Yup, sometimes teams need to have a game like that for a reality check. I mean, they were coming off a bye facing a second year expansion team, but they didn't just lose, they got THUMPED in front of their own crowd. I think something similar happened with the Giants a couple years ago; if they hadn't had to play an extra game, then win at Dallas and Lambeau (in January, something no one else has ever done) I don't think they'd have been playing at the level needed to beat the Pats. That one and the '97 game were easily the best Super Bowls of my 35 year old memory, not the annihilations so common, but a true slug fest from start to finish between two great teams. I put them right up there with Super Bowls V and X.

Thanks, and it was kinda like that, too. As I saw someone else point out while digging all that stuff up, in an era where the AFC has been so dominant younger folks tend to forget that until 1997 the NFC OWNED the Super Bowl. When Denver won as a wildcard they were the first wildcard Champ since the 1980 Raiders--and the first AFC winner since the '82 Raiders; those were the only AFC victories between the Steel Curtains last and Denvers first. In '97 I personally was coming off two straight seasons where I'd picked the Super Bowl Champ in preseason (actually, after the previous NFC Championship; I knew the Cowboys would be out for blood after SF stopped their threepeat, and knew they wouldn't be able to stop the Pack after the last gasp of their dynasty beat them for a trip to SB XXX. ) So when I looked around and Denver seemed the best team I thought, Well, the AFC hasn't won in 15 years; I guess this will be a real test.... Sadly, my streak was stopped by the Oilers in '99 (as a native Houstonian I really did know better, should've expected they'd pull the crap they did in the Super Bowl, but I couldn't help myself. )