The Worst Super Bowl Teams in NFL History: Are the 2025 Patriots in the Mix?
The 2025 NFL season has seen so much change at the top of the league that it’s only fitting we have the most improbable Super Bowl matchup on record. The New England Patriots (+8000) and Seahawks (+6000) were both longshots to win Super Bowl 60 based on preseason odds, and yet here they are about to meet for the championship next Sunday night in California.
Neither team made the playoffs last year, which is rare for a Super Bowl. Only the fifth time since the 1970 merger that’s happened for a Super Bowl matchup. But at least the Seahawks were a 10-win team last year, and they gambled that Sam Darnold wasn’t fool’s gold with his 14-win season in Minnesota and that he would be an upgrade over Geno Smith.
They won that gamble and won one of the greatest divisions in history, the 2025 NFC West. Darnold’s been great under new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, Jaxon Smith-Njigba has exploded in his first year as the WR1 in Seattle, and the defense was No. 1 in points allowed much like the job coach Mike Macdonald did in Baltimore in 2023 that led to him taking the job in Seattle.
The only untraditional thing about the Seahawks as an elite, 14-win team that led the NFL in scoring differential is Darnold. But again, he’s a former high draft pick coming off a 14-win season, so maybe he’s just one of the greatest late-bloomer success stories at the position in NFL history. We’ll have a satirical look at that on Thursday.
Surprisingly, this is the first Super Bowl matchup in history where both teams lost in Week 1.
As for the 2025 Patriots, they’ve been questioned all season for their schedule, the easiest draw in the 32-team era. Then by some chance, the AFC playoffs saw them play three teams who weren’t good at scoring to begin with, then they had to play without their tackles (Chargers), without their two leading receivers (Texans), and then the biggest gift was in Denver with Jarrett Stidham having to make his first start in two years for an injured Bo Nix.
It’d be one thing if the Patriots dominated these games, but they have played poorly enough on offense to the point where Drake Maye has 2000 Trent Dilfer numbers in the postseason.
That is why some have been wondering if the Patriots are about to get exposed in Super Bowl 60 against Seattle, a fairly healthy team for a change, and if this is just a lucky team that’s used one of the easiest schedules we’ve ever seen to get this far.
They did play 11 games against teams that let go of their head coach, and that’s not including two games against Aaron Glenn’s awful Jets, or that they barely won against Zac Taylor’s Bengals in a game without Joe Burrow or Ja’Marr Chase.
So, that got me thinking about the worst teams in Super Bowl history now that we have 120 Super Bowl teams in 60 years.
What’s the criteria? A mixture of many things that we’d use to determine any team’s worth:
- Difficulty of path: Strength of schedule, games against winning/playoff teams, the playoff path, opponent injuries, etc.
- Performance metrics: Margin of victory, differentials in yards and turnovers, EPA, Simple Rating System, etc.
- Quality of roster: Players worthy of the Hall of Fame, All-Pros, Pro Bowlers, coaching staff.
- How they won their biggest games: Close calls, lucky bounces, referee help, opponent choking, etc.
One last thing, I’ m not above calling a team who won the Super Bowl one of the worst teams in Super Bowl history. Any given Sunday always applies. Anything can happen in one game. The lowly Raiders beat the Patriots in Week 1, for example.
So, let’s go through the list below with clever titles to hide the answers in the table of contents below. Try guessing the team on the description alone.
Table of Contents
Honorable Mentions
Before we get into the top 10 list, here are some honorable mentions for teams that just missed the cut of the worst Super Bowl teams:
1987 Redskins: Didn’t want to put too much emphasis on the strike season with three replacement games where Washington was 3-0, but 1987 was not Joe Gibb’s strongest team by any means. In the playoffs, they skirted by the Bears in Chicago thanks to a punt return touchdown, then survived a dropped touchdown in a 17-10 win against a mid Minnesota team that upset the top-seeded 49ers. Then they had that explosive second quarter in the Super Bowl where Doug Williams threw four touchdowns against Denver after falling behind 10-0 early.
2003 Panthers: Two years removed from a 1-15 season, the Panthers came out of nowhere with “Fox Ball” as Jake Delhomme led a record eight game-winning drives with great play in crunch time all year, including a valiant effort in the 32-29 Super Bowl loss to the Patriots. This team was 18th in SRS, but they were fun to watch with Delhomme’s heroics, Stephen Davis, Steve Smith, and a young Julius Peppers.
1980 Raiders: In his second year taking over for John Madden, head coach Tom Flores led the Raiders to a Super Bowl win with Jim Plunkett taking over at quarterback. But few champions ever lived on the edge more in the playoffs than the 1980 Raiders, who needed Red-Right 88 in the AFC Divisional at Cleveland to escape that one after MVP Brian Sipe threw a red-zone pick in a 14-12 game when the Browns could have kicked a 31-yard field goal in the last minute to win.
1996 Patriots: Similar vibes to 2025, the Patriots took advantage of a down year for the AFC after the second-year Jaguars upset the Bills and favored Broncos (it was indeed not “John Elway’s year”), sending Jacksonville to New England for the AFC Championship Game where they won 20-6 after a fumble return touchdown in the fourth quarter. But the Patriots were exposed by the superior Packers in the Super Bowl, including a big special teams performance for Green Bay.
1989 Broncos: How weak was the AFC in 1989? Denver (11-5) was the only team with more than nine wins. After barely getting by a Pittsburgh team with a minus-61 scoring differential in the first playoff game, the Broncos beat Cleveland (again) to get to their third Super Bowl in four years. But their paper tiger defense was badly exposed in a 55-10 rout against the 49ers that Terry Bradshaw famously predicted would end 55-3.
1995 Steelers: Bill Cowher’s team nearly gave away another AFC Championship Game at home after Jim Harbaugh’s Hail Mary just came up empty for the Colts. But the Steelers had a shot in Super Bowl 30 against the favored Cowboys before Neil O’Donnell threw two of the worst interceptions you’ll ever see to Larry Brown.
2002 Raiders: In a year when no one won 12 games in the AFC, the Raiders survived a conference where Tommy Maddox and Kelly Holcomb had a playoff shootout. They had all-star names like Jerry Rice, Tim Brown, and Rod Woodson on the team, but everyone was over the hill and close to retiring, including MVP quarterback Rich Gannon. In the Super Bowl against former coach Jon Gruden, the Raiders didn’t change their offense enough, so the Bucs’ great defense knew what was coming and intercepted Gannon five times in a rout.
The Raiders haven’t won a playoff game since that 2002 season either.
The 10 Worst Teams in Super Bowl History
Let’s count down the 10 worst teams in Super Bowl history. If you’re curious, only two of the 10 won the Super Bowl (so far).
10. The Champion with the Negative Scoring Differential
2011 New York Giants
Some might say the 2007 Giants belong on this list instead since Eli Manning was not as good that year as he was in 2011. But the 2007 Giants had a stronger defense led by Michael Strahan, who was retired by the time got back four years later. They were also 7-0 against losing teams in 2007, only losing to some elite teams that they would later beat in the playoffs (Cowboys, Packers, and Patriots).
Meanwhile, the 2011 Giants are the only Super Bowl team that was outscored (-6) in the regular season. They were just 3-3 against losing teams, getting swept by the Rex Grossman-led Washington Redskins that year. They had to fight just to get to 9-7, which was enough to win the NFC East.
I’d also argue the 2011 Giants had a luckier playoff run against teams not quite as strong as their 2007 gauntlet they slayed. The 2011 Packers rested Aaron Rodgers and the starters too long at the end of the season and came out flat in that upset where Eli Manning threw a Hail Mary touchdown before halftime. The Patriots were obviously stronger in 2007 than they were in 2011 when they weren’t chasing a perfect season and still lost to this team.
But the kicker is the NFC Championship Game. It felt like the Giants really outplayed Green Bay in 2007 in that frozen game where they missed some field goals before winning in overtime. But in the 2011 NFC Championship Game at San Francisco, it was a grind, and Kyle Williams gifted the Giants two turnovers on special teams, including a fumbled punt in overtime that set up an 11-yard field goal drive for the Giants in an ugly 20-17 win.
It’s not a wonder the Giants never won a playoff game in any other season in the Eli Manning era than 2007 and 2011 as those seasons are not the blueprint for how to sustain success. But those teams no doubt pulled off some major upsets and we’ll always remember them for it.
That doesn’t mean they weren’t one of the weakest teams to ever win the Super Bowl.
9. The Team Who Played in the Super Bowl with 21 Punts
2000 New York Giants
If ever there was a Super Bowl to fall asleep on, it was Super Bowl 35 between the Ravens and Giants that featured a combined 21 punts. Trent Dilfer vs. Kerry Collins is probably the worst quarterback matchup in the first 60 Super Bowls, and Collins melted under the pressure of the big stage and that great Baltimore defense.
It was a weird season with few teams really standing out, and the Ravens lucked their way to a win in the divisional round against the Titans, who had a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown and a tipped pass intercepted for another touchdown to help the Ravens advance.
The Giants were 12-4 despite ranking 13th in SRS. They weren’t that special on either side of the ball, and this was when Tiki Barber was largely sharing carries with Ron Dayne, and Amani Toomer was their No. 1 wide receiver. Jim Fassel was also the coach instead of Tom Coughlin at the time.
Just not a very memorable team who smashed a one-dimensional Mnnesota team 41-0 in the NFC Championship Game before getting stomped 34-7 by Baltimore in the Super Bowl. But the 2000 season is a good example of how your Super Bowl winner (Ravens) can be a team with a pretty poor offense but a generational defense that keeps them out of this list of the worst Super Bowl teams.
But their opponent definitely makes the top 10.
8. The Team Who Ruined the Dream Super Bowl Rematch
1985 New England Patriots
If there was anything we deserved to see from the 1985 NFL season, it was the Chicago Bears getting a rematch with Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins. Earlier that season, Marino and company helped protect the perfect season for the 1972 Dolphins by being the only team to defeat the infamous ’85 Bears that year with a stunning performance.
We were one game away from seeing that in the Super Bowl that year, but the 1985 Patriots just had to ruin everything for their first Super Bowl appearance by recovering enough fumbles in Miami in the AFC Championship Game for an upset win.
The Patriots had a young Tony Eason at quarterback, who only threw 11 touchdowns to 17 interceptions that year. The passing game actually worked better with veteran Steve Grogan, who was 5-1 as a starter for a team that finished 11-5.
But Eason played an effective game manager role in the playoffs, and the 1985 Patriots are the first team to win three road games to make the Super Bowl as a wild card. But in that Super Bowl against Chicago, Eason was 0-of-6 passing before they had to replace him with Grogan, and the Bears pounced all over the Patriots that night in a 46-10 rout to finish 18-1.
Those Patriots needed 16 turnovers in three road playoff wins to get to the Super Bowl that should have been Marino vs. Buddy Ryan’s defense to see if he could win a championship against a historic defense. But we were absolutely robbed of seeing that happen after the Dolphins lost four fumbles at home.
7. The Only Team with a Super Bowl MVP in a Losing Effort (Also Won a Playoff Game 5-0)
1970 Dallas Cowboys
Tom Landry’s Cowboys reached their first Super Bowl in the 1970 season, but this was the midpoint for a team in flux. They had stronger teams in the 1960s led by quarterback Don Meredith who just came up short against Vince Lombardi’s Packers (The Ice Bowl, for one). They would have stronger teams after this once Roger Staubach finally took the reins at quarterback and they added weapons like Drew Pearson and Tony Dorsett.
But for the 1970 Cowboys, they were just 5-4 after a 38-0 shutout loss to the Cardinals. They were also blown out 54-13 at Minnesota that season. They beat up on a poor Houston team, 52-10, in the finale to beef up their stats, but this was not an impressive 10-4 team that looked better when Craig Morton was the starter instead of Staubach.
But the playoffs are where this team really played some ugly ball. They beat the Lions at home in a playoff game that ended 5-0 thanks to a safety. Gross incompetence for both teams there. They were able to hang on for a 17-10 win in the NFC Championship Game at San Francisco in a game where Morton completed 7-of-22 passes for 101 yards.
Then there was Super Bowl V, one of the ugliest Super Bowls ever played, if not the ugliest. Even with the Colts turning the ball over seven times and having to go from starter Johnny Unitas to Earl Morrall after an injury, the Cowboys turned it over four times and lost 16-13 after a Morton interception set up the game-winning field goal.
Super Bowl V was so ugly that it remains the only Super Bowl where a player from the losing team (Dallas’ Chuck Howley) won Super Bowl MVP. The Cowboys played much better a year later when they led the league in scoring, Staubach ascended to the starter role, and they won the Super Bowl for the first time.
But the 1970 Cowboys were a work in progress who got lucky the top-seeded Vikings wasted another 12-win season with bad quarterback play before they later got Fran Tarkenton back.
6. The Original Super Bowl-Making Sack Merchant
2021 Cincinnati Bengals
People might say the 2021 Bengals proved they weren’t a fluke or one-year wonder by getting to the AFC Championship Game with a better statistical team in 2022. Maybe so.
But in both years, the Bengals benefitted from a Lamar Jackson injury in December at a time when the Ravens led the AFC north. Jackson never played again either season, and the Bengals won the AFC North twice, getting to start their playoff runs at home against Derek Carr’s Raiders and the Ravens with Tyler Huntley, who almost beat them.
But for the 2021 Bengals, that was a team who had a lot of explosive plays thanks to the addition of rookie Ja’Marr Chase, reuniting him with Joe Burrow. They also were very average in situational play, gave up a 400-yard passing game to Mike White (Jets) in a blown lead, and they needed two big comebacks to beat the Chiefs twice late in the year.
Burrow also took a league-high 51 sacks that season, then took 19 more sacks (single-season record) in the postseason. The Jackson injury helped the Bengals win the AFC North and make the playoffs. They had key takeaways on defense against the Raiders, Titans, and Chiefs to get to the Super Bowl, including interceptions that put Burrow at midfield for short game-winning drives in Tennessee and Kansas City.
The 21-3 comeback in Kansas City was one thing, but getting past the Titans first on the road when Burrow was sacked 9 times was also a miracle. Teams who give up 9 sacks and don’t score 20 points are 2-134-2, and that was one of the wins.
They looked like they might luck out in the Super Bowl too when Odell Beckham Jr. was injured for the Rams after a great start to the game for him. But Cooper Kupp was enough for Matthew Stafford to drive down the field with some help from a defensive holding penalty on third down before the Rams scored the game-winning touchdown.
In a fitting end, it was a quick pressure by Aaron Donald that forced Burrow to throw the ball away on fourth down to end the game. That was a close call for a team that allowed 74 sacks (including playoffs) almost winning a Super Bowl. The 2025 Patriots have allowed 63 sacks this year, which his the second most by any Super Bowl team.
5. The Team with the Most Valuable Schedule
2025 New England Patriots
I’m putting the 2025 Patriots at No. 5 with the caveat that they can slide down the list (not top five) if they have a good performance in the Super Bowl against Seattle. Every other team here is a finished product, but the 2025 Patriots’ story isn’t finished yet. I’ll also add that even if they get crushed by 25 points (say 28-3 for no particular reason…), I think I’d still leave them at No. 5 given what’s left ahead of them.
But the main reason I can’t take this team seriously is the schedule. I can’t take their record or stats at face value given who they’ve played (and who they didn’t have to play). It’s one thing to get an easy draw for the regular season, but it’s continued in the AFC playoffs, which I think 2025 will make 2021 (when the Bengals won it) look legitimate in time.
The schedule was a story in May too when the NFL schedule came out. The Patriots were curiously favored in 11 games after a 4-13 season. It was always a topic for the team this year, and it somehow played out to their advantage even more with the way the Bills and Ravens played worse than expected, or how bad the NFC South turned out to be.
- The 2025 Patriots played the third-easiest schedule by DVOA since 1978.
- The Patriots played the weakest strength of schedule (.391) in the 32-team era.
- The Patriots were 1-2 in the regular season against winning teams.
- The Patriots are the first team in NFL history to play 14 games against teams with a losing record in one season, and they are the first to win 13 games against such teams.
- The Patriots are the first conference champion to ever lose to a 14-loss team (Raiders were 3-14) at home, doing so in Week 1.
- The 2025 Patriots have scored just 54 points in the postseason, the fewest ever in any 3-game stretch for a Super Bowl team.
- The 2025 Patriots are the first team in NFL history to win multiple games (2) in a postseason where they didn’t score 17 points.
- The 2025 Patriots are the first team in NFL history to win multiple games (3) in a postseason where they allowed at least 5 sacks.
- The 2025 Patriots, 1986 Patriots, and 2004 Bears are the only three teams in NFL history (regular season or postseason) to win three straight games after allowing 5+ sacks in each.
- Only three teams in NFL playoff history have won a game after allowing 5+ sacks and not scoring 17 points, and the 2025 Patriots have two of them (Chargers and Broncos wins). The 1971 Cowboys had the only other win.
- The 2025 Patriots are the only team that’s ever got to play four teams that didn’t rank in the top 10 on offense in yards or points per drive.
- The 2025 Patriots are the only team in playoff history to face a starting quarterback in a championship game who hadn’t thrown a pass that season (Jarrett Stidham).
- The 2025 Patriots are the third team in the Super Bowl era to win a championship game without scoring more than 10 points.
- The 2025 Patriots are the only Super Bowl team since 2006 who didn’t have to face a quarterback who ranked in the top 10 in QBR that regular season or one who ranked in the top two in the playoffs (2017 Eagles had Nick Foles replacing Wentz, who was No. 1 in the regular season).
Between the lack of scoring and the high number of sacks, it’s a miracle the Patriots are still winning these playoff games. Then again, maybe it’s not given the opponents they played.
It’s hard to fathom how one team can get such a fortunate draw of the schedule for the regular season and have so much break their way in the playoffs too. Not only are these offenses they’re facing in the playoffs historically weak, but they were even worse because of the injuries to the Chargers’ tackles and running backs, the injuries to the Texans’ leading receivers, and to say nothing of the unprecedented Bo Nix injury, the Broncos were trying to win that game without their best rusher (J.K. Dobbins) and two of their three leading wide receivers (Troy Franklin and Pat Bryant) as well.
Clearly, facing these banged-up offenses has made the New England defense, which has allowed 19 net points in three games, look better than it really is, a story you could say is true for much of the season given the lack of good quarterbacks they’ve faced.
That’s why the offense is still able to win these games even though Maye is in Rex Grossman and Trent Dilfer territory with his statistics in the playoffs.
Then when you start looking at New England’s quick turnaround that was aided by a new coaching staff turning this roster largely over, it’s not the most talented bunch you’ll see in a Super Bowl. Their best players are essentially Maye, an older Stefon Diggs, corner Christian Gonzalez, and maybe rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson develops into a stud down the road. Then you’re already talking about a run stopper like Milton Williams, or a great punt returner like Marcus Jones.
Not much Hall of Fame potential there. Probably will be one of the lowest numbers of HOF players for a Super Bowl team in history unless this is the start of something big that I just can’t see yet. Nothing about this run feels sustainable.
But they’ll have their shot in Super Bowl 60 to rewrite their narrative against Seattle. Then future seasons can further rewrite it whether this was a one-off fluke, or the start of another long run in New England.
4. The 19-Point Super Bowl Underdog (Who Didn’t Cover)
1994 San Diego Chargers
It’s so crushing that the only Chargers team to reach the Super Bowl was the one with Stan Humphries at quarterback and Natrone Means at running back. No Super Bowls in a Chargers uniform for Dan Fouts, Kellen Winslow, Charlie Joiner, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Gates, Keenan Allen, or Justin Herbert.
Just that 1994 team who survived a pretty weak AFC during a period where the NFC was still dominating the Super Bowl. The Chargers were 11-5 but very fortunate to not lose the first playoff game at home to a very game Dan Marino and the Dolphins. Miami led 21-6 at halftime before the Chargers came back, and they still needed Miami to miss a 48-yard field goal for a 22-21 win. Poor Marino. That was his last best chance for a Super Bowl run.
That set up Chargers at Steelers for the AFC Championship Game, and the Steelers blew a fourth-quarter lead to this team too. Then Neil O’Donnell and company couldn’t deliver on the game-winning drive opportunity, so they lost 17-13 at home.
But the 1994 49ers were waiting for the Chargers in the Super Bowl, and as a 19-point favorite, Steve Young and company were not going to be denied. Young threw for a Super Bowl-record six touchdowns and the 49ers covered the spread easily in a 49-26 win that was over before it started.
3. The Team Saved by Special Teams
2001 New England Patriots
It was the start of a New England dynasty that would last two decades, but it certainly was in peril of ever taking off many times that first year. After an 0-2 start, quarterback Drew Bledsoe was injured in the first game after 9/11, putting Tom Brady on the NFL map. The team was 5-5 after a loss to the Rams, and some were questioning if second-year coach Bill Belichick would go back to Bledsoe soon.
But the team regrouped, the defense and special teams were dominant, the offense had its moments, and the Patriots never lost again that season, upsetting the Rams as a 14-point underdog in Super Bowl 36. We got to see the first glimpses of the mastery of Brady’s dink-and-dunk passing and Belichick’s bend-but-don’t-break defense that ranked 24th in yards but 6th in points allowed.
But of the first 59 Super Bowl winners, none owe their success more to the special teams, the rules at the time, and some favorable officiating than the 2001 Patriots.
- In the 2001 AFC Divisional against the Raiders, the Tuck Rule game, that fateful drive that changed NFL history forever doesn’t even happen if the defense didn’t stop a 3rd-and-1 run by the Raiders to get the ball back, then recovered a fumble on the 27-yard punt return by Troy Brown in the snow.
- The Tuck Rule itself is always controversial and it was removed for good by the NFL as a rule in 2013, but even with that help to escape a season-ending fumble for Tom Brady, Adam Vinatieri still had to make the greatest field goal in NFL history from 45 yards out to force overtime. It’s a kick Vinatieri has said he’d make maybe 10% of the time.
- Then with the game in overtime, under the old rules, it was sudden death where you can win a coin toss and just kick a field goal for the win as the Patriots did that day. Game over.
So, no team could ever repeat that type of devil luck ending in today’s NFL when you have teams using the Tush Push and going for 4th-and-1s to never give you the ball back, no Tuck Rule to bail out a fumble, and no more single-drive field goals to win in overtime. That’s all gone and some of it has been for quite a number of years already.
That was just one playoff game too. In the AFC Championship Game at Pittsburgh, the Patriots were underdogs and lost Brady to injury before halftime. But the special teams had two touchdowns, including an illegal forward lateral on a blocked field goal return that shouldn’t have counted. Troy Brown’s punt return touchdown also came after a penalty on the Steelers, and Pittsburgh would drop an interception by Bledsoe in the second half, who finished the game for Brady. The Patriots held on for the 24-17 win.
Then in Super Bowl 36 against the Rams, it was a matter of watching the Rams move up and down the field, shoot themselves in the foot with a turnover, and the Patriots took advantage. Ty Law had a pick-six on a play where Kurt Warner was hit in the face by future Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, but no penalty was called and the touchdown was good. The Patriots won the game 20-17 on a 48-yard field goal that lasted seven seconds too on a drive where Brady got away with intentional grounding that likely brings up overtime if called.
Brady won Super Bowl MVP despite not converting a single third down in the game, and he became the first quarterback to win a Super Bowl after leading his offense to just 13 points, a feat he’d later tie in Super Bowl 53 against the Rams to give a full circle ending to the New England dynasty.
The 2001 Patriots won three playoff games by 13 points (4.3 points per game), tied with the 2022 Chiefs for the tiniest margin of victory in NFL history for a Super Bowl winner. They missed the playoffs in 2002, suggesting it was a fluke, before coming back with the best defense in the NFL in 2003 and going on to repeat as champions in 2003-04, first cementing their dynasty status.
There’s no replicating what the 2001 Patriots did, a team that was held together by Belichick’s coaching and timely plays from Brady, Law, Troy Brown, Vinatieri, and others. They had to get more talented players in later years as there’s just no way of repeating that success that way.
That should ring a bell for the 2025 Patriots as you’re never going to repeat a schedule to this magnitude, and the only way back is by getting better and acquiring more talent and experience.
2. The Team with 427 Points Scored, 426 Points Allowed
2008 Arizona Cardinals
The reason Kurt Warner is a Hall of Famer is he was able to resurrect two dead franchises (Rams and Cardinals) that hadn’t really been competitive for a solid decade and took them both to the Super Bowl where he played in some dramatic games with high-volume passing days.
Some of his finest work was in that 2008 season with the Cardinals, but if we’re being honest, that was not a complete team. They scored one more point than they allowed, and they allowed the fifth-most points in the league that year. They also ranked dead last in rushing with a washed-up version of Edgerrin James, so that team was largely about Warner throwing to Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, and Steve Breaston, a trio of 1,000-yard receivers.
The Cardinals finished 9-7 but there were some low moments that year like giving up 56 points to Brett Favre and the Jets. They also lost 48-20 on the road to the Eagles and were destroyed 47-7 in a snow game against Matt Cassel and the Patriots.
But the 2008 season was a weird one in the way almost every top contender was upset in the playoffs, creating perfect paths for the Super Bowl for the Steelers and Cardinals. They didn’t have to face either No. 1 seed (Titans and Giants) who they already lost to because other teams took care of them. The season where Plaxico Burress shot himself at a club to ruin the Giants’ repeat hopes.
Since the NFC West was still bad, the Cardinals won it with a 9-7 record, so they got to host the 11-5 Falcons, who had a rookie quarterback (Matt Ryan) that wasn’t ready yet. Then the Cardinals won 30-13 in Carolina after Jake Delhomme had an all-time bad playoff game with six turnovers.
That meant the Cardinals got to host the NFC Championship Game despite a 9-7 record against the 9-6-1 Eagles, who had a history of blowing championship games under Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb. Even in that game, the Cardinals blew a 24-6 halftime lead and trailed 25-24 late before Warner led a game-winning touchdown drive.
That set up Super Bowl XLIII where the Cardinals were a 6.5-point underdog against Mike Tomlin’s Steelers with the subplot that the Steelers hired Tomlin instead of promoting offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, who took the Arizona job. It ended up being an all-time great Super Bowl with some of the most fantastic individual plays, including James Harrison’s 100-yard pick six to end the first half, a 64-yard touchdown by Fitzgerald to put the Cardinals on top late, and Santonio Holmes’ game-winning touchdown catch from Ben Roethlisberger’s best throw.
It came down to Warner getting sacked on a Hail Mary attempt as the Steelers hung on for a 27-23 win. So, the Cardinals came that close to winning the Super Bowl despite the poor defense and running game. A true testament to Warner’s abilities and the heater Fitzgerald was on that season.
1. The Team Who Finished 11-8 with a +13 Scoring Differential
1979 Los Angeles Rams
Someone had to be first (or last in this case). The worst Super Bowl team is the 1979 Rams. Now, it’s worth noting the Rams were one of the best teams in the 1970s, and this was their seventh-straight playoff appearance. They lost the NFC Championship Game four times in the five seasons before 1979.
But by the time you get to the end of the 1970s, this was before the days of Eric Dickerson, and well after the days of Deacon Jones on defense. Chuck Knox was no longer the coach either. The 1979 team had Ray Malavasi in his second year, and he had to turn from Pat Haden to a third-year quarterback named Vince Ferragamo to start the final five games of the season. The Rams won four of them despite Ferragamo’s meager production and poor efficiency.
Several metrics back up the 1979 Rams as the worst Super Bowl team:
- The 1979 Rams were 9-7 in the regular season with a +14 scoring differential.
- The only Super Bowl team to finish with just 11 wins (playoffs included) in a non-strike year.
- They were 16th out of 28 teams in SRS (-0.63).
- Including the playoffs, they were 4-6 against winning teams with a minus-12 turnover differential.
- Including the playoffs, the Rams were +13 in scoring differential, the worst of all 120 Super Bowl teams (2008 Cardinals were +30).
In the playoffs, the Rams (+8.5) were able to upset Dallas in Roger Staubach’s final game after Ferragamo threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Billy Waddy in a 21-19 comeback in the NFC Divisional. The following week in Tampa Bay, the Rams were able to win maybe the ugliest NFC Championship Game in history by a 9-0 final on three field goals as the Bucs had two different quarterbacks (Doug Williams and Mike Rae) complete 2-of-13 passes.
That’s how the Rams got to the Super Bowl, which was even played at the Rose Bowl. To their credit, they took a 19-17 lead into the fourth quarter against the 10-point favorite Steelers, who were trying to win their fourth Super Bowl in six years. But Terry Bradshaw, who overcame three picks, threw a beautiful long touchdown to John Stallworth and the Steelers came back to win 31-19.
Ferragamo actually threw a pick with just over 5:00 left in a 24-19 game while he was in Pittsburgh territory, so that had a chance for an all-time upset.
That’s the good news for underdogs like the 2025 Patriots and any future Super Bowl underdog. Even some of the worst Super Bowl teams were able to hang in there in the big game until the final minutes.
Not many championships come easy in the NFL.
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