Looking Back At My 49 STOPS TO SUPER BOWL XLIX

Looking back at my 49 Stops To Super Bowl XLIX, let's see where those trends I included hit on the actual game:

#46-AFC LOVES FEBRUARY: The Super Bowl will be held on February 1st. Since the first February Super Bowl in 2002, the AFC is 7-5 in those games held in the calendar's shortest month ... though the NFC has won four of the last five:

Well, the AFC won again, making them 8-5 in February Super Bowls.  

#45-SCORE EARLY AND OFTEN: The team who scores first in a Super Bowl is 32-16. 
*Teams who score at least 30 points are 25-2.  Only the Cowboys (SB XIII) and the 49ers (SB XLVII) scored at least 30 points and lost.  
*Teams that score the first TD are 35-13.
*Teams leading at the half are 36-10 (there have been two ties)

The Patriots scored first, so that makes the record 33-16 in Super Bowls.  Also, teams that score the first TD are now 36-13.  This was also just the third halftime tie in Super Bowl history.  


#44-SEAHAWKS AND PATRIOTS ARE BACK:   Only the Packers, Dolphins, Steelers (twice), 49ers, Cowboys, Broncos and Patriots have repeated as champions.

Seattle failed to join that group.

#42-PETE CARROLL GOING AGAINST HIS OLD TEAM: Oddly enough, this isn't the first time a coach faced off against the coach he replaced in the Super Bowl.  It happened in Super Bowl III when Weeb Ewbank faced off against Don Shula.  Shula replaced Ewbank as the Colts head coach in 1962.  Ewbank would take the Jets job the next season.  This is good news for Seahawks fans as the two departed coaches beat their replacements in both previous instances.  The Jets and Bucs won their Super Bowls against their replacements.

That trend failed as well.  

#39-TOP SEEDS MEETING AGAIN: Believe it or not, but Super Bowl XLIX is the third time that the No. 1 seed in the NFC and AFC met in the Super Bowl since 1993.  The top seeded Colts and Saints met in Super Bowl XLIV and the Seahawks and Broncos met a year ago.  Both times, the NFC team won the big game.  

The AFC won it this time.  

#35-RUSSELL WILSON LOVES TO FACE SUPER BOWL QBS: Russell Wilson is an amazing 10-0 against quarterbacks who have also won a Super Bowl.  He has beaten Aaron Rodgers' Packers three times, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning twice apiece and his opponent in Super Bowl XLIX Tom Brady once.  Of those 10 games, 8 have been in Seattle.  Another one, Super Bowl XLVIII against Denver last year, was on a neutral site.  The lone true road game was at the New York Giants.

Russell Wilson is now 10-1 against those quarterbacks.

#25-DON'T DISMISS THE FAVORITES: Yeah, there are upsets, but don't count on them. The favorite has won nine of the last 16 Super Bowls. In fact the favorite is 31-17 in the Super Bowl. Teams favored by at least 7 points are 19-6.

The Pats were technically the favorites.  That makes the faves 32-17 in the Super Bowl.

#23-THE NFC OWNS THE COIN TOSS ... YET ... :  The NFC has won 15 of the last 17 coin tosses, including a 14 year winning streak.

Seattle won the coin toss ... making it 16 of 18 years the NFC has won the coin toss.

#22-SOME MORE STATITUDES: Here is another piece of trivia for you. There has been at least one successful field goal in 46 of 48 Super Bowls.

There was a successful field goal in this one as well, making it 47 of 49 Super Bowls.  

#19-WEARING WHITE IS THE KEY:  Since the Seahawks are designated the home team, they will be wearing their home blue jerseys for the Super Bowl. That means the Patriots will go with their white jerseys. In fact, the team that has worn white uniforms had won the last nine of ten Super Bowls (Seahawks, Ravens, Giants, Saints, Steelers, Giants, Colts, Steelers, Patriots).  The Packers won three years ago wearing green. The Seahawks won last year's Super Bowl victory while wearing white.

White jerseys work!  Patriots wore 'em and won!

#12-PASSING FANCY:  Of the eleven most pass attempts in a Super Bowl game in history, ten were for the losing team.  Jim Kelly threw 58 passes for the Bills against the Redskins in Super Bowl XXVI,  Eagles' QB Donovan McNabb is 2nd with 51 passes in their Super Bowl XXXIX loss.  The lone winning QB in that mix is New England's Tom Brady who threw 48 passes in their Super Bowl XXXVIII victory over the Carolina Panthers.

Tom Brady threw 50 passes in this one, bucking that trend as well.

#11-DON'T TRAIL BY DOUBLE DIGITS: Teams that are facing a double-digit deficit are 2-42. A couple things are interesting about that stat. First, the only teams to come back from a 10-point deficit and win is the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXII and the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl XLIV. The Skins trailed 10-0 before scoring the next 42 points. The Saints scored 31 of the next 38 points after trailing 10-0. That also makes those Super Bowls the only ones where both teams faced a double digit deficit. Also, it is quite amazing that 42 of 48 Super Bowls have seen one team go up by at least 10 at some point in the game.

Not only did the Patriots come back from down 10 to win ... they did so in the 4th quarter.  Amazing.