Nearly 70% of Super Bowl losers make the next postseason, but winning it all is rare
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Through the fire
Chiefs reemerge after seven months of challenges and stinging criticism, on and off the field.
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It’s tough enough repeat as a Super Bowl champion — no team has done it in 17 seasons.
But winning a championship one year after finishing runner-up?
That’s even harder.
The history the Kansas City Chiefs face this season — after losing Super Bowl LV to the Buccaneers last February — isn’t exactly promising. Among the past 27 teams to lose the Super Bowl, 10 finished with a losing record the following season. Twelve were left out of the playoffs.
Only three teams have turned a Super Bowl defeat into enough motivation to win it the following year — and only one in the last 48 years.
Overall, 37 of the previous 54 Super Bowl made the playoffs the following season.
Here are the best and worst teams coming off a Super Bowl defeat:
The best:
1971 Dallas Cowboys
After losing Super Bowl V 16-13 to the Baltimore Colts, the Cowboys won the NFC East at 11-3 — one victory better than the previous season — and beat the Miami Dolphins 24-3 in Super Bowl VI.
1972 Miami Dolphins
Still the only undefeated Super Bowl champion in NFL history: 17-0 between the 14-game regular season and playoffs, capped with a 14-7 win over Washington in Super Bowl VII. The 1973 Dolphins would play in a third straight Super Bowl and repeat as champions.
1991-93 Buffalo Bills
The Jim Kelly-led Bills lost Super Bowl XXV 20-19 to the New York Giants on a late field goal and — while they became the only NFL team to appear in four straight Super Bowls — that’s as close as they’d get to a championship: They lost 37-24 to Washington and 52-17 and 30-13 to the Dallas Cowboys. The 1994 Bills finished 7-9.
2008 New England Patriots
The 2007 Patriots joined the 1972 Dolphins as the only teams to complete the regular season undefeated but finished 18-1 after losing 17-14 to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII. The 2008 Pats finished 11-5 — even after Tom Brady was lost for the season to torn knee ligaments after a hit by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard in Week 1. But the Matt Cassel-led Patriots still missed the playoffs, joining the 1985 Denver Broncos as the only 11-5 teams to do so.
2018 New England Patriots
The only team in the past 48 years to turn a Super Bowl defeat into a Super Bowl win one year later. And they needed overtime on the journey there. After losing to the Eagles in Super Bowl LII, the Patriots beat Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs in overtime at Arrowhead for the AFC title and then beat the Rams 13-3 for the crown, Brady’s sixth in nine tries with the Pats.
The worst:
1990 Denver Broncos
These Broncos became the first Super Bowl loser to finish with a losing record the next season: 5-11. Denver’s defense plummeted from first in the NFL in points allowed to 23rd.
1999 Atlanta Falcons
They finished 5-11 after star running back Jamal Anderson, who rushed for nearly 1,846 yards in 1998, was lost to the season in Week 2 with a knee injury.
2003 Oakland Raiders
After losing to former coach Jon Gruden’s Bucs in the Super Bowl, the Raiders returned an aging roster — with 41-year-old Jerry Rice, 38-year-old Rich Gannon and 37-year-old Tim Brown leading the offense — and finished 4-12.
2005 Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles went 6-10 after Andy Reid’s only Super Bowl appearance in Philly ended with a 24-21 loss to the Patriots.
2020 San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers held a 10-point lead on Mahomes and the Chiefs entering the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LIV. We all know what happened next. “We’ll lick our wounds. We’ll get over this. We’ll be fired up for next year,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said after the game. They finished 6-10 in 2020. The 2016 Carolina Panthers also finished 6-10 following a Super Bowl loss.
