NFL Playoffs 2016: Biggest Conference Championship upsets

On conference championship weekend, You can go from Super Bowl shoe-in to upset victim in a matter of just (60 or more) minutes.

By Sunday night, we will have our Super Bowl LI matchup and before we get there, we may have one or two upsets along the way. It may give us the game we want or we may get a game none of us expected. That is the beauty of this al.

So, what are some of the biggest conference championship upsets ever?

1990: New York over San Francisco 15-13

The San Francisco 49ers were destined to go to and possibly win their 3rd straight Super Bowl but nobody told the New York Giants as they walked into Candlestick Park and defeated the San Francisco 49ers 15-13.

There are two key moments in that ballgame, the iconic sack by Leonard Marshall on Joe Montana (possibly the last image of him as a member of the 49ers) and the game winning kick by Matt Bahr that sent the Giants to Super Bowl XXV. To this day, the 49ers remain one of the closest teams to ever reach and win that third straight Super Bowl.

1994: San Diego over Pittsburgh 17-13

While it was pretty clear that the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys were the two best teams in the NFL, someone had to play them in Super XXIX. Would it be the Pittsburgh Steelers who were returning to the AFC’s elite or would it be the San Diego Chargers, a team many had passed over? The Steelers were an easy pick, while the Chargers were 1-9 all-time in Pittsburgh.

And that’s why they play the game.

By the end, the Chargers had put together a defensive stand as the Steelers marched deep into San Diego territory. However, thanks to two big plays by Chargers linebacker Dennis Gibson to clinch the AFC title for San Diego.

1998: Atlanta over Minnesota 30-27

Minnesota had one job and the perfect set up to do it in and they still couldn’t get it done. The Vikings were in the middle of a dream season in 1998. They were 15-1 and destined to go up against the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII. Before that, they had to dispatch of another Cinderella in the Atlanta Falcons. Up by seven with little time remaining, the Vikings sent out Gary Anderson to kick a field goal that would seal the game for Minnesota. Anderson had not missed a kick all season.

Then he missed the 39 yards out. Soon after, the Falcons tied the game and sent it to overtime. There, Atlanta’s Morten Andersen kicked the Falcons into the franchise’s first Super Bowl.

2002: Tampa Bay over Philadelphia 27-10

While it may see like it wasn’t that much of an upset, this game still broke a lot of myths and narratives about a team and franchise who struggled in big moments.

Facing a hostile Philly crowd on a cold day in 2003, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers slapped around the Philadelphia Eagles 27-10 in the NFC Title Game. Before this victory, the Bucs had never won a game in which the temperature was below 40 degrees at kickoff. You would’ve thought that the Bucs had been playing in the cold all season. They dominated the Eagles from start to finish and went on to win Super Bowl XXXVII.

2007: New York over Green Bay

The storybook was written, it was going to be the undefeated New England Patriots going up against Brett Favre in possibly his last game as a member of the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLII. However, by the time the game had ended it was the New York Giants who walked into Green Bay and ripped up every single page in the storybook and left it on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.

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While you can make a case that we were robbed of a dream Super Bowl matchup, it did lead to possibly the greatest upset since Super Bowl III as the Giants defeated the Patriots a few weeks later. When you look back at history, it was this game in Green Bay that ended one legacy in Brett Favre as Packers quarterback and started another with Eli Manning who would go on to win the first of his two Super Bowls.