On Sunday afternoon, the Philadelphia Eagles host the Washington Commanders, and the Kansas City Chiefs welcome the Buffalo Bills to Arrowhead Stadium. The winners will clash in Super Bowl LIX at New Orleans. Will there be an upset (or two) this weekend?
Opposed to the recent exercise involving the biggest surprises in the AFC and NFC Divisional Playoffs, which dated back to the merger, this list entails the Super Bowl Era. That dates back to 1966, when the NFL and AFL played league title games before the conference contests began in 1970. Welcome to another entertaining and hopefully informative trip down memory lane.
10. 2012 AFC Championship Game: Ravens 28, Patriots 13
John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens and Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots would square off four times in a six year span. In 2011, the teams met in the AFC Championship Game at Foxborough. Thanks to a missed 32-yard field goal by Baltimore’s Billy Cundiff with 11 seconds to play, the Pats held on for a 23-20 triumph and went on to Super Bowl XLVI. The clubs met again in the same round in 2012 and again at Gillette Stadium.
Baltimore owned a brief 7-3 second-quarter lead over the defending conference champions, but Belichick’s club owned a 13-7 advantage at halftime. The final 30 minutes belonged to Baltimore. Quarterback Joe Flacco threw three touchdown passes, including a pair to Anquan Boldin in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, New England was done scoring for the day. In the fourth quarter, Stevan Ridley lost a fumble which set up a Ravens’ touchdown, and Tom Brady was picked off twice.
9. 1975 NFC Championship Game: Cowboys 37, Rams 7
The Dallas Cowboys were participants in Super Bowls V and VI. They lost to the Baltimore Colts, 16-13, at Miami’s Orange Bowl. A year later, they humbled Don Shula’s Miami Dolphins, 24-3, at Tulane Stadium. Tom Landry’s team was a consistent contender, but in 1974 the team slumped and missed the playoffs with an 8-6 mark. In 1975, they bounced back to finish 10-4 but settled for a wild card berth behind the NFC East champion St. Louis Cardinals. Roger Staubach and Drew Pearson combined for a “Hail Mary” touchdown in the divisional round at Minnesota, and suddenly Dallas was back in the NFC title game for the fifth time in six years.
The Cowboys faced the 12-2 Los Angeles Rams at the L.A. Coliseum, and they made it look easy. Against the team that allowed an NFL-low 136 points during the regular season, Staubach threw four touchdown passes, three to running back Preston Pearson, and Landry’s club scored the first 34 points of the game. The Rams were outgained 441-118 in the 30-point loss.
8. 2008 NFC Championship Game: Cardinals 32, Eagles 25
In 2008, Ken Whisenhunt was in his second year as Arizona Cardinals’ head coach. The team owned a 9-7 mark and won the NFC West. It figured to be a short postseason for a club that in Week 16 traveled to Foxborough and was rolled by the Patriots, 47-7. However, led by the dynamic duo of Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald, the Cards handed the visiting Atlanta Falcons a 30-24 loss in the Wild Card Round, then went to Carolina and upset the second-seeded Panthers. Arizona would then host the sixth-seeded Philadelphia Eagles.
Andy Reid’s club was in the NFC title game for the fifth time in eight years, giving them a huge edge in experience. The Cardinals were not impressed, opening up a 24-6 lead at intermission. Philadelphia rallied to take a one-point lead, but Warner’s fourth touchdown pass of the game (the first three to Fitzgerald), as well as a successful two-point conversion, sent the franchise to their first Super Bowl.
7. 1969 AFL Championship Game: Chiefs 17, Raiders 7
It was the final game in the 10-year history of the American Football League, and it involved the franchises which represented the AFL in Super Bowl I (Kansas City Chiefs) and Super Bowl II (Oakland Raiders). Kansas City and Oakland were fierce rivals, and this would mark the second straight year that the teams would square off in the postseason. In 1968, since the Chiefs and Raiders both finished 12-2 in the Western Division. Oakland would host Hank Stram’s team in a divisional playoff and pounded the Chiefs, 41-6.
A year later, the Silver and Black swept the regular-season series, and eventually faced Stram’s club for the AFL title. It was a defensive struggle in which neither club totaled at least 300 yards of offense. The Raiders owned a 7-0 first-quarter lead, but the Chiefs scored the final 17 points of the game. Kansas City’s defense finished with four interceptions, and Stram’s team would go on to win Super Bowl IV.
6. 1974 AFC Championship Game: Steelers 24, Raiders 13
After facing each other in the 1972 and ‘73 divisional round, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Raiders would now meet in what would be the first of three straight clashes in the AFC title game. Chuck Noll’s squad had already been humbled by the Silver and Black in the regular season at Three Rivers Stadium. John Madden’s club blanked the Steelers, 17-0, on their way to an NFL-best 12-2 record. Oakland would host the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Dolphins in the divisional round, and came away with a classic 28-26 victory.
There were those who felt that that game was the real Super Bowl, but Noll and his team would have no part of that. The Raiders owned a 10-3 lead in the fourth quarter, but Pittsburgh scored three touchdowns in the final quarter. Pittsburgh outgained Oakland on the ground, 210-29, and outside linebacker Jack Ham had two of his team’s three interceptions of Kenny Stabler.
5. 1981 NFC Championship Game: 49ers 28, Cowboys 27
Bill Walsh’s surprising San Francisco 49ers finished 13-3 in 1981, quite the turnaround for a franchise that had combined for a 10-38 record the previous three years. Earlier in the season, the Cowboys made a trip to Candlestick Park (Week 6) and were blasted by Joe Montana and company, 45-14. The Niners were on their way to a 13-3 record. They held off the Giants in the divisional round and hosted Tom Landry’s club for the second time.
It was a back-and-forth affair from the get-go, the NFC West champs were down 27-21 with only 4:54 to play, and with the ball on their own 11-yard-line. 49ers’ head coach Bill Walsh kept Dallas’ defense off-balance by running the ball early in the drive. On Dallas’ six-yard-line, Joe Montana rolled to his right threw to the back of the end zone, and wide receiver Dwight Clark came down with “The Catch.” The PAT was the difference as Walsh’s team survived six turnovers.
