There are many choices, but I am going to go with the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL (that's 40, not xtra large, though SB40 was definitely xtra large in boredom) in 2005.
The Seahawks were 13-3 that year, but were playing in a very weak division--it still is!--and all three of their losses were against teams under .500.
The mighty Steelers were 11-5 and took the hard road through both the season and the playoffs. By the time they got to the Super Bowl they were truly battle hardened monsters, and they unleashed their steel mill brutality on the frolicking Seahags, er, Seahawks.
Seattle had a relatively easy road through the season and the playoffs and won the NFC in one of the worst conference championship games ever played. Against guess who? The Carolina Panthers, probably the worst team to ever get to the NFC championship game. Though quarterback Hasselbeck had some impressive stats for the year, as I said, it was an easy schedule. When the Seahawks played a real team--i.e. the Steelers--it was lights out.
Though the score of Super Bowl XL appears respectable--21-10--you have to remember that the Steelers only bothered to score enough points to be in the lead and spent the rest of the game with the defense dancing on the Seahawks heads.
There were far worse Super Bowls over the years, but I don't think there was a worse team to play in one. Unless it was the Patriots in 1985.
Who do you think was the worst team to ever lose a Super Bowl?
all four Vikings team combined.
ReplyDeleteThe Seahawks were so bad in this one, that I'd forgotten it ever happened.
ReplyDeleteWas there a wide assortment of disgusted Seahawk fan photos?
ReplyDeletethe 1994 San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXX. Getting blown out by the 49ers 49-26 (and it wasn't that close) , squeaking by the Dolphins and Steelers in the playoffs, and looking like a team that had no idea what they were doing there. It didn't help that the 49ers were ridiculously good that year, but the chasm between the teams was so vast, the game was over early in the second quarter. You just knew there was no chance.
ReplyDeleteSuper Bowl MLI Chicago Bears, the very next year after Seattle, give the Hags a run for their money. Rex Grossman was the QB, with 23 TDs and 20 interceptions. That's just an accident waiting to happen, and it did. I've never seen a QB less suited to the big stage. 2005 was the year the 49ers had hit what we thought was rock bottom (ha!)- rookie Alex Smith had just ONE TD pass, and the whole team only attepted 387 passes, whereas their opponents lofted 560+. Wow they were bad.
ReplyDeleteThere have been bigger losers-- Viking and BIls come to mind, and don't forget the Broncos, who enjoyed being in the three biggest Super Bowl blowouts as the loser-- but I still think this is the very worst team to ever make it to the Super Bowl, except for maybe the 1985 Patriots, who were absolutely pretzeled by the Bears. Let's see, as I remember, the Pats scored first...with a field goal...the Super Bowl curse!
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, I still maintain it's the Seahawks.
Yeah, Colts-Bears, what a joke that game was. I attended a ginormous Super Bowl party that year, I mean 200 people in a mansion, and I wound up spending almost the entire game playing Wii baseball. Horrible game and the Bears were definitely not a team deserving to be in the Super Bowl.
ReplyDeleteSeahags take it. Strangely, they were a high-scoring team the whole year. Did them no good in the big game. I think Rex Grossman takes it, in a walk, for worst QB performance in a Super Bowl for the Bears. He made it through half the next season before getting benched and then no starting job until last year with the Deadskins.
ReplyDeleteAnd we know how they did last year.