All-time Super Bowl power rankings: Which game was the best?
By James Dudko
6. Super Bowl XXV: New York Giants 20, Buffalo Bills 19
Poor Scott Norwood. Seriously. The Bills placekicker is never going to escape the memory of his miss from 47 yards that gave the Giants an improbable one-point win in Super Bowl 25.
In fairness though, the game never should have come down to Norwood. He struggled mightily on grass and from beyond 45 yards, so the kick was no gimme.
However, the Bills found themselves turning to Norwood because of the way their wide open no-huddle offense was put in a deep freeze. The Giants kept Jim Kelly, Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas stuck in second gear with a two-fold plan executed perfectly on both sides of the ball.
Defensively, Giants D-coordinator Bill Belichick designed two-man fronts packed with linebackers and defensive backs who took away Buffalo’s deadly crossing patterns by beating up Kelly’s receivers and denying yards after the catch.
Parcells also reminisced to Big Blue’s official website and described how his defense lined up: “We played a 2-4-5, or a 2-3-6. Besides Lawrence (Taylor) and Carl Banks, we had Johnie Cooks there, so we could use him on the outside, too. Johnie made a good contribution to that team.”
But it wasn’t just cute thinking on defense that gave the Giants the edge. Parcells also let his offense put the ball in the hands of ageing workhorse running back Ottis Anderson.
He ran the ball 21 times for 102 yards and let New York boss the clock and keep Kelly and his ‘K-Gun’ offense on the sideline. A Bills team that had scored 95 points through two playoff games simply didn’t get enough snaps to take what Belichick’s defense was intentionally giving them.
As a coaching masterclass, this game would provide the material for an entire lecture series. However, it left a lot to be desired as a spectacle, with Anderson’s running making for a slow pace.
5. Super Bowl XXXIV: St. Louis Rams 23, Tennessee Titans 16
If you judge the impact of a Super Bowl purely on the quality of the game, there’s no way you can dispute the Rams clash with the Tennessee Titans landing at the foot of the top five.
It was the classic matchup of a prolific offense against a miserly defense. For most of the first half, Tennessee’s blitz-crazed D’ actually made Warner and the Rams sweat.
The Titans bloodied Warner as one of the few teams brave enough to blitz Martz’s big-play binging attack. Warner was hit hard and often but still managed to pass for 277 yards in the first half alone, as well as staking the Rams into a 16-0 lead in the third quarter.
Things were running smoothly for the Rams until quarterback Steve McNair’s dual-threat skills began to catch them off guard. Also, Eddie George’s best knee forward approach to running the ball began to leave a few bruises on Rams defenders.
A George touchdown run brought Tennessee to within 10, before he went in again to make it a three-point game. An Al Del Greco field goal soon tied things at 16 as smash mouth football was getting the better of wide-open passing.
At least it was until Warner heaved a 73-yard bomb to the great Isaac Bruce. The sudden explosive play summed up the dynamic St. Louis O’ perfectly.
McNair’s escapology still gave the Titans a chance to tie, but his slant to Kevin Dyson with six seconds left was thwarted at the goal-line by linebacker Mike Jones and the most famous tackle in the annals of the Super Bowl.
Jones’ ‘The Tackle’ was the suitable exclamation point to an outstanding game between polar opposites on the football style spectrum.