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Carolina's hard road back to the Super Bowl
Defensive end Kony Ealy of the Carolina Panthers walks on the field after a game against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on September 8, 2016 in Denver, Colorado. The Panthers lost 21-20 to their Super Bowl 50 foes in the season opener. Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

Carolina's hard road back to the Super Bowl

The Carolina Panthers look to get their first win of the season against the San Francisco 49ers this Sunday. The Panthers lost their Super Bowl rematch with the Denver Broncos on opening night, 21-20 and are prohibitive favorites to win the NFC South and would love nothing more than to get back to the Super Bowl and finish what they've started. They are focused, determined and have the reigning MVP as their quarterback. Super Bowl or bust.

That's easier said than done.

Every team that loses the Super Bowl has that fire. That burning inside them to get back to the big game and do things better and to get that losing taste out of their mouths. Who has a bigger yearning than the team that got to the final Sunday and let the opportunity to hold that Vince Lombardi trophy get away from them? 

The problem is that it rarely ever happens. The team that loses the Super Bowl has a tough time getting back to that stage. Of the previous 49 Super Bowls, only seven of the losing teams make it back to the big game with just two of them actually winning it. That's right, only two teams would avenge their Super Bowl loss by cashing in the next season. The lone two to do so are the Dallas Cowboys winning Super Bowl VI and the Miami Dolphins winning Super Bowl VII. That's it. Two teams and that was over 40 years ago. That's a lot of history the Panthers are up against.

As I said, only seven teams even got back to the Super Bowl with the most famous being the last squad to do it – the Buffalo Bills.  The Bills lost four consecutive Super Bowls in the early 1990s and have become the poster boys for anyone continuously getting to the brink of ultimate success and just not being able to grab it. We all make fun of the Bills for failing to win at least one, but getting there four straight times is actually one of the most amazing feats in modern sport. Especially when you consider those teams are three of the seven instances where a losing Super Bowl team got back to Super Sunday. Here is all of them:

  • V:  Cowboys (would win the Super Bowl)
  • VI: Dolphins (would win the Super Bowl)
  • VIII:  Vikings
  • XXI:  Broncos
  • XXV: Bills
  • XXVI:  Bills
  • XXVII:  Bills

Think about those five franchises for a minute. The Cowboys and Dolphins would end up winning the next year's Super Bowl. Miami would win back-to-back Super Bowls after their loss in Super Bowl VI. The Cowboys loss in Super Bowl V started a run of five Super Bowl appearances in nine years where they won two titles. The Vikings and Broncos went to the Super Bowl in three of four years (both losing all three) and you have the Bills four straight losses. These weren't just one-year darlings. There was sustained success and some really talented teams. They also were all before free agency and salary structures as they currently are in the NFL. That last Bills team to come back after a Super Bowl loss was the 1992 team. It hasn't happened since.

That time frame matters. In the first twenty-one Super Bowls, the losing team went to the playoffs the next season in nineteen of those years. Over the next twenty-one Super Bowls, only nine Super Bowl losers even qualified for the playoffs the next season with just ten of them posting winning records. All of the last seven Super Bowl losers would make the playoffs. Still, the 1992 Bills are the last ones to get back to the Super Bowl.

Teams also haven't been close. Since that Bills return, only two teams have even made a conference championship appearance (2011 Patriots, 2012 49ers). Historically, only twelve Super Bowl losers got to next year's conference championship game. The Carolina Panthers went 7-9 in the season after their previous Super Bowl appearance.

Why does this happen? If you look over the last twenty or so Super Bowl losing teams, you see teams that kind of popped up suddenly. Many were surprise guests to the biggest stage in American sports. I mean, here are some names of starting quarterbacks that lost Super Bowls since 1994: Stan Humphries, Neil O'Donnell, Chris Chandler, Kerry Collins, Jake Delhomme, Rex Grossman and Colin Kaepernick. Of course, Brett Favre, Steve McNair, Donovan McNabb, Ben Roethlisberger, Kurt Warner (twice), Tom Brady (twice) and Peyton Manning (twice) all lost Super Bowls as well. Maybe there is no rhyme or reason.

While I may be picking on Super Bowl losers, it is tough for anyone to get back. Super Bowl winners have gone back to the Super Bowl just twelve times. The Packers, Dolphins, Steelers (twice), 49ers, Cowboys, Broncos and Patriots all would win in their return trip with the Cowboys, Redskins, Packers and Seahawks losing a Super Bowl one season after winning it. There have been fifteen champions that failed to make the playoffs the following season. Among those teams were the dynastic Packers, the Steel Curtain Steelers, the Montana-era 49ers and Tom Brady's Patriots. The point is that getting back to the Super Bowl is extremely difficult, but losing teams have it really rough.

One bright spot for the Panthers is that while teams haven't gone right back to the Super Bowl, recent ones have been able to get there eventually. Last year's Broncos, for example, lost the Super Bowl two years earlier. The 2011 Patriots (who lost Super Bowl XLVI) would win the Super Bowl three years later. So they have that going for them, which is nice.

 

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