Facts, Odds Don’t Smile On Broncos
No team has lost five Super Bowls. The Denver Broncos will have to snap the NFC’s 13-year winning streak and beat the defending champion Green Bay Packers to avoid becoming the first.
The Broncos beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 24-21 Sunday and will bring their “Revenge Tour” to San Diego on Jan. 25 as the fifth wild-card team to get to the Super Bowl. Only one, the 1980 Oakland Raiders, won the big game.
The Raiders also were the last AFC team to win the league championship, in 1983.
“We will represent the AFC well,” said owner Pat Bowlen of the Broncos, one of three franchises with an 0-4 Super Bowl record. “I think the AFC is going to the Super Bowl and will win it.”
To do so, Denver (15-4) must deal with a Green Bay defense that has become dominant recently, particularly in the 23-10 NFC championship win Sunday at San Francisco. The Packers are a 14-point favorite.
The Packers (15-3) have allowed 61 points in their last six meaningful games - their season-ending 31-21 victory over Buffalo had no bearing on the standings. Just 17 of those points came in the playoffs, and one was on Chuck Levy’s kickoff return with the game decided Sunday.
Both coaches, Green Bay’s Mike Holmgren and Denver’s Mike Shanahan, served as assistant coaches on winning Super Bowl teams with the 49ers. Holmgren, of course, won it as a head coach last year.
The teams had four common opponents: Carolina, New England, Buffalo and St. Louis. Both swept them all.
Both were road winners in the conference title games. Each had runners gain more than 100 yards against their opponents for the first time: Dorsey Levens rushed for 114 and Terrell Davis had 139.
In taking the hard way to San Diego, the Broncos avenged some of their most painful recent defeats.
They beat Jacksonville, which upset them last season when the Broncos had the home-field advantage for the AFC playoffs. This time, the Jaguars were blown out at Mile High Stadium.
Denver went to archrival Kansas City last week and knocked off the conference’s highest seed. The Chiefs’ last-second home victory over Denver in Game 11 propelled them to the AFC West crown.
And, finally, the win against the Steelers, who helped Denver’s slide to a wild-card berth with a 35-24 decision in Game 14.