All-time Super Bowl power rankings: Which game was the best?
By James Dudko
8. Super Bowl III: New York Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7
Broadway Joe’s guarantee had to make the top 10, even if the game between the New York Jets and Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III was hardly a classic.
Joe Namath guaranteed the Jets would beat massive favorites the Colts and thus ensured his place in NFL history. Namath’s aura was cemented when the Jets delivered on his promise and stunned Baltimore.
In all honesty though, Namath had little to do with the Jets actually winning the game. The true credit belonged to a superb performance from a stingy defense and the tough running of fullback Matt Snell.
This one didn’t break barriers on the quality scale, but it did prove a landmark moment in league history. The Jets became the first AFL team to win the Super Bowl, humbling the establishment and eventually paving the way for the two conferences to merge for the benefit of football.
7. Super Bowl XLII: New York Giants 17, New England Patriots 14
The Patriots beating the Rams launched a dynasty. Namath and the Jets upsetting the Colts changed the league.
But no outcome in a Super Bowl ever proved the doubters wrong quite like the Giants ending New England’s bid for a perfect season.
Unlike fours years later, when they relied more on journeyman and workmanlike players, the Patriots were a devastating force in 2008. The defense still had Richard Seymour, Rodney Harrison and Asante Samuel. Meanwhile, the offense may have been the best ever, thanks to Brady, Welker, Randy Moss, Kevin Faulk and Ben Watson.
Yet it was Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora harried and harassed Brady from the start. So did a complex array of fire-zone blitzes designed by coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Every time you turned back to the screen Brady seemed to be taking another hit.
Even so, the Patriots still led by three in the fourth quarter when Eli Manning got the ball back. Manning the younger should have been sacked on 3rd-and-10, but somehow struggled free from the grasp of three defenders before heaving a desperate throw deep over the middle.
Despite committing the cardinal sin of quarterback play, Manning wasn’t punished. Instead, he had David Tyree to thank for somehow sticking the ball to his helmet in mid-air and completing the catch by the time he hit the ground. Tyree’s catch has to be the most unlikely play in a Super Bowl.
Manning connected with Plaxico Burress for what proved to be the winning score, but not before Brady took a few more hits from the Big Blue defense.
New England finished one game short of 19-0, a fact Brady and Belichick probably still can’t comprehend today.