I've now had a day to recover from that exhilarating game last night and the incredible feeling of knowing that the Giants are the Super Bowl Champions. The game was outstanding. That's been a common theme in recent Super Bowls. Since the NFC dominance ended in the mid-90s, there have only been about one or two clunkers. Last night's game was great, but was it the greatest Super Bowl ever? I don't think so. Here's my Top 10:
10. Super Bowl X: Steelers 21, Cowboys 17-I could've gone with either Steelers-Cowboys Super Bowl from the '70s, but X was better than XIII, so that one gets the nod. The Cowboys led 10-7 after three quarters before two Pittsburgh field goals made it 15-10 Steelers. After a Dallas three-and-out, Terry Bradshaw hit Lynn Swann for a 64-yard touchdown pass to increase the Steelers' lead to 21-10 (Roy Gerela missed the extra point). Dallas went 80 yards in five plays to get within four. Pittsburgh recovered the onsides kick, but the Cowboys got the ball back with 1:22 left. The comeback was not to be, though, as the Steelers won their second straight Super Bowl.
9. Super Bowl III: Jets 16, Colts 7-This game is on there more for its historical significance than its quality. After the Packers won the first two Super Bowls, everyone pretty much agreed that the NFL was far superior to the AFL. Joe Namath was sick of hearing about how badly the Colts were going to beat the Jets and "guaranteed" a victory. He backed it up, as the Jets rolled out to a 16-0 lead before a meaningless late Colts touchdown. One of the greatest upsets in sports history, Super Bowl III validated the AFL and established the Super Bowl as America's premier sporting event.
8. Super Bowl XLIII: Steelers 27, Cardinals 23-Trailing 10-7, the Cardinals were driving for what would at worst be a tying field goal at the end of the first half when James Harrison's 100-yard pick-six on the final play of the half instead made it 17-7 Pittsburgh. The Steelers increased their lead to 20-7 before Arizona rallied all the way back. The Cardinals scored 16 points in a span of 1:20 in the fourth quarter, taking the lead on Kurt Warner's 64-yard TD pass to Larry Fitzgerald with 2:37 left. However, that was plenty of time for Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers, and Big Ben found Santonio Holmes in the back corner of the end zone to give Pittsburgh its second title in four seasons, 27-23.
7. Super Bowl XXIII: 49ers 20, Bengals 16-Of the 49ers' five Super Bowl victories, this is the only one that was even close. It was 6-6 before Cincinnati's Stanford Jennings scored the game's first touchdown on a kickoff return. A Jerry Rice touchdown tied it at 13-13, but the Bengals went back in front on a Jim Breech field goal with 3:20 left. After a penalty on the kickoff, the 49ers got the ball on their own 8-yard line. That's when Joe Montana took over, engineering the defining drive of his career. Montana marched his team down the field in 11 plays, and he hit John Taylor with the game-winning TD pass with 34 seconds remaining to cap the most famous drive in Super Bowl history.
6. Super Bowl XLVI: Giants 21, Patriots 17-This year's classic comes in at No. 6 on the list. The first points came on a safety, then an Eli Manning-Victor Cruz touchdown pass made it 9-0 Giants. Tom Brady engineered a 96-yard TD drive to give New England a 10-9 lead at halftime, and the Patriots then scored on the first drive of the second half to increase their lead to 17-9. The Giants kicked a pair of field goals in the third quarter to get back within two, then a Chase Blackburn interception ended a New England drive at the Giants 8 early in the fourth. The Giants still trailed 17-15 when they took over at their own 12 with 3:46 remaining. A 38-yard pass to Mario Manningham brought the ball to midfield, and the Giants eventually drove down to the New England 6 with 1:03 left. The Patriots let Ahmad Bradshaw score the go-ahead touchdown to give themselves time, but New England's Hail Mary on the final play fell short.
5. Super Bowl XXXIV: Rams 23, Titans 16-One of the unlikeliest Super Bowls in history ended up as one of the best. It was also almost the first one to go to overtime. The Rams scored the first 16 points of the game before the Titans rallied for 16 straight points of their own to tie it with 2:12 remaining. It wouldn't stay tied for long, as Kurt Warner hit Isaac Bruce on a 73-yard TD pass that put the Rams back in front, 23-16. The Titans took over at their own 12 with 1:48 left, and Tennessee drove all the way down to the St. Louis 10 with six seconds to go. However, on the final play, Tennessee's Kevin Dyson was stopped one-yard short of the end zone and the Rams were Super Bowl Champions.
4. Super Bowl XXV: Giants 20, Bills 19-Imagine how different things would've been for the Buffalo Bills franchise if Scott Norwood's kick hadn't sailed wide right. This was the first of four straight Super Bowl appearances for the heavily-favored Bills, who led 12-3 before the Giants got a touchdown with 25 seconds left in the first half. The Giants then received the second half kickoff and took 9:29 off the clock with an epic 14-play, 74-yard drive. Ottis Anderson capped the march with the go-ahead touchdown, but a Thurman Thomas TD on the first play of the fourth quarter made it 19-17 Buffalo. The exhausted Bills defense then had to go back out there, and the Giants took another 7:32 off the clock before Matt Bahr kicked the go-ahead field goal. The Bills got the ball back with 2:16 left, but, with eight seconds left, the most famous missed field goal in Super Bowl history gave the Vince Lombardi Trophy to the Giants.
3. Super Bowl XXXVI: Patriots 20, Rams 17-Back before Bradicheck was incredibly annoying, the Patriots were America's Team playing in the first Super Bowl post-9/11. The Patriots led 17-3 before Kurt Warner engineered a pair of touchdown drives to tie the game with 1:30 left. New England didn't have any timeouts left, but played for the win instead of overtime. That's when that unknown backup Tom Brady showed the first glimpse of the quarterback we know him to be today. Five quick completions brought the ball to the Rams 30, and he got up and spiked it with seven seconds left, setting up Adam Vinatieri's game-winning 48-yard field goal on the final play. It was the first Super Bowl decided on the final play, and one of the greatest upsets in Super Bowl history.
2. Super Bowl XXXII: Broncos 31, Packers 24-This one has always ranked as one of my favorites, and I think how great this game actually was has gotten lost in the shuffle of all the great Super Bowls in recent years. John Elway was back in the Super Bowl after three losses in the 80s, and he was going against Brett Favre and the defending champion Packers. This was one of the most evenly-matched Super Bowls in memory, as each score was immediately countered. With the score tied 24-24, Terrell Davis literally ran through the Packers defense, and he capped the drive with his third TD of the game, a go-ahead 1-yard scamper with 1:45 left. On the ensuing Green Bay drive, the Packers got down to the Denver 35, but Favre threw incompletions on third and fourth down. Elway took a knee and was finally a Super Bowl Champion.
1. Super Bowl XLII: Giants 17, Patriots 14-18 wins. 1 Giant upset. All the talk going into the game was the Patriots' pursuit of perfection. With a win, they would've completed the first 19-0 season in NFL history and had a legitimate claim to the title "Greatest Team Ever." Instead, Super Bowl XLII was perhaps the greatest upset in Super Bowl history. An incredibly competitive matchup between the teams in the final game of the regular season proved to the Giants that they could play with the Patriots, and they rode that momentum all the way to Arizona. Defense dominated the rematch, as New England took a 7-3 lead on the first play of the second quarter, and the score would stay that way until the fourth. David Tyree made his second-most-important catch of the game to give the Giants a 10-7 lead with 11:05 left. The Patriots got what looked like the game-winner when Brady found Randy Moss for a 6-yard TD pass, but the Giants still had 2:42 to play with. The game-winning drive was kept alive by Tyree's sensational 32-yard catch against his helmet on 3rd-and-5 from the Giants 44 (when Eli avoided a sack like three different times before getting the pass off) and capped by Eli's 13-yard pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds remaining. This time, Brady didn't have a comeback in him, and the perfect season was no more.
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