Perspective: Eagles SB blowout not among top ten
Philadelpia's win only sixth widest margin among SB upsets
Shocked football fans are trying to put the Philadelphia Eagles’ 40-22 win in Sunday’s Super Bowl LIX into perspective. However, some combination of recency bias, selective memory, or just the restrictions of youth impairs these efforts.
Even Good Morning Football’s hard-working Peter Shrager, an ascendant personality in football journalism, seemed in shock as he rambled on about the impressive upset.
“It was as one-sided a Super Bowl as I have ever been at,” Shrager said Monday after working from pre-dawn Sunday until after midnight. “That was as dominant a performance I’ve ever had my eyes on.”
There is a reason for that. Shrager was born in 1982, so he was only eight when the San Francisco 49ers and Joe Montana demolished the Denver Broncos, 55-10, in January of 1990. That 45-point margin is the largest in Super Bowl history. Shrager was only four years old in 1986 when the Chicago Bears brutalized the New England Patriots, 46-10, the second-largest margin, 36 points.
As Shrager and GMFB co-anchor Kyle Brandt declared the first half of SB LIX the most dramatic and lopsided in Super Bowl history, I flashed on No. XXII in January of 1988. Washington quarterback Doug Williams, who began the season as a lightly regarded backup, squared off against Denver and future Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway.
After the favored Broncos took a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, Williams led the Washington team to 42 unanswered points and a 42-10 win. That’s pretty dramatic, but there is more to the story.
That comeback included an astonishing 35-point explosion in the second quarter. Williams, the first Black quarterback to start a Super Bowl, won MVP honors with 340 yards and four touchdowns passing. Running back Timmy Smith, also a backup during the season, set a Super Bowl record with 122 yards rushing in the second quarter and 204 yards overall.
That upset and that first half jumped out in my mind as the most dramatic, if not most dominant, in Super Bowl history.
I concede that the Eagles were very impressive and quickly ended the Chiefs’ hopes of a three-peat, a big deal in pre-game hype. But in the glorious history of Super Bowls, the Eagles’ 18-point margin of victory doesn’t rank in the top 10, and among underdog victories, it is only the sixth-widest margin.
Even if Chiefs rookie wide receiver Xaver Worthy didn’t ignite a 22-point splurge after falling behind 34-0, the Eagles would have still ranked only second among SB blowouts with a 40-point margin.
I have the advantage over Shrager there. I was born significantly earlier than him, covered nine of those lopsided games, and watched the other on live TV before he was born.
Putting the record straight: Here is a list of the most lop-sided victories in Super Bowl history (* = winner was underdog).
Top Blowouts in Super Bowl History
Date Result Margin of Victory Jan. 28, 1990: 49ers 55, Broncos 10 45 *Jan. 26, 1986: Bears 46, Patriots 10 36 *Feb. 2, 2014: Seahawks 43, Broncos 8 35 Jan. 31, 1993: Cowboys 52, Bills 17 35 *Jan. 31, 1988: Redskins 42, Broncos 10 32 *Jan. 22, 1984: Raiders 38, Redskins 9 29 *Jan. 26, 2003: Buccaneers 48, Raiders 21 27 Jan. 28, 2001: Ravens 34, Giants 7 27 Jan. 15, 1967: Packers 35, Chiefs 10 25 Jan. 29, 1995: 49ers 49, Chargers 26 23 ------- *Feb. 9, 2025: Eagles 40, Chiefs 22 18
I'll take 2013 Seattle for the greatest SB blowout strictly because they completely annihilated not just the NFL's #1 offense but the highest scoring team ever, led by Peyton Manning in the year when he set the NFL's single-season records for passing yards and passing touchdowns. To go up 36-0 on THAT offense, and win 43-8, was so far removed from anything that anyone had done to the Broncos.
That was Denver's only game in single digits; their next lowest point total was 20. They had their fewest amount of 1st downs (18), tied for their most turnovers (4), and had their second fewest yards (306, just edging the 295 in that 20-point Chargers loss).