perfectly over Manningham's shoulder nearly 40 yards downfield. It was a gutsy call on first down -- and the play that won a second ring for Tom Coughlin's . Put the seat debacle aside for a moment. The Packers- in Dallas turned out to be a competitive game. capped off a tremendous postseason with an incredible performance in the biggest game of his career to that point. That said, it was a defensive play that Charlie Morton Jersey underlined the ' win: ' jarring hit on Rashard Mendenhall, which caused the tailback to cough up the football and led to the decisive touchdown. Another very underrated . Don't let the final score (31-17) fool you; this was a close contest that might have swung on Sean Payton's gamble to onside kick to start the second half. Tracy Porter's late pick exemplified true mastery of the cornerback position, jumping the route to Reggie Wayne and, ultimately, giving a beleaguered city its first Lombardi Trophy. Gil Brandt's take: "We had a guy we drafted in the ninth round, Mike Wilson out of Washington State, who made a big catch for San Francisco on the sideline in the second half. Otherwise, their offense couldn't squeeze a drop the whole second half. "We were disappointed to not be there, of course. The final drive of the (NFC) Championship Game, they beat us utilizing their backs, Ricky Patton and (Lenvil) Elliott. Bill Walsh was smart. He saw us playing with five defensive backs and ran the ball. It was the right thing to do. Then you saw the play Eric Wright made on Drew Pearson, pulling him down from behind ... or he was gone. But they won the game, and then the ." A solid if not incredible game, XVI kicked off the ' dynasty. Well, if two hot quarterbacks with polar-opposite styles, a 34-minute power outage and nearly a 22-point, second-half comeback don't interest you, maybe a faceoff of two head coaches who just happen to be brothers and a fourth-and-goal stop e sentially settling the game will. XLVII makes it into the top 15 by virtue of having one of the most exciting second halves ever. The final stretch was spectacular, and it included a little controversy on that late four-down stop. (Was interfered with, or was it a good no-call?) At the end of the day, the ' win might not be up there with X, but it's not far behind, while being one of the better Super Sundays of relatively recent vintage. Gil Brandt's take: "Mark Washington had good coverage on the (Lynn) Swann plays. But really, the amazing thing about that game was the fact that only one player on both teams ever played for another team. One guy! It was Preston Pearson, who we picked up before the season. So out of 86 players on the field, or whatever, one had not been with that team his whole career. And here's the thing about that: the team Preston played for was Pittsburgh, the team we were playing. Can you imagine that happening today?" X was perhaps the first fiercely contested Super Sunday, with Art Rooney getting his second Lombardi Trophy in two seasons after 40 with nary a championship. </content:power-ranking> Who could forget John Elway getting hammered -- upended -- in mid-air? This will always be remembered for Elway's heart, and for him finally winning the big one. But there were so many big plays. Watching Steve Atwater lay out the ' Robert Brooks and teammate Randy Hilliard -- and himself -- on one pa s over the middle in the fourth quarter was football in the 1990s. Not anymore. "Spygate" has marred what was an exciting contest. New England halted the unstoppable -- a.k.a., "The Greatest Show on Turf" -- in perhaps the greatest team victory in history. St. Louis could not get its offense going in the first half but put together impre sive drives in the second half to tie the game at 17. That's when Bill Belichick decided to trust first-year starter with 1:21 left on the clock. The future Hall of Famer moved the team 53 yards in eight plays to set up 's game-winning field goal in the 20-17 win. Another fantastic of relatively recent vintage. The Santonio Holmes catch in the corner of the end zone to give the a 27-23 win over the is burned in the mind's eye of anyone who recalls this game. What a performance by the . What if Kurt Warner had more time at the end, a la Staubach in XIII? Look out. I ran into Eddie George, an old colleague of mine from our time at Fox, at XLVI. A lot of people were asking him his thoughts on XLVI, but it was hard to forget his goal-line surge in XXXIV, one of the key plays in the ' comeback from a 16-point deficit. , rolling out and just not letting the bring him down. Kordell Stewart used to say McNair was "country strong." No joke. It's sad to think one of the starting quarterbacks in such a great is gone. </content:power-ranking> Gil Brandt's take: "The Patriots- had a slow first half and a great second half. Neither team could get going in the first half. But in the second, each team exchanged touchdowns and put up a lot of points. And, of course, then the kicked off and it went out of bounds ... that was a huge play." I can still see Jake Delhomme rolling to his left and uncorking a long touchdown pa s -- pure streetballin'. An exquisitely entertaining game. Gil Brandt's take: "The after we played them in XIII was one of the better games. They played it in Pasadena, and the were able to get a halfback option pa s from Lawrence McCutcheon for a touchdown on Pittsburgh. We thought we were in good position that year to play them. We had a good team ... ... but of course, we were beaten on the Billy Waddy catch in the playoff versus the . Aaron Kyle, who I drafted to play corner for us in '76, had him covered, but just didn't have any ball skills. He'd be right there tracking ... tracking ... but then as Waddy was coming down with the football, Kyle was jumping up." (Gil shook his head, putting his hand over his eyes. Something tells me that one still hurts.) If there's a forgotten great , this is it. How will LII be remembered? As the fairy tale? 's 500-yard bad dream? The that reads as if it is saying you are a loser with added emphasis? Eagles- is a tough one to rank. It was an exciting game, certainly one of the most entertaining ever. Yet, as my esteemed editor noted, there wasn't too much premier defense to go with the league's premier teams. Other than 's clutch strip-sack, defense was hardly at a premium. It was as if both teams were replicating the ' second-half defensive act from the prior year's . So where does it stand? Perhaps LII should be viewed through the lens of entertainment. Frankly, that is ultimately what profe sional sports are all about. That's why this game lands in epic territory. Philadelphia winning its first championship since pulling it off at Franklin Field in 1960 was a nice bonus, too. Oh, and we forgot the Philly Special. Gil Brandt's take: "The second of the Bengals- Super Bowls was one of the best games. Of course there was the Montana play, but Tim Krumrie broke his leg, which changed the game. It was close throughout." Krumrie's injury allowed San Francisco to run the ball, but overall, defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau's unit kept the at bay most of the day ... until it really mattered. John Taylor caught the game-winner, and a piece of NFL history. Gil Brandt's take: " III has to be one of the best because of what it meant. It changed the perception about the American Football League and the merger. That game was about the impact it had." This game, in my mind, put NFL Films on the official map. Gil Brandt's take: "The winning on the 'Wide Right' field goal. They basically played a 2-5 (defense) so as to try to stop the Buffalo offense. You know, the played them earlier in the season and stifled Buffalo's offense ... now, that was a really good game, too. Jim Kelly got hurt, and (Frank) Reich had to come in." Re-watching the broadcast of XXV, I can back up what Gil was saying. Here the were, playing two down linemen with five linebackers moving around. Man, Bill Belichick was ahead of the game as a defensive coordinator. Undoubtedly, there will be many people who disagree with this ranking. The crawling back from a 28-3 deficit, first slowly, then at a frenetic pace, puts this near the top. The question is whether it was as high in quality as the other games in this echelon -- like XLIX or XXV -- And legacy-wise, can it compete with Super III? With respect to Gil's opinion, I still feel that XLIX was a better game from start to finish, while XLII (first 16-0 team loses) and XIII (battle between the 1970s' two premiere teams) were equally entertaining games and carry more historical weight. **Gil Brandt's take:** "I think this one has to go at the top of the charts. We'd never had overtime before. Between that and the epic comeback, my feeling is, LI was the best I ever watched -- and the most exciting." </content:power-ranking> This presented what might become the rarest of things in the salary-cap era: a title bout between the certifiable two best teams. Was it the greatest ever? Time will tell, but as of right now, it slots here. Aspects will be long remembered, like 's circus catch and the How do you not give it to Beast Mode? goal-to-go sequence at the end. Let's take a historical view of 's interception to seal the win. Below, the most-clutch defensive plays in history: 5) Tracy Porter robs Peyton Manning, XLIV. 4) Jack Squirek's pick-six, XVIII. 3) ' tackle of Kevin Dyson, XXXIV. 2) James Harrison's 100-yard interception return, XLIII. 1) Butler's interception. His instant read-and-react to Ricardo Lockette's underneath route, coupled with his catch, won the third-greatest in history. Enough said. "So many small plays in a game can change a game," Gil Brandt says. "What if they had called in-the-grasp on Eli (Manning)? What if (David) Tyree doesn't trap the ball against his helmet? What if Asante Samuel doesn't worry about getting his feet down and catches the (interception)?" I would only add that defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo showed us all how rotating a good front four could win a game. The great ones never lose, they just run out of time. That's what happened to Roger Staubach in XIII, who overcame the most famous drop -- Jackie Smith's in the end zone -- in NFL history. This 35-31 contest had so many moments ... a strip-sack for a touchdown, Terry Bradshaw's MVP performance, the Smith drop, a big pa s-interference call on the ' Benny Barnes, and a special-teams fumble that turned the game around. **Gil Brandt's take:** " XIII, in my mind, was one of the most memorable s. Those were two great football teams. We (the Dallas Cowboys) made mistakes. We had Randy White on the return team with a cast on, and then he fumbled the kickoff ... which really hurt us. Even though we lost, I would say XIII was among the greatest Super Bowls." < Brad Peacock Jersey ;/content:power-ranking> This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be mi sing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an i sue.
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