Point spread rarely matters in Super Bowl
The point spread rarely matters in the Super Bowl.
The winning team in the first 57 Super Bowls, including 19 underdogs, is 48-7-2 ATS.
In other words, there have been only nine Super Bowls in which the favorite has won but failed to cover. Two of those games resulted in pushes when the Rams (-7) beat the Titans 23-16 in 2000 and the Packers (-14) beat the Patriots 35-21 in 1997.
Here are the other seven Super Bowls in which the favorite won but failed to cover:
2022, Rams (-4½) over Bengals, 23-20
The Rams squandered an early 13-3 lead and trailed 20-16 in the final minutes before Matthew Stafford threw a game-winning 1-yard touchdown pass to Cooper Kupp with 1:25 left to cap a 79-yard drive.
2009, Steelers (-7) over Cardinals, 27-23
The Steelers blew a 20-7 lead in the fourth quarter and trailed 23-20 before Santonio Holmes hauled in the game-winning 6-yard TD catch from Ben Roethlisberger with 42 seconds left.
2005, Patriots (-7) over Eagles, 24-21
The Patriots went ahead by 10 on Adam Vinatieri’s 22-yard field goal with 9:21 left. But Donovan McNabb fired a 30-yard TD pass to Greg Lewis with 1:55 remaining to give the Eagles a backdoor cover.
2004, Patriots (-7) over Panthers, 32-29
In a wild seesaw shootout, New England took a 29-22 lead with 2:58 left on Tom Brady’s 1-yard TD pass to Mike Vrabel and Kevin Faulk’s 2-point conversion run. Carolina tied it with 1:16 to go on Jake Delhomme’s 12-yard TD pass to Ricky Proehl before the Patriots won it on Adam Vinatieri’s 41-yard field goal with nine seconds left.
1996, Cowboys (-13½) over Steelers, 27-17
Dallas led 20-7 in the fourth quarter before Pittsburgh closed the gap to 20-17 on a 1-yard TD run by Bam Morris. The Steelers had the ball with a chance to take the lead in the final minutes when Super Bowl MVP Larry Brown recorded his second second-half interception of Neil O’Donnell to set up Emmitt Smith’s game-clinching 4-yard TD run.
1989, 49ers (-7) over Bengals, 20-16
San Francisco trailed 16-13 with 3:10 left before Joe Montana directed an 11-play, 92-yard game-winning drive. Montana hit John Taylor with a 10-yard TD pass with 39 seconds left to lift the Niners to victory.
1976, Steelers (-7) over Cowboys, 21-17
Pittsburgh trailed 10-7 in the fourth quarter before taking a 21-10 lead on Terry Bradshaw’s 64-yard TD pass to Lynn Swann with 3:02 left. But the Cowboys claimed a backdoor cover on Roger Staubach’s 34-yard TD pass to Percy Howard. Dallas had a chance to win the game after Pittsburgh turned it over on downs. But Glen Edwards intercepted Staubach on a tipped ball in the end zone as time expired.
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.
