10 Super Bowl teams who didn’t deserve to be there
It’s a blog site, basically, but it always produces entertaining click-fodder if nothing else. I agree with more than half the list, but the author leaves off one super-undeserving Rams team in 2018 😊
https://www.totalprosports.com/nfl/10-super-bowl-teams-that-didnt-deserve-to-be-there-2/
Atlanta was a good team but was certainly no SB-CALIBER team in 1998. Bad, late-game coaching, plus Gary Anderson choosing the absolute worst time to choke by missing his first FG in over a year that wouldve essentially, clinched it. I'm not among those who believe necessarily that Minnesota would have won against Denver if they had played, because while the 1998 Vikings had a powerful offense, their defense was mediocre, at best and Denny Green was a big question mark when it came to his decision-making in big games, and before drafting Randy Moss in 1998, the Vikings under Green had only made it past the first round of post-season just once since 1992. I think the game is closer, more entertaining, but Denver probably wins that contest, too.
New England shouldn't have represented the AFC in Super Bowl XX but their a good example of a team that got hot, and began gelling at the right time, like the 87 Vikings, and Raymond Berry absolutely outcoached Shula's Dolphins as well as force Marino to throw 3-4 INT's. Miami also in the 1985 AFCCG showed its makn, glaring weakness that would become an open sore during Marino's tenure and that's a lack of a legitimate running game. Buffalo and Dallas had it during their 90's SB runs, Miami did not except give it lip service. That, combined with trading away the Marks Brothers, not investing draft capital on quality defensive players, RB's sort of ensured Marino only appeared in one AFCCG after 1985, and was forced to endure a lot of heart breaking, nagging losses or blowouts in the playoffs (1994, 1995, 1997-99).
Oakland vs. Dallas in Super Bowl XII in the Superdome would've been an interesting, amazing, fascinating game to watch but the Raiders got screwed when Denver Rob Lytle's infamous fumble near the end zone that was ruled down by brain-dead referees (Oakland had their No-Call 41 years before we did) led to a TD on the next play, which helped Denver build a 20-10 4th quarter lead they managed to hold on to barely, 20-17, in the 1977 AFC Championship Game.