All-time Super Bowl power rankings: Which game was the best?
By James Dudko
16. Super Bowl XLVI: New York Giants 21, New England Patriots 17
The “other” Giants-Patriots Super Bowl was actually a damn good ballgame. Neither squad was as impressive as those who had met four years earlier. Yet they still delivered another nail-biting finish.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady again found himself swarmed on by a marauding Giants defensive line. Familiar tormentor Justin Tuck forced No. 12 into a safety for intentional grounding in the first quarter.
It was the signal for a day Brady would spend running away from Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul. The Giants’ Big Nickel defense, led by safeties Antrel Rolle, Kenny Phillips and Deon Grant, flummoxed New England’s multiple-tight end attack.
Still, the Patriots are nothing if not resolute. Brady brought the Pats back and into a 17-15 lead. But the Patriots would have been out of sight if the man of 100 catches, Wes Welker, hadn’t inexplicably let one get away from him that would’ve iced the game in the fourth quarter.
Welker’s drop was the cue for Eli Manning to break New England’s hearts again. Fortunately for Big Blue, Manning dropped a rainbow onto a pin head along the sideline and Mario Manningham somehow got both feet down in bounds for a 38-yard gain.
The play let Ahmad Bradshaw eventually sit down in the end zone to put New York four ahead. Tuck and the pass rush then rolled down the shutters in front of Brady.
For all their brilliance over the last two decades, Belichick, Brady and the Patriots have found their kryptonite in the form of the Giants and the “other” Manning.
15. Super Bowl XIV: Pittsburgh Steelers 31, Los Angeles Rams 19
The ‘Steel Curtain’ defense had been the catalyst for most of the Steelers dominance during the seventies. However, Pittsburgh didn’t win a quartet of Super Bowls with just defense alone.
The Black and Gold also boasted an awesome offense, a fact proved in the 14th Super Bowl against the Los Angeles Rams. It was a game owned by quarterback Terry Bradshaw and wide receivers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth.
The latter broke the game open when he reeled in Bradshaw’s 73-yard bomb in the fourth quarter. Bradshaw had already connected with Swann for a 47-yard score in the third.
The Steelers proved their offensive prowess by scorching a talented Rams defense creatively called by legendary coordinator Bud Carson, the original architect of the ‘Steel Curtain.’
Carson’s presence on the opposite sideline was the most intriguing subplot, alongside Pittsburgh’s quest for a then-unprecedented fourth Super Bowl win.