The Kansas City Chiefs have advanced to their fourth Super Bowl in the past five seasons, a feat accomplished just twice before.
How does their dynasty stack up against some of the dominant teams in NFL history?
Kansas City toppled the No. 1-seed Baltimore Ravens 17-10 in Baltimore on Sunday – just their second win on the road in the playoffs over the past five seasons – and have a chance to win their third Super Bowl in five years.
The Buffalo Bills (1990-93) and New England Patriots (2014-18) are the only other teams to appear in four Super Bowls in a five-year span. Here’s how they fared:
Hall-of-Fame head coach Marv Levy’s Bills famously lost all four title games consecutively, including in the dying seconds against the New York Giants to kick off the run of appearances when Scott Norwood’s game-winning field goal sailed wide right for a 20-19 loss in Super Bowl XXV.
Quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick led the Patriots on their run of success in the mid-’10s, winning three-of-four Super Bowls in that period. They beat the Seattle Seahawks (2014), Atlanta Falcons (2016) and Los Angeles Rams (2018) in those years, with their only loss coming against Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII in 2017.
Kansas City has the chance to equal the Patriots in claiming their third title in a five-year span. They lost to Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV, but defeated the Eagles last season and the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV.
Speaking of the 49ers, that will be their opponent in Super Bowl LVIII. San Francisco fought back from a 24-7 half-time deficit against the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship game to win 34-31.
New England faced five different opponents in their five Super Bowls, while the Bills played the Giants, Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys twice.
Team
Years
Win %
NFL Rank
Points scored per game
NFL Rank
Points allowed per game
NFL Rank
Buffalo Bills
1990-93
0.765
1
24.9
2
17.3
12
New England Patriots
2014-18
0.775
1
28.2
1
18.7
3
Kansas City Chiefs
2019-23
0.759
1
27.4
2
20.4
7
A common trait in the teams that made four Super Bowl appearances in five years is an explosive offence.
The Patriots held the top scoring offence over their five-year run, averaging just above 28 points per game, while the Bills and Chiefs each ranked second in points scored per game over their respective runs.
With a win against the 49ers, the Chiefs can make their mark on the record books in a number of ways. They can become the first back-to-back Super Bowl champions since the Patriots at the beginning of Belichick and Brady’s time together in New England.
While the entire team has a role to play in a run similar to what the Chiefs are experiencing right now, a lot of the credit is inevitably placed on the duo of quarterback and head coach.
The two can become the fourth head coach-starting QB duo to win three-or-more Super Bowls together in NFL history, joining New England’s Brady and Belichick, Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Bill Walsh and Joe Montana for the 49ers.
Reid continues to develop a Hall-of-Fame coaching resume, as this will be his fifth appearance in a Super Bowl as a head coach, joining Belichick, Don Shula of the Miami Dolphins and Tom Landry of the Cowboys as the only coaches to reach five or more title games.
His matchup against 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan marks the second Super Bowl they’ve competed against one another in, forming only the fourth pair of head coaches to meet in multiple Super Bowls. Reid won the first in 2019, and the matchup has never been split in NFL history.
Over-arching narratives aside, the game pits a classic matchup of offence vs. defence, with the 49ers and their third-ranked offence going up against the Chiefs’ second-ranked scoring defence.
Kansas City’s offence looked out of sorts throughout the regular season, with Mahomes finishing with a career-low in passing yards per game (261.4) and touchdowns per game (1.7). He also finished the season with a career-high in interceptions thrown, with 14.
This led Kansas City’s lowest total points scored in a season (21.8 per game) since the last time they missed the playoffs, in 2014. They finished that season averaging 22.1 points per game.
On the other side of the field, San Francisco’s offence, which features four players who received AP First Team All-Pro Team honours this year in running back Christian McCaffrey, fullback Kyle Juszczyk, tight end George Kittle and offensive lineman Trent Williams, finished in the top five in every major offensive category this season.
They also had two finalists for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award in QB Brock Purdy and McCaffrey. The winner of the award will be announced at the NFL Honors award show three days before the Super Bowl kicks off.
Stat in regular season
Chiefs total
NFL Rank
49ers total
NFL Rank
Points per game
21.8
15
28.9
3
Points allowed per game
17.3
2
17.5
3
Passing yards per game
246.4
6
257.9
4
Rushing yards per game
104.9
19
140.5
3
Total yards per game
351.3
9
398.4
2
Passing yards allowed per game
176.5
4
214.2
14
Rushing yards allowed per game
113.2
18
89.7
3
Total yards allowed per game
289.7
2
303.9
8
Turnovers committed
28
23
18
6
Takeaways
17
27
28
5
The Chiefs and 49ers battle for the Super Bowl title on Sunday, Feb. 11.
You can catch the Super Bowl LIVE across the TSN Network, TSN.ca and the TSN App.
2024-01-29 17:43:44
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