Wild Card teams that won the Super Bowl

Introduction

The National Football League has allowed “at-large” non-divisional winner to gain entrance in the conference playoff tournament since the 1970 season. When the League expanded the regular season from 14 to 16 games for each team, the amount of Wildcards from each conference increased from one to two. In 1990, the NFL bumped that number to three from the AFC and NFC. These teams have come to be known as the Wildcards, and though they are not the odds-on favorites of the postseason, they have the same chance that other teams in the playoffs have.

This article will examine the most successful Wild Card entrants of the last half a century as they came from the bottom of the playoff seeding to win the Super Bowl.

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The Raiders, in just their second season under head coach Tom Flores, did the unthinkable: win Super Bowl XV from the Wild Card spot. Journeyman QB Jim Plunkett took over mid-season’s signal caller position to lead the offense. At the same time, DB Lester Hayes was the NFL leader in interceptions on D. The Raiders overwhelmed the Oilers, Browns, and AFC West rival Chargers in the playoffs to earn the right to face the upstart Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV. The Raiders proved too much for Philly in the game as Oakland cruised to a 27-10 victory.

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The Broncos were a gritty bunch in 1997, led by seasoned veteran QB John Elway. The Broncos were under Head Coach Mike Shanahan’s direction and sported a respectable regular season record of 12-4. However, this was good enough for only second place in the AFC West as the Kansas City Chiefs registered a 13-3 mark to take the Divisional title, splitting the regular season match-ups between them. This relegated the Broncos to the Wildcard round against a tough Jacksonville Jaguars squad. Elway and company won handily 42-17. Next up was the season’s rubber game with KC. Denver won the divisional round 14-10 over their rivals to advance to the AFC Championship game versus the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Broncos were once again road warriors, defeating the Steelers 24-21 to advance to Super Bowl XXXII to face the highly favored Green Bay Packers. The Broncos set the tone early in the Big game, jumping out to a 17-7 lead in the first half. The Pack would come back and tie the game two times before Denver’s Terrell Davis sealed the deal just after the two-minute warning for a thrilling 31-24 Lombardi Trophy victory to become one of the seven Wild Card teams that won the Super Bowl.

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The AFC Central sported one of the largest divisions in NFL history when they housed six teams during the 2000 season. The Baltimore Ravens fell one game short of taking the Central crown as the 13-3 Tennessee Titans trumped their 12-4 record. Baltimore secured a Wild Card placement in the AFC postseason, though, by beating the Denver Broncos 21-3 in the Wild Card round and then knocking off top-seeded Tennessee in a revenge game, 24-10. The Ravens started hitting their stride as their stifling defense allowed only a field goal to the Oakland Raiders in the AFC Championship contest. The victory sling-shotted them into Super Bowl XXXV and a 34-7 thrashing of the New York Giants for the franchise’s first NFL title.

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The 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers were the first team in NFL history to capture the Lombardi from sixth seed. Pittsburgh’s Coach Bill Cowher rallied his troops after three consecutive losses to peak at the right time and win their last four games to enter the playoffs at 11-5. The resilient Steelers returned from a poor start against the rival Cincinnati Bengals to win the Wild Card round 31-17. Next up was the top-seeded Indianapolis Colts, who were stunned in an exciting finish that included a game-saving shoe-string tackle by second-year QB Ben Roethlisberger after a fumble recovery return at the one-yard line. Pittsburgh knocked off Denver 34-17 to win the AFC Lamar Hunt Trophy and the right to face the NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL. The Steelers defeated Seattle 21-10 through the longest rushing TD in SB history by Fast Willie Parker, a trick passing TD to Hines Ward, and a solid defense featuring Troy Polomalu.

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The New York Giants were not supposed to be any match for the undefeated New England Patriots. Should they capture Super Bowl XLII, the Pats were flirting with the ranks of the ’72 Miami Dolphins. For New York, it was a different story; they finished the season with an 11-6 mark and backed into the NFC playoff by losing to New England in the final game of their scheduled season. The Giants played tough and hung around in the game. The drama intensified as QB Eli Manning led New York in a late game drive that included a helmet catch and later a Plaxico Burress TD catch to propel the Giants to a stunning 17-14 win after entering the game as 12-point underdogs.

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The 2010 Green Bay Packers of Head Coach Mike McCarthy sort of backed their way into the playoffs as they dropped 3 of their last six regular-season games to go 10-6 on the season and narrowly beat out a 10-6 New York Giants team for the final NFC playoff invite. Green Bay did win their last two regularly scheduled games and then backed that up by winning four straight postseason games, including a Super 31-25 Bowl XLV victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. This made the Packers one of the few Wild Cards that won a Super Bowl.

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The Big NFL news entering the 2020 season was COVID-19 and the Buccanneers’ acquisition of Quarterback Tom Brady after two decades in a New England uniform. The Bucs’ deal to get Brady inked was significant as he was the team’s missing piece to succeed. Tampa stumbled to a disappointing 7-4 record to start the season before rattling off four consecutive wins to end the season at 11-4 and capturing a Wild Card spot. In the postseason, the Buccaneers traveled to win contests against Washington, New Orleans, and Green Bay to punch their ticket to face the defending Champion Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL season finale. The Bucs exploited a weak offensive line of KC to terrorize Patrick Mahomes and propel Tampa Bay to its second Lombardi Trophy.

Conclusion

Though the percentages of winning it all are not in their favor, a dozen Wild Card teams have earned the right to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, and over half of them won it all. Everyone starts the postseason with refreshed 0-0 records in the single-elimination format of the post-season tournament, and these teams mentioned above prove that everyone has a chance to take the crown.

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 4th, 2023 at 11:16 am and is filed under Top Lists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.