Seahawks trying to be 7th wild card team to win Super Bowl
By Dan Viens
The Seahawks are trying to do something only six teams have done in NFL history, win the Super Bowl as a wild card.
The Seahawks were on the wrong side of something very rare in 2006 when they lost to 6th seeded Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XL. The Steelers capped off an amazing run that saw them win their final five regular season games just to squeak into the playoffs, earning them the “privilege” of having to win three road games to get to the title contest.
At the time, Pittsburgh became only the fourth non-division winner to take home the Lombardi Trophy since the wild card round was added in 1978. It’s happened two more times since then, with both the 2007 Giants and the 2010 Packers joining them as wild card Super Bowl winners.
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It’s not hard to understand why it’s so rare. Winning in the NFL is hard enough, but having to come out on top in three straight road games before facing the opposing conferences champion on a neutral field sounds like some sort of cornball Disney movie. The fact that three of the six times it’s happened have occurred in the last 10 years, however, may speak to enhanced parity in the league.
But if the Seahawks are able to pull it off this year, it might just end up being the most impressive run ever by a wild card team. Potentially standing in their way are three of the top seven teams in our final NFL Power Index. Minnesota is 7th, Carolina 6th and Arizona 2nd right behind top-ranked Seattle. Then they would face an AFC team like Kansas City (3), Cincinnati (4) or New England (8) for the title. Now THAT would be something.
And the way they’ve played the last eight weeks (save for that week #16 game against you-know-who) this looks like a team capable of going on such a run. Road games don’t seem to faze them, in fact they’ve been preparing for this all season by holding every daily practice at 10:00am PST. They’re as healthy now as they’ve been all season, save for Marshawn Lynch’s delayed return from injury. And we all know how well this team typically performs when A) they’re more of the “underdog” and B) they’re confident and feeling good about themselves.
High seeds and playoff expectations are rarefied air for the teams laying in front of the Seahawks, but this is old hat to these players. As young as this roster still is, this core group is as seasoned in post-season play as anyone in the league, and after the way last year ended they feel they have something to prove. A brutally cold day and a solid football team awaits them in Minnesota today, but if Seattle can brave the elements and play in much the same manner as they have been since mid-November, we just might see the 7th team to win the Super Bowl from a wild card spot.
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Here’s the complete list of teams to have won it all after qualifying for the playoffs as a wild card team:
- 1980 Oakland Raiders
- 1997 Denver Broncos
- 2000 Baltimore Ravens
- 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers
- 2007 New York Giants
- 2010 Green Bay Packers
- 2015 Seattle Seahawks????????