Super Bowl power rankings: Who’s the best loser?
By John Buhler
18. 2006 Chicago Bears, Super Bowl XLI
The 2006 Chicago Bears had themselves a fantastic defense centered around All-Pro linebacker Brian Urlacher in head coach Lovie Smith’s Tampa-2 defense. Chicago wasn’t great offensively, but teams just didn’t score on the 2006 Bears, going 13-3 to win the NFC North.
The Bears would defeat reigning NFC-champion Seattle Seahawks in overtime in the NFC Divisional round and handle the New Orleans Saints in the 2006 NFC Championship to make it to Chicago’s second ever trip to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately they had to play the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning in his prime. Quarterback Rex Grossman had a career year, but that was a huge discrepancy between the position that heavily-favored the Colts.
The Bears would enter Super Bowl XLI in Dolphin Stadium in Miami as a seven-point underdog to the Colts and would go on to lose Super Bowl XLI by 12 points, 29-17.
Had the 2006 Bears’ defense have played probably any other quarterback out of the AFC that year, Chicago could have won its second Lombardi Trophy. Of course, this wasn’t the 1985 Bears, but the 2006 Bears were a talented team that came up a tad short of being Super Bowl champions.
Next: 17. 1982 Miami Dolphins