Difficult Super Bowl Trivia: Part 3

Which city has hosted the most Super Bowl blowouts, decided by 14 or more points?

There are a few places where the Super Bowl is a regular fixture, and more than one where if the game shows up there, you’ll probably find yourself hoping that the commercials are good.

New Orleans

While Miami has hosted the Super Bowl 11 times, the most of any site, only four of those games were decided by at least two touchdowns: Super Bowls II, XXIX, XXXIII, and XLIV.

When the NFL takes its title game to the Big Easy, it’s usually an easy win. Of the 10 games played on the bayou, seven have wound up being less than competitive, including the Super Bowl’s biggest blowout, 49ers 55, Broncos 10 in XXIV.

The first three New Orleans Super Bowls were played at Tulane Stadium, with Kansas City winning Super Bowl IV by 16 points over Minnesota, followed two years later by a 24-3 win for Dallas over Miami. After a “close” 16-6 win for the Steelers over the Vikings in Super Bowl IX, it was on to the Superdome.

Under the roof, there were identical 27-10 scores in Super Bowl XII (Cowboys-Broncos) and XV (Raiders Eagles), before things got really out of hand with Super Bowls XX (Bears 46, Patriots 10) and XXIV.

The last blowout Super Bowl in New Orleans was Packers 35, Patriots 21 in XXXI, with things turning around for Patriots 20, Rams 17 in Super Bowl XXXVI and Ravens 34, 49ers 31 in XLVII.

The next Super Bowl scheduled for New Orleans is LIX, in February 2025.

Who kicked the most useless field goal in Super Bowl history?

The framing of this question could be subjective, so some clarity is required.

Who kicked the latest field goal in a game that had more than a two-touchdown difference in the score at the time of the kick?

There have been 29 field goals successfully kicked in the fourth quarter of Super Bowls, according to Stathead. All but four of those kicks have been to tie, take the lead, or extend the lead.

It’s much less subjective when you’re choosing among those four.

Rich Karlis

Down 33-10 with 6:24 left in Super Bowl XXI, the Broncos sent their barefoot kicker out for a 28-yarder on 4th-and-6 from the Giants’ 11-yard line.

To be fair to the late Dan Reeves, with no two-point conversion in the NFL at the time, New York’s 23-point lead represented a four-score game. At the same time, the Broncos took four and a half minutes off the clock to get that field goal, which left them three touchdowns behind. An onside kick failed, the Giants scored five plays later, and the game wound up 39-20 after a garbage time TD pass from John Elway to Vance Johnson.

The other fourth-quarter field goals by teams kicking to chip away at a deficit were far more defensible. Norm Johnson kicked a 46-yarder on 4th-and-17 with 11:48 left in Super Bowl XXX to get the Steelers within 20-10 (they lost to the Cowboys, 27-17); Graham Gano’s 39-yarder with 10:21 left in Super Bowl 50, on 4th-and-9 from the 21, cut the Broncos’ lead to 16-10 (the Panthers twice got the ball back with a chance to take the lead with a touchdown, but lost 24-10); and Stephen Gostkowski hit a 33-yarder on 4th-and-goal from the 15 as part of the Patriots’ comeback from 28-3 down against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI (the field goal made it 28-12).

Who scored the most points for a team that lost the Super Bowl by at least two touchdowns?

The record for points scored in a Super Bowl is 20 by Patriots running back James White, who had three touchdowns and a two-point conversion in Super Bowl LI. That broke the previous mark of 18, set by Roger Craig in Super Bowl XIX, tied five years later by Jerry Rice, and then tied again by Rice, Ricky Watters, and Terrell Davis.

The record for points scored by a player in a losing effort in the Super Bowl is shared by many players, but only one of them did it in a blowout defeat.

Bill Miller

There aren’t very many players who appeared in the Super Bowl but never an NFL game, and Miller is one of them, as he started with the 1962 Dallas Texans, went to the Buffalo Bills the next year, then played through 1968 with the Oakland Raiders.

In Super Bowl II, Miller had five catches for 84 yards — more than a quarter of the Raiders’ total offensive output — and both of Oakland’s touchdowns in the 33-14 loss to the Packers. The first score, on a 23-yard pass from Daryle Lamonica, got Oakland within 13-7 midway through the second quarter. But Green Bay took off after that, and by the time Miller scored on another 23-yard pass from Lamonica in the fourth, it was only good for creating the final score.

Miller held the record alone for most points in a losing effort in the Super Bowl for 14 years until Bengals tight end Dan Ross scored a pair of touchdowns in Super Bowl XVI, a 26-21 loss to the 49ers.

It’s a record that nobody really wants, but there’s been more company recently, with Antonio Freeman (XXXII), Eddie George (XXXIV), Larry Fitzgerald (XLIII), and Rob Gronkowski (LII) all scoring two touchdowns for teams that lost much closer Super Bowls than the AFL champion Raiders did.

Who are the only two teams to lead a Super Bowl after each of the first two quarters, but still lose by two or more touchdowns?

Scoring first is good. Leading at the end of the first quarter is even better. Leading at the half is fantastic.

Yet, every now and then, it doesn’t matter. And a couple of times, it really didn’t matter.

The Broncos and Colts

Super Bowl XXI appeared to be on its way to being a classic, with the Broncos’ high-powered offense and the Giants’ Lawrence Taylor-led defense clashing.

Denver scored first on a 48-yard Rich Karlis field goal, and the teams traded touchdowns for a 10-7 Broncos lead after the first quarter. The only score of the second quarter was George Martin getting to John Elway in the end zone for a safety, so it was 10-9 at the break. Then the Giants, led by Phil Simms’ accurate passing and Joe Morris’ steady rushing, went of for 17 points in the third quarter. The Broncos went three-and-out twice, and then Elway threw an interception to start the fourth quarter, and that was that — a 39-20 final.

In Super Bowl XLIV, it was 10-0 Colts after the first quarter before the Saints showed up for the party. New Orleans got a 46-yard Garrett Hartley field goal on its first possession of the second quarter, then got stopped on 4th-and-goal from the 1 trying to tie the game just after the two-minute warning. The Saints got the ball back before the half, though, and got another Hartley field goal, this time from 44 yards, as time expired.

The Saints famously kicked onside and recovered to start the third quarter, marched right down the field for the go-ahead touchdown, and… and the Colts still took the lead right back on their next possession — and actually continued to lead into the fourth quarter, when Drew Brees connected with Jeremy Shockey at the end of a 59-yard drive with 5:46 left. It was Tracy Porter’s pick-six on the next Colts drive that made it a 31-17 final and arguably the most competitive blowout in Super Bowl history.

Who is the only quarterback to complete less than half of his passes (minimum 5 attempts) for a team that won a blowout Super Bowl?

Johnny Unitas (3-for-9) and Earl Morrall (7-for-15) both were under a 50 percent completion rate in the Baltimore Colts’ victory in Super Bowl V, but that game was 16-13 against the Cowboys.

The Steelers also have had two quarterbacks connect on less than half their passes but not care because the Super Bowl was a triumph. In Pittsburgh’s case, it was two Super Bowls, not one, as Terry Bradshaw was 9-for-19 in Super Bowl X, a 21-17 win over the Cowboys, while Ben Roethlisberger went 9-for-21 with two interceptions in Super Bowl XL, a 21-10 win over the Seahawks.

Bradshaw is the only one of those four who didn’t throw an interception. Neither did the man who is the answer to this question.

Trent Dilfer

Who knows if Super Bowl XXXV would have wound up the way that it did if Dilfer’s interception, a pick-six by Giants linebacker Jessie Armstead, hadn’t been called back for a defensive holding penalty against tackle Keith Hamilton.

Instead, the narrative that emerged from the Ravens’ 34-7 rout was that Dilfer did what he had to do to manage the game and let Baltimore’s running game and defense do their thing to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Dilfer was 12-for-25 for 153 yards and a touchdown, Jamal Lewis ran for 102 yards and a score, and the Baltimore defense picked off Kerry Collins four times, with a forced fumble on a Ron Dixon kickoff return for good measure.

There’s a reason that the minimum here is five pass attempts. In Super Bowl XX, with the Bears cruising to victory, Steve Fuller replaced Jim McMahon under center for Chicago, and threw four incompletions. The Bears’ only points in the fourth quarter of that 46-10 romp came on a safety.