The Super Bowl. Easily the best sporting event of the entire year.

 

Just about every Super Bowl, even the boring blowouts, has provided at least one memorable moment: Max McGee’s one-handed touchdown grab against the Chiefs in Super Bowl I; or Marcus Allen's majestic 74-yard touchdown gallop against the Redskins, “running with the night” in the poetic words of NFL Films.

 

And who could forget John Riggins’ 4th-and-1 touchdown romp over helpless Dolphins defenders in Super Bowl XVII, or David Tyree's miracle catch against the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII?

 

But not all Super Bowls are created equal. Some of have been hopelessly one-sided affairs that fans everywhere but the winning city tuned out by halftime; others were more poorly played than preseason football; and, finally, we have enjoyed over the past 43 winters some true classics, especially here in recent years, which we have dubbed “The Golden Age of the Super Bowl.”

 

The following is a ranking of every Super Bowl ever played, from worst to best. The rankings are based upon a loosely defined set of criteria, including excitement, last-second scores, unexpected drama, signature plays and moments, and even, when appropriate, the historical ramifications of each game.

 

Let’s hope Super Bowl XLIV finds a place somewhere near the top of the list. 

The Steelers used Willie Parker's Super Bowl-record 75-yard touchdown run and a 43-yard touchdown pass from wide receiver Antwaan Randle El to Hines Ward, the game's MVP, to win 21-10.

 

However, the game was marred by controversial calls by the officials, possibly enough to change the outcome of the game, argued some angry Seahawks fans. And, in general, the game was so poorly played that winning quarterback Ben Roethlisberger completed just 9 of 21 passes for 123 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT and a 22.6 passer rating – the lowest mark by any Super Bowl-winning quarterback.

 

To this day, the only people who enjoyed Super Bowl XL live within a 12-miles radius of Heinz Field.

At least some history was made: The Steelers became the first No. 6 seed to win a Super Bowl, and their fifth Lombardi Trophy tied them with the 49ers and Cowboys for the most in history.

 

There have been bigger blowouts on the scoreboard, but few if any felt more one-sided. The Cowboys rushed for 252 yards, while the Dolphins produced just 185 yards of total offense.

 

The Doomsday Defense forced two turnovers and became the only team in Super Bowl history to not allow a touchdown. But the highlights were few. Roger Staubach threw two touchdown passes, but netted just 100 yards through the air.

 

As was the case with Super Bowl XL, the best thing you can say about Super Bowl VI is that some history was made: the Cowboys won their first championship, shedding the image of the team that “couldn’t win the big game,” while Miami used the humiliation to fuel their undefeated season the following year.

 

If you’re excited by teams getting chewed up gruesomely in a meat grinder, then this game might be higher on your list. Otherwise, it was a yawner.

 

The Dolphins became the first AFC team to win consecutive Super Bowls behind 53 rushing attempts and the MVP effort of running back Larry Csonka (33 attempts, 145 yards and two touchdowns).

Miami quarterback Bob Griese threw just seven passes, completing six, for 73 yards. His seven passes are a record-low for a starting quarterback. Like the Cowboys-Dolphins Super Bowl two years earlier, Super Bowl VIII was not nearly as close as the score indicated and produced few highlight moments for either team – just the droning drum beat of Miami’s relentless ground attack chewing up another Minnesota loser.

 

Sadly, as we noted recently, humiliating Vikings defeats in the Super Bowl remain the glory days for the franchise. This was another in which Minnesota simply failed to show up after a great regular season.

 

Future Hall of Fame defensive back Willie Brown returned an interception 75 yards for a touchdown and safety Jack Tatum brutally hammered Vikings' receiver Sammy White with what is still considered the hardest hit in Super Bowl history.

 

How bad was the game? Oakland receiver Fred Biletnikoff won MVP honors with 4 catches for 79 yards and 0 TDs.

It was supposed to be coronation for the Eagles. Instead, they were decapitated by the underdog Raiders, who became the first wild-card team to win the Super Bowl.

 

Oakland quarterback Jim Plunkett threw for 261 yards and three touchdowns on just 21 pass attempts. Philly’s more highly touted Ron Jaworski responded by completing just 18 of 38 passes with three picks, all by Oakland linebacker Rod Martin.

 

The game was essentially over in the first quarter, when Plunkett threw to Kenny King for an 80-yard touchdown, then a Super Bowl record, to take a 14-0 lead.

Sorry Minnesota … it just wasn’t your century.

Despite entering the game as 13-point underdogs, Len Dawson and the Chiefs dominated, forcing five turnovers and limiting the Vikings to just 239 total yards. This began a long stretch of terrible Super Bowl performances by the Vikings and their famed "Purple People Eaters" defense.

Dawson tossed a touchdown and earned MVP honors, the fourth straight quarterback to do so.

 

But the highlight of the game didn’t happen on the field, it happened on the sideline: Kansas City coach Hank Stram, mic’ed up NFL Films, cleverly butchered the English language, urging his team to “keep matriculating the ball down the field.” It’s been a favored line of sports casters and website Trolls everywhere in the 40 years since.

Vince Lombardi's last game as the head coach of Green Bay couldn’t have gone any better for himself or his Packers. But it was a snoozefest for the rest of the nation.

 

 The Packers dominated the Raiders on offense and defense and firmly established – or so the sporting world thought – the NFL’s dominance over the AFL. After all, the 1967 Raiders went 13-1 and were probably the most dominant team in AFL history.

           

Packers quarterback Bart Starr was named MVP of the game for the second consecutive year, throwing for 202 yards and a touchdown. Future Hall of Fame defensive back Herb Adderley returned an interception 60 yards for a touchdown. For competitive purposes, the game – and the national interest – ended when Starr connected with Boyd Dowler to lift the Packers to a 13-0 lead in the second quarter.

Oakland’s victory was one of the more improbable blowouts in history: after all, the Redskins were 14-2, big favorites and fresh off a season in which they set a then-NFL record by scoring 541 points.

 

But the Redskins did everything wrong on game day, and really weren’t competitive beyond the first quarter. The only drama for much of the nation was to see how badly Marcus Allen could shred the Washington defense. He ran for a then-record 191 yards and two touchdowns, highlighted by his brilliant 74-yard gallop, which was then the longest run in Super Bowl history.

 

Todd Christensen once was moved to tears talking about the movie depiction by NFL Films of Allen “running with the night.”

 

But when the highlight for fans is clicking off how many players fall helplessly at Allen’s feet, you know it wasn’t a good night.

The Cowboys turned in a memorable defensive performance, forcing eight turnovers and holding a pair of Broncos quarterbacks to just 61 yards passing.

Denver’s Craig Morton completed eight passes, four to the wrong team, before giving way to the inept Norris Weese, who threw for just 22 yards on 10 pass attempts. The Cold, Hard Football Facts on SI.com named Morton’s effort the worst by a quarterback in Super Bowl history.

 

So at least some history was made.

Denver fans were thrilled by this game: John Elway closed out a Hall of Fame career by winning the Super Bowl for the second consecutive season and earned MVP honors after throwing for 336 yards and a touchdown.

 

But coronations in one town do not make for particularly thrilling TV around the rest of the country: the Falcons fell behind 17-3 in the second quarter and never threatened to take the lead the rest of the night.

On the bright side, regular-season MVP Terrell Davis rushed for over 100 yards for the seventh consecutive postseason game and Atlanta’s Dan Reeves became the fourth head coach to lose four Super Bowls – he lost the first three with Elway and the Broncos.

Peyton Manning finally earned a Super Bowl ring, throwing for 247 yards and a touchdown in the Colts' 29-17 victory over the NFL's top ranked defense.

Bears' quarterback Rex Grossman concluded his roller-coaster season by throwing two picks and losing a fumble. Defensive back Kelvin Hayden sealed the victory for the Colts with a 56-yard interception touchdown early in the fourth quarter, and Tony Dungy became the first black head coach to win the Super Bowl.

 

Notable accomplishments, but lectures on racism while watching the coronation of the favorite Son of the South do not make for a notable Super Bowls.

Congratulations, Minnesota: four Super Bowl appearances; four failures to put up a fight; four games here among the 12 worst in Super Bowl history.

 

The Steel Curtain held the Vikings to a Super Bowl record-low 119 yards of total offense, recorded the game's first-ever safety, and intercepted future Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton three times.

Pittsburgh’s Franco Harris was a one-man army by comparison. He rushed for 158 yards and a touchdown on 34 carries.

Joe Gibbs became the third head coach to win three Super Bowls, all led by a different quarterback. This time it was Mark Rypien, who threw for 292 yards and two touchdowns.

 

While Rypien rolled, Buffalo’s Jim Kelly and the K-Gun offense misfired badly, as they usually did in Super Bowls. The Bills quarterback threw a Super Bowl record 58 passes, but produced just 273 yards, with two touchdowns and four back-breaking interceptions.

 

The scored indicates that the game was competitive. But reality says otherwise: the Redskins held a 17-0 halftime lead, while a pair of late Buffalo touchdowns made the game look more competitive than it actually was.

The Packers rolled to an easy win in the first Super Bowl, thanks to 250 yards passing and two touchdowns by quarterback Bart Starr, the game's MVP. Little-used wide receiver Max McGee caught seven passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns.

           

Defensive back Fred "The Hammer" Williamson boasted before the game that he would knock out both Packers receivers, yet ironically it was Williamson who was knocked out with a head injury. He returned, only to suffer a broken arm in the fourth quarter.

 

It was probably the most interesting development in a first AFL-NFL championship game that was anything but the “Super” Bowl it would later become.

Miami completed the first perfect season in the Super Bowl era in NFL history,

Sounds exciting. But the game, a far more dominant performance by the Dolphins than the final score indicated, offered few thrills and even less doubt about the outcome.

 

Miami held the Redskins scoreless until cornerback Mike Bass returned a blocked field goal 49 yards for a touchdown with just 2:07 left in the game.

 

Larry Csonka powered the Dolphins with 112 yards on just 15 carries, and safety Jake Scott intercepted two passes, becoming the second defensive player to win MVP honors.

 

General rule of thumb: when a defensive player wins MVP honors, you can be reasonably certain it was not a good game (See Super Bowl V at No. 26; and Super Bowl XX, at No. 23, below.)

Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and the 49ers turned in arguably the single most dominant performance in Super Bowl history, scoring two touchdowns in all four quarters of a 55-10 romp.

Montana threw for 297 yards and five touchdowns, three of them to All-Pro receiver Jerry Rice, while Broncos' quarterback John Elway threw for just 108 yards and was intercepted twice.

 

The biggest blowout in Super Bowl history makes for bad television. But the coronation of Joe Montana as perhaps the greatest quarterback ever made for a historically compelling storyline and keeps the game from a spot lower on the list.

The Bills lost their third straight Super Bowl, thanks to an unbelievable nine turnovers (four interceptions and five lost fumbles).

 

The game is best remembered for the premature celebration by Dallas defensive lineman Leon Lett who picked up a fumble and appeared to be rumbling in for a touchdown, only to be stripped from behind at the 1 by the hard-charging Don Beebe. The Bills pathetically lost four Super Bowls. But at least Beebe gave them one moment in the Super Bowl sun. If not for Lett's own fumble at the 1-yard line, a play that would have given the Cowboys an NFL record three fumble returns for touchdowns.

 

The Cowboys had to settle for just two fumble-return touchdowns instead of three in their blowout of the Super Bowl sad-sack Bills.

Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman threw for 273 yards and four touchdowns, earning MVP honors.

In a game featuring eleven turnovers, The Colts won on a 32-yard field goal by rookie kicker Jim O'Brien with just five seconds left in the game.

 

Sounds like an exciting game. But it wasn’t.

 

It might have been the most poorly played game in Super Bowl history, with 11 turnovers, including seven by the winning team. The Cowboys lost the ball four times and committed 10 penalties.

 

You know our rule of thumb stated in No. 29 (Super Bowl VII) above: if a defensive player wins MVP honors, it was a bad Super Bowl.

 

Here in Super Bowl V, a defensive player captured the MVP award. And he came from the losing team: Dallas linebacker Chuck Howley. He’s the only player on the losing side to win Super Bowl MVP honors.  

It was billed – by the Cold, Hard Football Facts and others – as the greatest quarterback showdown in Super Bowl history. But it didn’t live up to the hype.

 

Joe Montana and Dan Marino each threw for over 300 yards, but Montana threw three touchdowns while Marino was victimized by a pair of picks.

 

San Francisco scored 21 straight points in the second quarter to take command of the game and squash any hopes of a wire-to-wire shootout.

Running back Roger Craig became the first player to score three touchdowns in a single Super Bowl, while Montana adding a rushing touchdown to his three TD tosses to earn MVP honors.

On the bright side, the Bills were actually competitive for once in a Super Bowl, taking a 13-6 lead into the half. On the dark side that typified Buffalo’s embarrassing streak of consecutive Super Bowl losses, the team fell part in the second half, as the Cowboys ripped 24 unanswered points to capture the 30-13 blowout victory.

Dallas’s Emmitt Smith rushed for 132 yards and two touchdowns, becoming the first running back to win regular season MVP and Super Bowl MVP.

The 49ers beat the Broncos by a wider margin in Super Bowl XXIV. But no team ever appeared so inferior to its Super Bowl opponent than the Patriots did to the Bears.

 

Chicago throttled the surprising AFC champ Patriots, setting Super Bowl records by tallying seven sacks and allowing just seven rushing yards. The Patriots registered -19 yards of offense in the first half and quarterback Tony Eason failed to complete a single pass (0 for 6) before Steve Grogan took over.

The game is also remembered for defensive tackle William "Refrigerator" Perry rushing for a late touchdown instead of the great Walter Payton. The awe with which the nation gawked at Chicago’s dominant performance give this blowout a spot here in the middle of the pack.

The Jets entered the game as a record 18-point underdog, but Joe Namath famously guaranteed a Jets' victory, and then delivered, throwing for 206 yards with zero interceptions. Fullback Matt Snell rushed for 121 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries, while George Sauer caught eight Namath passes for 133 yards.

 

The quarterback combination of MVP Earl Morrall and future Hall of Fame great Johnny Unitas proved to be virtually ineffective, throwing for four interceptions.

 

It was a signature win in NFL history, one still celebrated by members of the old AFL. But it was not a particularly great game.

The Redskins entered the second quarter trailing 10-0 and ended the second quarter leading 35-10. In between, Washington quarterback Doug Williams tossed four touchdown passes, two to Ricky Sanders.

 

Eventual MVP Williams finished the game with 340 yards passing, with 193 of those to pitch-and-catch partner Sanders.

 

The great one-hit wonder Timmy Smith was the other piece of Washington’s 1-2-3 punch that overwhelmed and then knocked out the Broncos. He rushed for 204 yards and two touchdowns on just 22 carries. Smith, a rookie at the time, appeared in just 13 more games the rest of his career, rushing for 476 yards.

The Ravens field one of the greatest defenses in NFL history and allowed just 152 yards of total offense, recorded four sacks, and forced five turnovers.

 

Ray Lewis earned MVP honors with 11 tackles and four defensed passes, while rookie Jamal Lewis rushed for 102 yards and a touchdown.

 

The game did offer one thrilling exchange between the two teams, a record of three straight plays that resulted in touchdowns. Baltimore's Duane Starks returned a Kerry Collins 49 yards; Ron Dixon gave the Giants their only points by returning the next kick 97 yards; then Jermaine Lewis followed with an 84-yard kick return touchdown of his.

 

That exchange in which their team was outscored 2 to 1 pretty much qualifies as the high point of the game for Giants fans.

New York quarterback Phil Simms looked like Joe Montana, completing 22 of 25 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns. It was a record 88 percent completions that stood for many years and earned Simms the MVP.

Linebacker Harry Carson turned in a phenomenal game, recording 14 tackles, including four for a loss.

 

The pair of great performances, including the once-in-a-lifetime effort from Simms, added some entertainment value to another Super Bowl yawner.

Yeah, another blowout in the so-called “Super” Bowl. But in this one, Steve Young finally emerged from Joe Montana's shadow with arguably the greatest passing performance in the history of the big game. He capped off his record-setting (112.8 passer rating, since surpassed) MVP season by throwing a Super Bowl-record six touchdown passes in San Francisco’s blowout win.

 

Running back Ricky Watters and wide receiver Jerry Rice each scored three touchdowns for the 49ers, and linebacker Ken Norton, who had played the previous six years with the Cowboys, became the first player to win a Super Bowl in three straight seasons.

The Buccaneers dominated the "Gruden Bowl," intercepting MVP Rich Gannon five times, and returning three for scores.

After the Raiders cut a 34-3 Bucs lead into 34-21 with just six minutes remaining, the Buccaneers returned two interceptions for touchdowns to seal a 48-21 victory. The Tampa defense outscored the entire Oakland offense in the first-ever Super Bowl between a top-ranked offense and a top-ranked defense.

 

It’s a sad commentary on the history of the Super Bowl when a 27-point blowout is one of the 20 best games we’ve ever seen.

We’re finally starting to get somewhere, and into those games in the outcome actually remained in doubt into the second half and (gasp!) into the final frame.

 

The Patriots scored 10 points early in the fourth quarter to break open a tie game and All-Pro safety Rodney Harrison intercepted Donovan McNabb with nine seconds remaining to secure a Patriots' victory and establish a Patriots' dynasty.

Tom Brady became the fourth quarterback to win three Super Bowls and New England receiver Deion Branch tied a Super Bowl record with 11 catches to earn MVP honors.

Brett Favre, the NFL's Most Valuable Player for the second straight season, threw for 246 yards and two touchdowns, including a then-record 81-yard pass to Antonio Freeman.

 

Drew Bledsoe and the Patriots fought back to forge a one-score game in the third quarter against a dominant Packers team (No. 1 in both scoring offense and defense).

But then Green Bay return man Desmond Howard ripped off a 99-yard kick return for a touchdown to close out the scoring late in the third quarter. Howard earned MVP honors with 244 total return yards.

Pittsburgh quarterback Neil O’Donnell made not one but two of the biggest gaffes in Super Bowl history in the same game, twice throwing the ball into the hands of wide-open Dallas cornerback Larry Brown, each of which set up Cowboys touchdowns.

 

However, the Steelers actually made a game of it, scoring 10 points in the fourth quarter to give us a 20-17 game – a rare game at this point in NFL history that was still in doubt.

 

But Emmitt Smith rushed for his second touchdown to ice the game, while the Cowboys cemented themselves as a dynasty by becoming the first NFL team to win three Super Bowls in four seasons.

Brown earned MVP honors – and a big contract the next from Al Davis in Oakland – for his two-pick effort.

The 49ers built a 20-0 halftime lead, but needed a dramatic goal-line stand in the third quarter to hold on for the victory.

 

Super Bowl XVI will always be remembered as the first of what became four legendary Super Bowl appearances by Joe Montana. His numbers were humble compared with those we’d see from him in later Super Bowls, but Montana passed for one score and rushed for another.

Thirty-four old Redskins running back John Riggins outgained the entire Miami offense with 38 carries for a then-Super Bowl record 166 yards. Miami quarterback David Woodley, meanwhile, completed just four of 14 passes for 97 yards – 76 of them in a single first-quarter touchdown pass to Jimmy Cefalo.

 

Despite the disparity in production, the Dolphins carried a 17-14 lead into the fourth quarter and had the forced the Redskins into a 4th and 1 at the Miami 43. Washington went for the first and produced one of the signature plays in NFL history: Riggins rumbling 43 yards for what proved to be the game-winning touchdown.

 

The Dolphins might have a better shot, had the 24-year-old Woodley completed a single pass in the second half. But he didn’t. And now you know why Don Shula drafted Dan Marino three months later.

The scoreboard says blowout. But it didn’t exactly unfold that way. The surprising Rams, who went just 9-7 in 1979, went toe-to-toe with the dynastic Steelers and actually carried a 19-17 lead into the fourth quarter. Credit some home cooking – the game was played at a glittery twilight Rose Bowl – and a bit of trickery: running back Lawrence McCutcheon’s 24-yard touchdown pass to Ron B. Smith.

 

But the greatest gunslinger in Super Bowl history, Terry Bradshaw, responded with a 73-yard touchdown pass to John Stallworth in the fourth quarter. Franco Harris tacked on some insurance with a 1-yard score.

 

Stallworth’s touchdown marked the seventh lead change in a surprisingly dramatic showdown between the dynastic Steelers and the upstart Rams. Pittsburgh became the first team to win four Super Bowls while Bradshaw cemented his big-armed, big-game legend with 309 yards and two touchdowns on just 21 pass attempts.

Denver All Pro running back Terrell Davis missed most of the second half with a severe migraine, but had enough in the tank to score the winning touchdown, his third of the day, with just 1:45 to play.

 

The Broncos defense then stopped BrettFavre and the Packers to become just the second wildcard team to win the Super bowl.

 

The game also had a dramatic storyline, as aging John Elway finally won a Super Bowl in his 15th season, and produced a signature moment: Elway’s gritty run in which he was helicoptered by a pair of Green Bay defenders. MVP Davis ended the day with 157-yards.  

 

It was also a watershed Super Bowl: one of few in history that was still in doubt in the final two minutes, but it spawned a wave of dramatic Super Bowls in the years ahead.

You know the story: Buffalo kicker Scott Norwood hooked a 47-yard field goal wide right on the game’s final play and Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, and the Giants were world champions.

 

But it was only one of several signature moments in a Super Bowl that lived up to the billing: Giants RB Ottis Anderson gashing the Bills 102 tough yards and a touchdown; Bills back Thurman Thomas ripping off 190 yards of offense and a touchdown; Jim Kelly leading the Bills from their own 10 into field goal range in the final seconds; and, to start it all off, Whitney Houston belting out the National Anthem against which all others are still measured in front of a teary-eyed flag-waving crowd and a country going to war.

Super Bowl XXIII gave us a super moment the first 22 had failed to produce: a scoring drive for the ages. Joe Montana led the 49ers 92-yards, despite the best efforts of the Bengals and John Candy to stop him. It culminated with a 10-yard touchdown strike to Pro Bowl receiver John Taylor with just 34 seconds remaining.

Jerry Rice was named Super Bowl MVP, catching 11 passes for an incredible 215 yards and a touchdown.

As noted earlier this week, Terry Bradshaw and Roger Staubach gave us something rare: a heavily hyped quarterback showdown that actually lived up to the billing.

 

The Steelers held a big fourth-quarter lead, but Staubach rallied the Cowboys with a pair of late touchdown passes. The game might have ended differently, though, if not for a drop in the end zone of a sure third-quarter touchdown by Dallas tight end Jackie Smith, a Hall of Famer best remembered today for this catch he didn’t make. 

 

Bradshaw, of course, was at his big-game best: He three for 318 yards and four touchdowns and became the first quarterback to win three Super Bowls.

 

Pittsburgh’s Lynn Swann turned in the most memorable performance by a wide receiver in Super Bowl history, catching four passes for 161 yards and a touchdown, including a graceful 53-yard sideline tapping reception many still regard as the greatest catch in Super Bowl history.

L.C. Greenwood recorded four sacks, and defensive back Glen Edwards intercepted a Roger Staubach pass in the end zone on the game's final play to preserve the win.

 

The curtains fell on the Greatest Show on Turf thanks to Adam Vinatieri’s 48-yard field goal and the only walk-off score in Super Bowl history.

 

The game had more storylines than the Canterbury’s Tales: the plucky Patriots rise after 9/11 to win a red-and-white-blue Super Bowl; one of the great upsets in Super Bowl history; a killer halftime show from U2 and one of the most thrilling finishes in the history of sports.

New England’s Ty Law returned an interception 47 yards for a touchdown, while the Rams fought back from a 17-3 deficit with two fourth-quarter scores to tie the game at 17 with less than two minutes remaining. But first-year starter Tom Brady marched the Patriots on a classic nine-play, 53-yard drive in just 90 seconds with no timeouts. Vinatieri's kick led to the beginning of the Patriots' dynasty.

Steve McNair and the Titans completed a 16-point comeback to tie the game with 2:12 remaining, but the show was just beginning.

 

Kurt Warner responded with a gorgeous 73-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce to give the Rams a 23-16 lead and to cap the greatest storybook season in NFL history.

 

McNair and the Titans drove from their own territory and looked like they had one more score in them when  McNair hit Kevin Dyson for what looked like it would be a sure touchdown and the first and only overtime in Super Bowl history.

Instead, St. Louis linebacker Mike Jones took down Dyson at the 1-yard line on the game's final play to seal the first Super Bowl championship for the Rams. Kurt Warner earned MVP honors with a Super Bowl-record 414 passing yards and two touchdowns.

This was perhaps the greatest and most improbable see-saw match in Super Bowl history, as the Panthers and Patriots unexpectedly produced 37 fourth-quarter points with one highlight reel play after another, from a touchdown catch by a linebacker (New England’s Mike Vrabel) to the longest scoring catch in Super Bowl history (85 yards from Jake Delhomme to Muhsin Muhammad).

 

Delhomme tied the game with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Proehl with 1:08 to play.

 

The game ended much like the Patriots-Rams Super Bowl just two years earlier: Adam Vinateri trotted out to nail a pressure-packed 41-yarder, this time with just four ticks on the clock.

New England’s Tom Brady captured MVP honors once again, for producing another last-second game-winning drive to win a Super Bowl.

You want big plays? Super Bowl XLII had the biggest: a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown by Pittsburgh linebacker and 2008 Defensive Player of the Year James Harrison.

 

You want a great comeback? Super Bowl XLIII a big one: a pair of Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald touchdown passes, including a 64-yarder, that lifted the Cardinals to a late 23-20 lead.

 

You want last-second drama? Super Bowl XLIII had it, with Ben Roethlisberger marching the Steelers from his own 12 and then capping it off with a beautiful throw and perhaps an even better catch by Santonio Holmes for the game-winning six-yard touchdown with just 35 seconds to play.

 

A furious comeback effort in the final seconds by Warner and the Cardinals ended when Pittsburgh’s Brett Keisel recovered a fumble with five seconds remaining.

Shocking upset? Dramatic plays? Last-minute touchdowns? The end of a dynasty?

 

Super Bowl XLII had it all, as the streaking Giants – a humble 10-6 team that had surrendered 351 points in the regular season – successfully stopped the 14-point favorite Patriots and the most prolific offense ever from completing the first and only 19-0 season in history by the narrowest of margins. It remains, statistically speaking, the NFL’s greatest upset of the last 75 years.

A defensive battle entering the fourth quarter turned into a mini shootout, as both teams traded touchdowns before Giants quarterback Eli Manning magically escaped the entire New England defensive line and connected with David Tyree, who caught the 32-yard reception against his helmet with less than one minute remaining. You know, that old play.

 

Plaxico Burress scored on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning with 35 seconds remaining, while Brady was crushed on one of his final desperate attempts and misfired on the rest, setting off a celebration in 44 states and despair in the other six.