Super Bowl LII preparations are underway in Minneapolis, where the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots will clash a week from Sunday.
As our coverage begins to pick up steam, let’s contextualize the big game with some of the most interesting, relevant and/or important statistics that surround it.
The Patriots are looking to win their sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy. They would tie the Steelers for most all-time Super Bowl wins. The Cowboys and 49ers have each won five.
The Eagles are looking to become the 20th NFL franchise to win a Super Bowl. Only Philly, the Vikings, Bills, Lions, Falcons, Chargers and Titans have been around for the entire Super Bowl era without winning.
Teams which have won the conference championship game by 30 or more points are 2-6 in the Super Bowl. The only teams that didn’t suffer from premature domination? The 1991 Redskins crushed the Lions in the NFC title game, then handily defeated the Bills in Super Bowl XXVI. And the 2014 Patriots hammered the Colts in the AFC title game, then edged the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. Philadelphia won this year’s NFL championship game by 31 points.
The Eagles are looking to avoid becoming the third team to play in three-plus Super Bowls without a win. Buffalo and Minnesota are both 0-4.
In seven Super Bowls with Tom Brady, the Patriots have scored just 12 more points than they’ve allowed. Their most lopsided victory? A six-point win over the Atlanta Falcons, which came in overtime after they overcame a 28-3 deficit.
If the Patriots win, Bill Belichick will own eight Super Bowl rings. Nobody else on the planet has more than seven. Belichick could say that he’s won 15 percent of all the Super Bowls ever played.
At 40, Brady is the oldest starting quarterback in Super Bowl history. He’ll become the first-ever non-kicker to play in a Super Bowl in his 40s.
Brady can become the first player in NFL history to win Super Bowl MVP five times. Nobody but him has won it four times.
In the last four years, the Patriots are 3-0 when trailing by 10-plus points in the fourth quarter of a playoff game. During that same span, the rest of the league is 2-29 under those circumstances.
A quarterback has never led the league in passing yards and won the Super Bowl in the same year. Brady led the NFL with 4,577 passing yards this season.
League MVPs are 0-8 when playing in the Super Bowl this century. So maybe Brady would prefer not to win his third career MVP award next weekend?
The Patriots are trying to become the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls since 2004. That’s when the Patriots beat the Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX.
Eagles-Patriots is the sixth Super Bowl rematch in NFL history. That includes a double-rematch between the Cowboys and Steelers. The team that won the first meeting won the second meeting in four of the first five. The Redskins are the only team to win a Super Bowl rematch after losing the first meeting (Dolphins).
Four of the last five Super Bowls have featured two top seeds. In the previous 19 years, top seeds met only once.
