Symmetrical Moments in Super Bowl Champion History

Do you believe in symbols or symmetry? I can’t say that I do, but it’s always fun to find those little moments inside a team’s success that scream “it might just be their year.”

In that vein, I took a look at some fun, symbolic moments from Super Bowl winning teams of the 21st Century that seemed to be good omens for things to come.

Here are some prime examples:

2003 New England Patriots: The 31-0 bookend

This was a fascinating turn of events. At the outset of the 2003 season, things looked grim for the Patriots. They cut Lawyer Milloy days before the season opener in Buffalo and then proceeded to get not only shellacked, but shutout by Buffalo — who had just signed Milloy. The 31-0 score was a humiliation for the Patriots; that is, until they would go on to lose just once the rest of the year.

When Week 17 rolled around, the Patriots simply needed a win over Buffalo to secure the AFC’s top seed, and the Bills had been eliminated at 6-9. But a win wasn’t enough: the Patriots wanted revenge. And so, they whooped up on the Bills to the tune of — you guessed it — 31-0 (this was actually aided by a short missed field goal by Adam Vinatieri, oddly enough). But with seconds to go, the Bills threatened with a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line and New England’s defensive backups in the game. Somehow, some way, special teams ace Larry Izzo intercepted Buffalo backup QB Travis Brown’s pass in the end zone to finish off the perfect bookend to New England’s 2003 regular season.

Of course, symmetry found the Patriots again in Super Bowl XXXVIII when Adam Vinatieri once again delivered a game-winning field goal to break a tie in the final seconds as he had two years prior.

2005 Pittsburgh Steelers: The AFC Championship Game first half

A year after going 15-1 but losing the AFC Championship Game to New England, Pittsburgh took the harder route to the Super Bowl by winning three games on the road as a No. 6 seed. That road through the AFC culminated with a victory in Denver, who was 9-0 at home at that point.

Perhaps fittingly, in the Patriots loss the year prior, the Steelers fell behind 3-0, 10-0, 10-3, 17-3, and finally 24-3 at halftime in a game they eventually lost 41-27. In Denver, it was the perfect polar opposite, as Pittsburgh went up in that same scoring sequence and similarly led 24-3 at halftime as they went on to win the AFC title game, 34-17.

2006 Indianapolis Colts: The 38-34 bookend

In somewhat similar fashion to the 2003 Patriots, oddly enough, it was a loss to those 2003 Patriots that proved symbolic for this Colts team as Peyton Manning would finally earn his first Super Bowl ring.

In Week 13 of the ’03 season in a game in Indianapolis, New England went up 31-10 before Indy roared back to tie the game at 31-31. Trailing 38-34 in the closing seconds, the Colts failed to convert on four plays from the goal line as the Patriots held on in a win that ended up getting them homefield advantage in the AFC Championship Game — where they beat the Colts again, 24-14. In 2006, it was a Colts regular season win in New England that turned out to be the difference in homefield in the title game.

Three years later, the Patriots again ran out to a big lead, 21-3, before the Colts again stormed back to tie it. The teams again went back and forth after that until the final two minutes, when Indy found itself on the goal line trailing 34-31. Three Joseph Addai runs — the last one a TD — gave the Colts a 38-34 lead that they would hold on to with a Marlin Jackson interception.

This, though, actually was not the only symmetrical moment in this game. After New England scored its first touchdown on an offensive fumble recovery by an offensive lineman in the end zone, the Colts scored the game-tying touchdown early in the fourth quarter the same way when Jeff Saturday recovered a loose ball in the end zone.

2011 Giants: Deja vu all over again

The entire Giants postseason in 2011 was basically symmetrical to 2007. For that matter, parts of the regular season were, too. Both teams lost in Week 15 at home to Washington in an uninspiring game that left people wondering if they would be a true contender. The Giants had to win their last two games, over the Jets and Cowboys, to secure the NFC East crown before another epic postseason run began.

First, it was a win over an NFC South team, this time the Falcons. Then, a visit to Green Bay, who they had beaten in the 2007 NFC Championship Game. Then, it was an overtime road win in the NFC title game to advance to the Super Bowl where, once again, they would face the Patriots.

Four years after David Tyree’s helmet catch propelled New York’s game-winning drive, Mario Manningham’s incredible tightrope catch on the sideline was the catalyst for another Super Bowl-clinching march for Eli Manning. As he did in Super Bowl XLII, Manning’s heroics secured him a second Super Bowl MVP award.

2014 Patriots: Symmetry ain’t Lion

This may feel like a stretch, but I remember watching the end of this Week 12 game at the time and thinking this was some sort of special sign for New England, which had been waiting a decade at this point for another Super Bowl win.

The Patriots led the Lions at home, 27-9, at the two-minute warning. On a fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line, Bill Belichick elected to kick a field goal, which was good from 20 yards out. However, an unnecessary roughness penalty on Detroit gave Belichick a decision — take the points off the board and potentially run out the clock (Detroit was out of timeouts), or take the points and kick off.

Did Belichick know the significance of the score here? Knowing him it wouldn’t be a surprise, but it was exactly 14 years to the day of Tom Brady’s first-ever NFL game in which he came in for mop-up duty of a Thanksgiving Day loss in Detroit… by a score of — you guessed it — 34-9.

So Belichick not only took the points off the board, but ran LeGarrette Blount on the next play, and sure enough Blount scored to make it 34-9. Detroit failed to score on its final drive (even kneeling on the final play) to secure the symbolic 34-9 win for the Patriots.

In Super Bowl XLIX, remembered of course for Malcolm Butler’s game-sealing interception at the goal line, the Patriots — whose first four Super Bowls were all decided by exactly three points — flipped the script from their only four-point Super Bowl, a loss to the Giants three years prior, with a 28-24 win.