By Joe Nelson
Posted 01/28/2012 at 12:56 PM

While this will be the fourth Super Bowl rematch, returning recent participants to the big game have become rarer in recent years with a flurry of new teams in the mix. The first rematch came in the late ‘70s as Pittsburgh and Dallas met in Super Bowl XIII after the Steelers won Super Bowl X three years earlier. Both games were at the Orange Bowl and both games ended in an exciting narrow Steelers win. More time spanned between the games but the 49ers and Bengals matched up twice in the ‘80s, with San Francisco winning narrowly in both games seven years apart. Dallas and Buffalo are the only teams to meet in back-to-back years as the Cowboys dismantled the Bills 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII and then more modestly the following year to hand the Bills a fourth straight Super Bowl defeat. Favored New England will need to break that short sample size of history as all three repeat match-ups ended the same way as the first time around. Had Baltimore won we would still have had a repeat match-up as the Ravens handed New York its lone Super Bowl loss in 2001 in a 34-7 blowout.

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By Joe Nelson
Posted 01/16/2012 at 04:19 PM

While the best game of the weekend was the Saints/49ers NFC tilt that featured four lead changes in just over four minutes to close the game, the biggest story was the collapse of the 15-1 Packers on the other side of the NFC bracket. While Green Bay had offered plenty of red flags with its ridiculously favorable turnover margin and the worst statistical defense in the NFL while allowing more passing yards than any team in NFL history, no one thought it would be the offense that would let them down. Likely MVP Aaron Rodgers missed some throws and had two turnovers but he was let down by several drops from his receiving corps and costly fumbles from his running backs. With some pressure from the Giants and playing without a lead for one of the few times this season, Rodgers and the Packers looked rather average. What looked like it might be a dynasty after last year’s Super Bowl run appears likely to go down as just a one year wonder of a hot team that got on a roll in the playoffs to win a title even though this was the dominant team of the regular season.

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