Seattle Seahawks and the 25 Biggest Postseason Surprises Ever
Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs? It's true. And it's borderline absurd.
They finished the season 7-9 and are the first team in NFL history to make the postseason with a sub-.500 record.
But they aren't the first such team to qualify for the playoffs after finishing a mediocre regular season.
We've selected the top 25 surprise playoff teams in sports history.
Some of these are stunners just because the team made the playoffs. Some are stunners because of what that surprising team did in the playoffs.
Let the debate begin.
No. 25: 2001 New England Patriots
1 of 25
The 2001 New England Patriots are best remembered for two things:
1) Beginning a dynasty that produced three world championships and still continues today.
3) Turning Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in NFL legends.
And although they won the AFC East and were a two-seed, their championship run was fairly surprising.
In the middle of losing franchise quarterback Drew Bledsoe, they fell to 1-3 and on Thanksgiving Day they were only 5-5. Without a 20-13 win on the final Sunday of the regular season over Miami, they would have been a Wild Card. They were tied with three other teams for the sixth best record at 11-5.
In the playoffs, they should have lost to the Raiders (down 13-3 in the fouth quarter, "Tuck Rule," Vinatieri's two snow kicks) only to come back and win.
Then they were double-digit underdogs on the road to top-seeded Pittsburgh (a game in which Tom Brady was injured and rusty old Drew Bledsoe threw a critical touchdown in relief).
And finally they completed one of the greatest upsets in Super Bowl history, defeating the mighty St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl.
No. 24: 2000 Baltimore Ravens
2 of 25
Phil Mickelson wouldn't say it was a surprise. Neither would those teams who played against Ray Lewis and the incredible Ravens defense. After all, they did finish 12-4.
But a team that cannot score a touchdown for an entire month winning the Super Bowl? That is unheard of.
After a 15-10 Week Six win that featured five Matt Stover field goals and nothing else, the Ravens lost three straight, scoring a grand total of 15 points on five more Stover field goals. At that point, how good was Mickelson feeling about that bet?
They went on to win seven straight, but because of their swoon, they only earned a Wild Card. That didn't stop them from going to top-seeded Tennessee and winning then dominating the Raiders in Oakland.
They completed a remarkable season with a pasting of the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV.
No. 23: 1992 Buffalo Bills
3 of 25
It's hard to consider a team that has won back-to-back conference championships a surprise. But the 1992 Buffalo Bills were one nonetheless.
That team backed into the playoffs with three losses in their last five games, including being crushed by the Houston Oilers 27-3 in the regular season finale. They lost the AFC East to Miami by tie-breaker.
Worse than anything, however, Jim Kelly was injured in that defeat and they had to go into the playoffs with Frank Reich at quarterback.
The real surprise began in the second half of their Wild Card rematch against the Oilers a week later.
Behind 35-3 (and without Thurman Thomas and Cornelius Bennett as well) Reirch led them to an overtime win. They went to Pittbsburgh and crushed the top-seeded Steelers 24-3. Then in Miami, in the AFC Championship Game, with Kelly back under center, they crushed Dan Marino and the Dolphins, 29-10.
The only thing more surprising than that: how badly they were thumped by the Cowboys in Super Bowl XXVII: 52-17.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
No. 22: 1993-94 Vancouver Canucks
4 of 25
The Canucks and star right winger Pavel Bure finished the 1993-94 regular season with four losses in six games and a pretty average 41-40-3 record.
Despite finishing just a game over .500 they earned a spot in the playoffs, (and actually finished with only a win fewer than division champion Calgary). But as the seventh-seed, they had a long road to the title.
Somehow they upset the Flames in a seven-game series and then defeated Dallas (four games to one) and Toronto (four games to one) to reach the Stanley Cup Finals.
In that classic series, they just barely lost to the New York Rangers, falling in a winner-take-all Game Seven, 3-2 at Madison Square Gardens.
No. 21: 2007 Colorado Rockies
5 of 25
The Rockies have never won a division title. But they came the closest back in 2007, missing out on the NL West by just a half game.
Still, just reaching the postseason seemed like an impossibility just a few months back.
In late June they suffered an eight game losing streak, and by late August losing six of eight dropped them to just game over .500.
But they went 20-8 in October, then won their first seven games of the postseason, sweeping the NL East chamion Phillies and NL West Diamondbacks.
The Red Sox served them a case of their own medicine in the World Series, sweeping the Rockies.
No. 20: 1998-99 Buffalo Sabres
6 of 25
The Sabres endured a terrible stretch during the 1998-99 season: at one point in late December, January, and early February, they went 5-11-3 to fall behind in the race for the Northeast division.
And although Lindy Ruff's team finished with a good overall record (37-28-17) that was only good enough for fourth place.
Of the 27 teams in the NHL, 10 had more wins than Buffalo. But led by Dominik Hasek, they swept Ottawa in the opening round and toppled division rivals Boston and Toronto to reach their first Stanley Cup Finals in nearly 20 years.
No. 19: 2003 Florida Marlins
7 of 25
Having won a shocking World Series just six seasons earlier, maybe the 2003 Florida Marlins shouldn't have been such a big surprise.
But with a completely revamped team (and revamped with mostly youngsters rather than the high-priced free agent veterans of 1997) the Marlins won the Wild Card.
Still, they finished 10 games behind the division-winning Braves then faced the 100-win San Francisco Giants.
The pitching staff held Barry Bonds in check, a year after his incredible 2002 postseason, then came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Cubs.
And by toppling the Yankees in the World Series, they were one of the more incredibly surprising World Series champions in recent memory.
All that with a manager, Jack McKeon, who was brought in in May (after two years away from the game) after a 16-22 start.
No. 18: 1979 Los Angeles Rams
8 of 25
Probably the first great surprise of the Super Bowl era, the 1979 Rams overcame quite a bit to reach a date in the Rose Bowl with the dynastic Pittsburgh Steelers.
A midseason swoon in which they lost four of five games dropped Ray Malavasi's team to 5-6 and despite a strong December, they only won the NFC West and qualified for the playoffs because the New Orleans Saints tumbled down the stretch.
And with former Heisman Trophy winner Pat Haden injured, they turned to 25-year-old Vince Ferragamo, who had never started a game in his career.
But thanks to a fourth quarter touchdown pass from Ferragamo, the Rams stunned Dallas (Roger Staubach's last game), then shutout the NFC Central Champion Buccaneers in Tampa Bay.
And when they were ahead 19-17 in the fourth quarter, the Rams almost pulled off a Namath-like upset over the Steelers in Super Bowl XIV, before two touchdowns by Terry Bradshaw ended their Cinderella run.
No. 17: 2003-04 Detroit Pistons
9 of 25
You wouldn't really expect a playoff team, let alone an NBA Finals champion, to play the way the Detroit Pistons did during the regular season.
At two separate points in the regular season, Larry Browns team looked downright bad, losing two of nine in December, and eight of nine six weeks later.
A 16-3 finish earned the Pistons a three seed and they eventually defeated the top two seeds, Indiana and New Jersey, before shocking the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.
With the three-time champion Lakers (who added Karl Malone and Gary Payton to Kobe and Shaq), MVP Kevin Garnett leading the Timberwolves to the NBA's best record, the Spurs, Mavericks, and Heat all favorites once the playoffs began, the superstar-less Pistons winning the title was a major surprise.
No. 16: 1985 Cleveland Browns
10 of 25
A year before they began their heartbreaking string of AFC Championship Game losses to John Elway's Denver Broncos, the Browns rebounded from a 5-11 season in 1984 to win the AFC Central.
But they weren't exactly an elite team along the way.
In Marty Schottenheimer's first full seasons as an NFL head coach, the Browns finished 8-8, at one point losing four consecutive games.
They backed into the playoffs with losses in two of their final three games, and on the last day of the regular season, they only clinched the division because the Steelers lost four of their last five and the Bengals lost their last two.
They were an even bigger surprise a week later, when they nearly upset Dan Marino and the defending AFC Champion Miami Dolphins in the first round of the playoffs.
Led by Bernie Kosar and Earnest Byner, the Browns were ahead 21-3 in the third quarter until Marino led the Dolphins to a great 24-21 comeback win.
No. 15: 1997 Cleveland Indians
11 of 25
After experiencing unprecedented success in 1995 (World Series) and 1996 (99 wins), the Cleveland Indians began reverting to their old ways.
They opened the 1997 season with a 12-13 record, barely played .500 after the All Star break, and finished the regular season with three wins in nine games. They also benefited from the Chicago White Sox (who were only a few games back in the AL Central) great trade-deadline fire sale.
At 85-76, they were 10 games behind the AL Wild Card winning New York Yankees, whom they edged out in the ALDS. Then, in the ALCS, Mike Hargrove's team upset the Orioles to reach the World Series.
And after taking a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning of Game Seven, they collapsed to give the Florida Marlins the 1997 World Series championship.
No. 14: 2009 New York Jets
12 of 25
When Rex Ryan addressed the media following a 10-7 home loss to Atlanta in Week 15, he didn't even know that the Jets still had a shot at the postseason.
"We're obviously out of the playoffs, and that's unfortunate," the rookie head coach said.
Of course Ryan was wrong. The dominoes fell into place (mainly a Broncos loss and the Colts laying down in the final two weeks), the Jets won their last two games to finish 9-7, and New York earned the wild card.
A win in Cincinnati over the AFC North champion Bengals and a stunning 17-14 victory in San Diego over the Chargers sent New York to the AFC Title game where they held a narrow halftime lead over the once 14-0 Colts before their miracle train ran out of steam.
No. 13: 1995 Indianapolis Colts
13 of 25
After a surprising 4-2 start to the 1995 season, three losses in a four-week midseason stretch nearly spoiled the hopes of a Colts franchise that had reached the postseason once since 1977.
So did two losses in three weeks to open up December. But on a Saturday, they came back in the second half against New England to win in Week 17 and put themselves in position to win a Wild Card.
The next day, the Denver Broncos, lost their sixth straight game, and Seattle fell to Kansas City letting the Colts sneak into the postseason as a 9-7 wild card.
They trampled the Chargers in the opening round then defeated the top seeded Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead, and (had Aaron Bailey been able to hang on to Jim Harbaugh's Hail Mary) nearly upset Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game.
No. 12: 1990 Cincinnati Reds
14 of 25
Lou Piniella's Reds tore through the beginning of the 1990 MLB season, posting a 50-29 record. But after the All Star break, Cincinnati was actually one game under .500: 41 wins, 42 losses.
They still earned the NL West title by five games. And after somewhat limping to the finish line, the Reds had a date with the mighty Pittsburgh Pirates, led by MVP Barry Bonds and Cy Young winner Doug Drabek.
The Reds won in a six game series only to face an even bigger challenge in the World Series, the reigning world champion and 103-win Oakland A's.
In one of the most stunning upsets, Jose Rijo and the Nasty Boys swept Oakland, allowing just eight runs in four games.
No. 11: 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers
15 of 25
Although they were favored to win Super Bowl XL against the Seattle Seahawks, the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers trip to Ford Field in Detroit was more than unlikely just a few weeks earlier.
After a 15-1 record and a trip to the AFC title game in 2004, the Steelers were in position to repeat as AFC North champs with a 7-2 start. But they lost three in a row, the third a crushing home loss to Cincinnati that ultimately cost them the division title.
At 7-5 they needed to win out and get a few breaks just to qualify to the tournament. Everything fell into place but as the sixth seed, they had an almost impossible road the Super Bowl: road games against three division winners, including Indianpolis, who was chasing a perfect season as late as Week 15.
They won all three games qualified for Super Bowl XL and earned "one for the thumb."
No. 10: 1985 New England Patriots
16 of 25
The 1985 New England Patriots had far less talent and far lower expectations than the Pittsburgh Steelers did two decades later. Their overall record in the previous four seasons: 24 wins, 33 losses.
But first year head coach Raymond Berry's team rebounded from a 2-3 start to earn a wild card spot.
And they became the first team ever to win three road playoff games in a single season. After a win in the Meadowlands over the Jets, they edged out league MVP Marcus Allen and the Los Angeles Raiders on the road, then went to Miami and defeated Dan Marino's Dolphins to appear in Super Bowl XX.
Although they were annihilated in Super Bowl XX by the Bears, their appearance in New Orleans was not exactly expected by the so-called experts.
No. 9: 2008 San Diego Chargers
17 of 25
The San Diego Chargers had finished 14-2 in 2006 and reached the AFC Championship Game a year later, only losing by nine to the undefeated New England Patriots.
But they were a major disappointment early in the 2008 season. They dropped their first two games, entered their bye week 3-5, and soon endured a three game losing streak to sit at 4-8 with four to play.
Since they trailed the Denver Broncos by three games with four to play, a trip to the playoffs seemed impossible. That changed when the Broncos lost two in a row to set up a winner-takes-the-division Week 17 showdown between the two AFC West rivals.
San Diego walloped Denver 52-21 and earned a third straight division title. After a victory over the Colts they lost in the second round to the Steelers to finish the season at 9-9.
No. 8: 1999 New York Knicks
18 of 25
The strike-shortened 50-game schedule of the 1999 NBA season saw nine teams win 30 games or more. With Patrick Ewing sidelined part of the time because of an Achilles tendon injury, the Knicks were not one of those teams.
A slightly over .500 record (27-23) landed New York just an eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, setting up a daunting first-round matchup with former Knick coach Pat Riley's Heat.
In a remarkable five-game series, they ousted Miami, then beat the Hawks, and stunned Reggie Miller's Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The incredible run ultimately died in the Finals, when they were defeated in a five-game series by San Antonio.
No. 7: 2007 New York Giants
19 of 25
The suddenly Tiki Barber-less New York Giants struggled at the outset of 2007, losing their first two game, surrendering 80 points combined. But they recovered with six wins in a row to seemingly right the ship. (Does this sound familiar?)
Then, three losses in six games cost them a shot at the division title. But they went toe-to-toe with New England in Week 17 to regain some momentum.
Road wins over division champion Tampa Bay, top seeded Dallas, and division champion Green Bay landed them in Super Bowl XLII.
There, they upset the undefeated Patriots 17-0 to win the most improbably Super Bowl title in 39 years.
No. 6: 1984-85 Villanova Wildcats
20 of 25
Rollie Massimino's Wilcats finished their regular season schedule with a decent record: 18-9. But after a first round win in the Big East tournament, they were crushed by St. John's 89-74, to finish their conference schedule with a less than stellar 11-8 record in-conference.
That earned them an eight seed in the NCAA tournament. For whatever reason, that didn't bother Ed Pinkney and Dwayne McClain and the rest of the team.
After edging out Dayton by a bucket, they upset the top-seeded Michigan Wolverines, then ACC elites Maryland and North Carolina to reach the Final Four.
In Lexington, they continued to surprise the nation, defeating Memphis State, then stunning Patrick Ewing and the Georgetown Hoyas.
No. 5: 1996 Jacksonville Jaguars
21 of 25
Playoff teams usually don't allow more points than they score. And that is one of the reasons why the Jacksonville Jaguars only barely qualified for the playoffs in 1996.
When they entered the Bye Week they were actually 3-6, quite understandable for a second-year expansion team. And despite a five-game winning streak to close out the regular season, they only qualified as a wild card because the Falcons Morten Anderson (the all-time leader in field goals) missed a 31-yarder on the final play against Jacksonville.
The Jags and Tom Coughlin took full advantage of their good fortune. Behind Mark Brunell and a re-born Natrone Means, the Jags went to Buffalo and stunned the Bills. A week later, they pulled off the season's biggest upset, defeating the top-seeded 13-3 Denver Broncos in Mile High.
Only a late fumble in Foxborough kept Jacksonville from an incredible berth in Super Bowl XXXI.
No. 4: 1973 New York Mets
22 of 25
Although it happens routinely in the NBA and NHL and has occurred a few times in the NFL, no major league baseball team has ever reached the postseason without a winning record.
The 1973 New York Mets came as close as anyone ever had to snapping that fact.
Starting out 42-51 they found themselves in sixth place in the NL East as late as August 30.
Under manager Yogi Berra they climbed into fourth place with only 10 games to play. They won eight of those games, finished 82-79 and in the NLCS, stunned the Cincinnati Reds, who had won 17 more regular season games than the Mets.
More surprising: they forced the two-reigning World Champion Oakland A's to a Game Seven in the World Series, only losing because of a four-run third inning.
No. 3: 2005-06 George Mason Patriots
23 of 25
The Patriots may have finished the regular season with a 22-6 record but they were bounced in the semi-finals of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament, losing to Hofstra. Considering that Hofstra didn't even win the overall tournament (UNC Wilmington did) the Patriots weren't really expected to do much in the NCAA tournament.
But the 11th seed stunned Michigan State in the opening round, then did the same to North Carolina to reach the Sweet Sixteen. A win over Wichita State set up a matchup with UCONN, the region's top seed and the fourth-ranked team in the nation.
Jim Larranaga's team toppled the Huskies to reach the Final Four, then fell to eventual national champion Florida.
Still, this team was the greatest Cinderella in the history of college sports.
No. 2: 2006 St. Louis Cardinals
24 of 25
With Albert Pujols, the Cards bolted out of the gate with a 17-8 mark in April and a 48-39 record at the All Star Break.
But beginning in August they stopped playing like a division champion, posting a 25-31 record. In late September, they nearly squandered a seven-game lead over Houston, losing seven in a row.
They ultimately took the NL Central, but certainly backed into the division crown.
Behind Chris Carpenter they won the NLDS over San Diego, then edged out the Mets in a seven-game NLCS.
And with a four-game-to-one triumph in the World Series over Detroit, they pulled off one of the greatest fall finishes in Major League history.
No. 1: 2008 Arizona Cardinals
25 of 25
29 years after second-year head coach Ray Malavasi led the 9-7 Los Angeles Rams to a shocking Super Bowl appearance (and near win) against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Arizona Cardinals followed in their footsteps.
With second-year head coach Ken Wisenhunt and Kurt Warner taking over for an ineffective Matt Leinart, the Cardinals got off to a great 7-3 start to the 2008 season (aside from at 56-35 Week Four shalacking at the hands of Brett Favre's New York Jets)
But they soon lost four of five games, the last a ridiculous 47-7 loss to the Tom Brady-less Patriots in snowy New England. Anyone who watched that game could not possibly think they were a Super Bowl contender.
A win in Week 17 over Seattle earned them the NFC West, and they swept through the NFC as a fourth-seeded division champion, defeating Atlanta, Carolina, and Philadelphia.
And just like those 1979 Rams, they held a narrow fourth quarter lead over Pittsburgh, thanks to a Warner-to-Larry Fitzgerald touchdown pass.
The Steelers came back to win in the end, 27-23, but that Cardinals team put together the most stunning, improbably run to and through the postseason ever.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Post-June 1 Trade Candidates ☎️")
.JPG?w=600 "TO Talks Cowboys Relationship")
.jpg?w=600 "Taylor Heinicke Retiring")
.jpg?w=600 "49ers OC Hypes Mike Evans 🤩")