This year’s Super Bowl features a rare encounter between the NFL’s top two teams from the regular season.
The Philly Eagles And Kansas City chiefs were the league’s only 14-game winners, marking only the sixth time since the 1970 merger that the sides with sole possession of the two-best regular-season records have met for the championship.
The last time this happened was after the 2013 season when Seattle defeated Denver 43-8 in a 13-win matchup.
This blowout was relatively typical of these encounters, with the average win margin over the past five Powerhouse matchups being 21 points.
The closest game was Washington’s 37-24 win over Buffalo after the 1991 season. The three others featured San Francisco beating Miami 38-16 after the 1984 season, Dallas beating Denver 27-10 to cap the 1977 season, and Oakland, who defeated Minnesota 32-14 the previous year.
Since seeding began in 1975, this marks the 15th time that the top team in each conference has made it to the Super Bowl. The last time came after the 2017 season when the Eagles won their first Super Bowl championship by defeating New England 41-33.
This is also the third time both Super Bowl teams have won at least 14 regular-season games, although both Kansas City and Philadelphia needed wins in the extra 17th game to get there. Atlanta and Denver made it in 16 seasons in 1998, Miami and San Francisco in 1984.
The Chiefs and Eagles were also in control throughout the postseason, with neither team falling behind in the playoffs. The only other instances where both Super Bowl teams did so were the 2004 season (Patriots vs. Eagles), the 1991 season (Bills vs. Washington), and the 1966 season (Packers vs. Chiefs).
AIR IT OUT
Patrick Mahomes will attempt to do something that has never been done before in the NFL, following on from a regular season in which he led the league with a Super Bowl title in the blink of an eye.
Mahomes threw 5,250 yards during the regular season — 511 more than second-place Justin Herbert, making it the widest gap between first-place and second-place since Kurt Warner beat Peyton Manning by 699 yards in 2001.
The only player to reach the Super Bowl after throwing more yards than Mahomes in the regular season was Manning with a record 5,477 in 2013. His Broncos lost 43-8 to Seattle in the Super Bowl.
That was one of six times before Mahomes that the player who led the league in yards made it to the Super Bowl, with all of them losing. The others were Tom Brady (2017 season), Brady (2007), Rich Gannon (2002), Warner (2001), and Dan Marino (1984).
COACHING REUNION
Chiefs coach Andy Reid joins Dan Reeves as the only coach to face off in the Super Bowl against a franchise that previously took them to the big game.
Reid coached the Eagles to their second Super Bowl after the 2004 season before being fired after the 2012 season. He quickly built Kansas City into a force and is now poised for his fourth Super Bowl appearance as head coach — the ninth coach to reach that mark.
Reid will hope for better luck in his rematch than Reeves did after the 1998 season against a Denver organization he led to the Super Bowl in the 1986, ’87 and ’89 seasons before losing all three. The Broncos beat Reeves and the Atlanta Falcons 34-19 in the Super Bowl.
Two other coaches met their former teams in the Super Bowl and ended up on the winning side: Jon Gruden led Tampa Bay past the Raiders after the 2002 season, and Weeb Ewbank coached the Jets to a major upset over the Colts after the 1968 season.
The Eagles will become the sixth franchise to reach the Super Bowl under four coaches, with Nick Sirianni joining Doug Pederson, Reid and Dick Vermeil.
The Raiders, 49ers, Colts and Rams all got there with four coaches, and the Broncos made it there with a record five.
GREAT TIGHT END
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has had a playoff career rivaled perhaps only by Jerry Rice, all-time greatest receiver.
Kelce has 127 catches in 17 career playoff games for 1,467 yards and 15 touchdowns. The only player to surpass either of those numbers was Rice, with 151 catches for 2,245 yards and 22 TDs in 29 playoff games.
The Mahomes-Kelce connection is also one of the best, with 13 TD passes in the playoffs, behind the 15 Tom Brady threw to Rob Gronkowski.
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