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The most crushing playoff turnovers
Cold, Hard Football Facts for February 12, 2010
By Bryn Swartz
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Turnovers are the worst thing in the world in the playoffs. Suffer two turnovers in a game, and you'll probably lose. Cough up the ball in the fourth quarter of a one-score game and it will come back to haunt you at the end of the contest -- and maybe for the rest of your life.
The 2009 postseason provided plenty of examples: BrettFavre threw a horrendous fourth-quarter pick in the NFC title game that cost his Vikings a shot at the Super bowl. Peyton Manning threw an even more horrenderous pick-six two weeks later in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLIV that ensured his team's defeat and officially ended his claim as the Greatest of All Time.
But BrettFavre and Manning are not alone. Here's a look at what we determined were the most crushing postseason turnovers of the Super Bowl Era.
10: 1987 AFC championship game: the Earnest Byner fumble
It appeared that a Broncos-Browns conference championship game was headed for overtime for the second consecutive year.
The Browns trailed 38-31 with 1:12 to play and needed just three yards and an extra point to tie. But Denver cornerback Jeremiah Castille stripped Byner of the ball at the 2 yard line and recovered. The Broncos surrendered an intentional safety and won 38-33.
Byner will always be remembered as the goat of one of Cleveland's biggest postseason losses. But until that point he actually had a phenomenal game, with 187 total yards and two touchdowns.
The Browns had lost to the Broncos in the AFC title game just one year earlier, too, thanks to "The Drive" by John Elway. The misery wasn't over after the Byner fumble: the Browns were smoked by the Broncos, 37-21, two years later in the 1989 AFC title game.
9. Super Bowl XXX: the second Neil O'Donnell interception
The mighty Cowboys led the surprising Steelers 20-17 with just over 4 minutes remaining in Super Bowl XXX. Pittsburgh had the ball on its own 32 with plenty of time to piece together a lenghty drive.
But on second down, Steelers quarterback O'Donnell was intercepted by cornerback Larry Brown, who returned the ball 33 yards to the Pittsburgh 6 and set up Emmitt Smith's game-securing TD run. O'Donnell was intercepted in very similar fashion by Brown earlier in the game, which also set up a short Dallas scoring drive.
O'Donnell was intercepted again on the final play of the game, this time on a Hail Mary attempt.
Ironically, O'Donnell entered the game was the least intercepted passer in NFL history. He signed with the Jets in the off-season, where he lost all six starts. Brown was named MVP for his two-pick effort and was rewarded with a huge contract by (naturally) the Raiders. He never lived up to the hype of Super Bowl XXX and retired after the 1998 season.
8. Super Bowl X: the Roger Staubach interception
One of the more exciting Super Bowls in history came down to the final minute of play. The Cowboys trailed the Steelers, 21-17, and faced third down at the Pittsburgh 38.
With seconds left on the clock, Staubach had no choice but to try to recreate some of the Hail Mary magic he had shown in the divisional round against the Vikings.
Staubach heaved a pass into the end zone, which was tipped by Steelers safety Mike Wagner and intercepted by Glen Edwards. It remains the only Super Bowl in which a turnover on the last play of the game decided the outcome.
The Steelers soon forged an NFL dynasty. This was their second Super Bowl title and they added two more later in the decade. The Cowboys would lose again to the Steelers in Super Bowl XIII, ceding "team to the decade" status to Pittsburgh in the process.
7. 2006 AFC championship: the Tom Brady interception
The Patriots and Colts were locked in an epic title-game shootout in January 2007, when a Petyon Manning touchdown lifted Indy to a 38-34 lead with 1 minute remaining.
New England quarterback Tom Brady was poised to be the hero once again: he completed two quick passes to move the Patriots to the Indy 45 with 18 seconds remaining. But on his next pass attempt he was intercepted by cornerback Marlin Jackson, which clinched the Colts victory in one of the great championship games in history.
Indy beat Chicago handily two weeks later in Super Bowl XLI. Odds are that the Patriots would have won easily, too, had the got past the Colts. It would have given the Patriots four Super Bowl titles in six years, tying the mark set by the great Steelers teams of the 1970s. Instead, Manning and the Colts earned their only Super Bowl ring and gained an upper hand in football's best rivalry of the 2000s.
6. 1981 NFC championship: the Danny White fumble
Everybody remembers "The Catch" by Dwight Clark on a pass by Joe Montana in the 1981 NFC championship game. It gave the 49ers a 28-27 lead with 51 seconds to play, ended the Dallas dynasty and launched the San Francisco dynasty.
But the game wasn't quite over. The Cowboys still had time to set up a game-winning field goal.
Cowboys quarterback Danny White completed a 31-yard pass to Drew Pearson, where only a one-handed tackle Eric Wright prevented a touchdown. Two plays later, defensive end Lawrence Pillers stripped white of the football, which was recovered by defensive tackle Jim Stuckey to seal the historic victory.
The teams headed in opposite directions after the game. The 49ers beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XVI and added three more titles by the end of the decade. The Cowboys, meanwhile, won just two more playoff games in the decade and bottomed out by 1989, when they went just 1-15.
5. Super Bowl V: Craig Morton interception
Super Bowl V between the Colts and the Cowboys resulted in 11 combined turnovers and is easily the sloppiest championship game in NFL history. However, it did provide one of the more exciting finishes in Super Bowl history.
With the scored tied 13-13 and under two minutes remaining, the Cowboys began their drive at the Baltimore 48-yard line. A huge penalty pushed the Cowboys back to their own 27, where they faced second and 35.
Quarterback Craig Morton's next pass went through the arms of running back Dan Reeves and was intercepted by Pro Bowl linebacker Mike Curtis, who returned it 13 yards to the Cowboys 22-yard line. Two plays later, rookie Jim O'Brien kicked a 32-yard field goal with five seconds left in the game, and after Morton's final desperation pass was intercepted (his third fourth-quarter interception), the Colts were world champions.
Morton did make it back to the Super Bowl, with the 1977 Broncos, where he turned in the single worst performance by a quarterback in Super Bowl history.
4. 2007/2009 NFC championships: BrettFavre's interceptions
Leave it to BrettFavre to provide us two of the costliest picks in playoff history for the price of one.
In his final season with the Packers, he led Green Bay to a 13-3 record and a home conference championship game, where they faced the surprising Giants. The game entered overtime tied 20-20, and on Favre's first pass, he was intercepted by Giants' cornerback Corey Webster. Four plays later, kicker Lawrence Tynes connected on a 47-yard field goal, the longest by a visiting kicker in Lambeau Field in the playoffs, sending the Giants to the Super Bowl.
Fast forward two years, to BrettFavre's first season with the Vikings and another appearance in the conference championship game, where Minnesota faced the powerful Saints.
The game was tied with just seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the Vikings faced a 3rd and 15 on the New Orleans 38. Yup, time for BrettFavre to crack under pressure. He forced a throw across his body into the middle of the Saints defense, where it was intercepted by cornerback Tracy Porter to force overtime, where Saints kicker Garrett Hartley nailed a 40-yard field goal to send the Saints into the Super Bowl.
Favre's turnovers were virtually identical. Each cost his team a chance to go to the Super Bowl, and each added to a postseason career which has been mediocre, to say the least.
3. 1990 NFC championship: Roger Craig's fumble
Joe Montana and the 49ers had won 14 of 18 postseason games during the 1980s, including four Super Bowl titles, but the Bill Parcells Giants had their number: the 49ers had scored a combined six points in blowout losses to the New York in the 1985 and 1986 playoffs.
However, San Francisco led the Giants 13-12 late in the fourth quarter of the 1990 conference championship game and appeared to be on their way to extracting revenge.
But past Super Bowl hero Roger Craig fumbled with just 2:36 to play, and Lawrence Taylor recovered.
Five plays later, kicker Matt Bahr converted a 42-yard field goal on the last play of the game to send the Giants to Super Bowl XXV, where they defeated Buffalo. Bahr's field goal is the only come-from-behind walkoff field goal in postseason history.
The game marked a changing of the guard in the NFC: the 49ers would win one more championship in 1994 with Steve Young at quarterback, but it was the Cowboys that became the team of the decade in the 1990s, winning Super Bowls in 1992, 1993 and 1995.
2. Super Bowl XLIV: Peyton Manning's interception
With a victory in Super Bowl XLIV, Peyton Manning would earn his second ring and lay claim to the title of Greatest of All Time in the eyes of some misguided football fans. Instead, Manning might have done more damage to his legacy than if he had quietly missed the playoffs in the first place.
Trailing 24-17 late in the fourth quarter, Manning led the Colts into New Orleans territory and it appeared as if the Super Bowl might go into sudden death for the first time. But cornerback Tracy Porter stepped in front of a pass intended for four-time Pro Bowl receiver Reggie Wayne and returned it 74 yards for the game-clinching touchdown. The Saints stopped Manning on fourth down in the final minute and won 31-17.
Porter's was the 10th pick-six in Super Bowl history (by eight different teams) and each and every return for a TD came in a winning effort.
In a span of two games, Porter provided the two most memorable defensive plays in Saints history (see No. 4 above). Both picks led to a Saints victory and both damaged the legacy of one of the all-time greatest quarterbacks.
1. Super Bowl XLIII: Kurt Warner's interception and fumble
Kurt Warner led the Arizona against Pittsburgh in a quest to complete one of the more improbable Cinderella stories in NFL history. The Cardinals, after all, had posted a humble 9-7 record in 2008, fielded a dreadful defense that had surrendered 426 points and the franchise had won just two playoff games in its previous 88 seasons of NFL play.
The Steelers jumped out to a 10-0 lead but the Cardinals stormed back: they scored a touchdown, intercepted a Ben Roethlisberger pass, and drove down to Pittsburgh's 1-yard line. Then on first down, Steelers linebacker James Harrison, the 2008 Defensive Player of the Year, jumped in front of a Warner pass and returned it 100 yards for a touchdown, the longest play in Super Bowl history.
Harrison's return closed out the first half, giving the Steelers a huge 17-7 lead. According to NFL simulations, the Cardinals had a 66 percent chance of winning the game if they had scored a touchdown to lead 14-10 at halftime. But after Harrison's play, the Cardinals' chances stood at just 20 percent.
The Cardinals briefly took a 23-20 lead in the fourth quarter, but surrendered a long Pittsburgh drive and trailed 27-23 with 35 seconds to play. Warner had one last chance to work his magic. He completed two quick passes to move his team to Pittsburgh's 44-yard line.
But then Pittsburgh's Pro Bowl linebacker LaMar Woodley sacked Warner and stripped him of the ball, sealing a victory for the Steelers.
Warner's performance was similar to the one he produced in Super Bowl XXXVI against the Patriots. He put up big numbers and led a furious fourth-quarter comeback in each game. But he threw a pick-six in each outing.
In both games, Warner's mistakes ultimately sealed a loss. In Super Bowl XXXVI, the Rams lost a chance at becoming a dynasty. And in Super Bowl XLIII, Warner lost a chance to lead one of the great postseason runs in history and secure for himself a place in the Hall of Fame.
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