All-time Super Bowl power rankings: Which game was the best?
By James Dudko
19. Super Bowl XLIV: New Orleans Saints 31, Indianapolis Colts 17
Peyton Manning and the Colts were clicking during the 2009 season. But Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints just clicked a little more in Super Bowl XLIV.
The Colts were the better team, but the momentum was with the boys from the Big Easy that season. If fortune didn’t give the Saints a big play, head coach Sean Payton was happy to manufacture one. He did it when he called an onside kick to start the second half.
The decision shifted things the Saints way, before Brees found his groove in the final quarter. Manning still could have brought the Colts back, but arch opportunist Tracy Porter’s pick six snatched the Lombardi Trophy from No. 18’s grasp.
The Porter INT wasn’t Manning’s biggest gaffe, though. Instead, it was giving in to his gung-ho bravado by insisting on trying to outgun Brees. If the Colts had continued running Joseph Addai against the Saints’ three-man defensive fronts, they’d have won this Super Bowl going away.
18. Super Bowl LIV: Kansas City Chiefs 31, San Francisco 20
The Chiefs had time to run WASP, and it will forever be the defining moment of this Super Bowl. For the first 53 minutes, San Francisco held down Patrick Mahomes and Co., intercepting him twice and staking itself to a 10-point lead.
Then, suddenly, it was gone. The Chiefs reeled off 21 unanswered points in the final seven minutes, including a pair of touchdowns from running back Damien Williams. Mahomes, who came alive down the stretch, won Super Bowl MVP. If Kansas City goes on to launch a dynasty, it’ll be remembered as the starting point.
17. Super Bowl XXIII: San Francisco 49ers 20, Cincinnati Bengals 16
Not even a famous game-winning drive could place this Super Bowl any higher. It’s not that Joe Montana’s stylishly directed 92-yard march, culminating in John Taylor’s 10-yard TD catch with 34 seconds left, wasn’t special.
In fact, it was Montana at his best, as well as Jerry Rice dominating a defense when it mattered most.
But aside from the drive, not a lot happened in this one. Instead, two offensive juggernauts were kept under wraps by suffocating defensive performances. It was all dour stuff.
Admittedly, Montana’s reminder of his greatness was worth the wait. Yet plenty of 49ers fans will wish Bill Walsh hadn’t called it quits as head coach after the game.