All-time Super Bowl power rankings: Which game was the best?
By James Dudko
36. Super Bowl XI: Oakland Raiders 32, Minnesota Vikings 14
Tom Flores would later guide the Raiders to two more Super Bowls, including the win over the Eagles four years later. But to many, the Raiders of circa 1976, Madden’s Raiders, were the quintessential embodiment of everything associated with the Silver and Black.
Madden’s boys were rough, rowdy, played on the edge of the rules and crammed more exciting finishes into one decade than most franchises muster during an entire existence.
The Raiders of this period were also nearly men for most of the seventies. Being second fiddle to the Steelers had almost become a way of life, until the Vikings took another drubbing on Super Sunday after the ’76 season.
This game was everything perhaps the most iconic franchise in NFL history had been building toward. Madden’s enigmatic smile as he was carried away finally a winner struck a chord even with the most ardent Raiders critics.
35. Super Bowl XVIII: Los Angeles Raiders 38, Washington Redskins 9
Where’s the love for Tom Flores? He guided the Raiders to a pair of Super Bowl wins and the franchise arguably never had a better team than the one that dismantled Washington in ’84.
This wasn’t just any Redskins team, either. They were the defending champions and had returned to the big dance thanks to what was at the time the highest-scoring offense in league history.
Quarterback Joe Theismann and running backs John Riggins and Joe Washington had tore up the league, but none could get on track against the mean-spirited Raiders.
Maybe a 38-9 game doesn’t deserve to rank this high. But it was a game loaded with iconic plays, including Jack Squirek’s interception return for a touchdown. However, it was running back Marcus Allen’s 74-yard scoring run, a change-of-direction masterpiece, that lives forever in the memory.