Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons lost Super Bowl LI to Tom Brady and the New England Pats because they gave up a 28-3 lead.
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People refer to some NFL losses as legendary by simply saying they are legendary.
The game of ice. The road. The Meadowlands have a miracle. The reception was perfect.
Or even, 28-3.
The Atlanta Falcons' collapse in the third quarter of Super Bowl LI led to the New England Pats winning their fifth championship.
A loss like that will leave a legacy that can last a long time. It hurts when the Falcons play the Pats on Thursday night at 8:20 p.m. The network is on the FOX/NFL Network.
What is the most heartbreaking loss for each franchise?
Click a team below to relive the gory details of some of the league's most famous losses.
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AARI, BAL, BUF, CAR, CHI, CIN.
DAL, DEN, DET, GB, HOU, IND.
LAR, MIA, and JAX are all part of the same family.
No, NYG, NYJ, PHI, PIT, SF.
Sea, TEN, and WSH are abbreviations.
The AFC EAST.
The phrase "wide right" became part of the lore of the National Football League when Scott Norwood missed a kick in Super Bowl XXV.
The Buffalo Bills.
The New York Giants played the Buffalo Bills.
The stadium is named after the city of Tampa.
"Wide right" is a phrase that Bills fans don't like to hear after a missed field goal. The first of four straight Super Bowl losses was the result of the missed kick. This contest was the closest the Bills could get to a title, making it even more heartbreaking. Since those losses, Buffalo has been working to get back to the big game.
The Miami Dolphins.
The Miami Dolphins played the Jacksonville Jaguars in the divisional round.
Alltel Stadium is in Jacksonville.
The fact that the Dolphins lost to the Jags in their fifth year of existence is not the only reason. The margin of defeat for Miami in the playoffs was the worst since 1940 and the second-worst in the history of the league. Dan Marino's final game in the National Football League ended in disgrace, with both of those facts occurring.
The New England team.
The New England and Oakland Raiders played each other.
The Oakland Coliseum.
The Raiders faced third-and-18 from their own 28 with just over a minute to play, as the Pats led 21-17. When Ken Stabler's pass fell incomplete, the Pats appeared to be one play away from closing things out, but a questionable roughing the passer call from referee Ben Dreith on Ray "Sugar Bear" Hamilton instead gave the Raiders new life. Hamilton said it was aphantom bogus call. The Raiders scored with 10 seconds left to win.
The New York Jets.
The New York Jets and the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing for the title.
The field is named after the city of Pittsburgh.
The Jets went into Pittsburgh thinking they were going to the Super Bowl after upsetting Manning and Brady. After the New England win, Bart Scott's "Can't wait!" rant became the rallying cry. They fell behind 24-0 but fought back with 19 unanswered points, closing to within five with three minutes to go. They only needed a stop to get a chance to win, but they couldn't get the ball back. The Jets thought they'd get another chance at a Super Bowl with a young quarterback and a popular coach. That hasn't happened. They haven't been back to the playoffs since.
AFC North.
The Denver Broncos beat the Cleveland Browns in the 1987 playoffs thanks to "The Drive."
The Baltimore Ravens.
The Baltimore Ravens will play the New England Pats in the 2012 playoffs.
Gillette Stadium is in Massachusetts.
The Ravens had two chances to win the game in the final 22 seconds, but they missed them. Lee Evans had the winning, 14-yard touchdown pass from Joe Flacco slapped out of his hands in the end zone. Billy Cundiff missed a field goal that could have sent the game into overtime. Suggs said that they fell 15 seconds from having it. Please believe that it won't happen again. The Ravens redeemed themselves in the next season by beating the Pats in the Superbowl.
The Cincinnati team is called the Cincinnati team.
The San Francisco 49ers played the Cincinnati Bengals.
The stadium is in Miami.
The 49ers needed to win their first Super Bowl in order to stop the Bengals. Joe Montana had other plans. The quarterback threw a 10-yard touchdown pass with 34 seconds left in the game. The 49ers won 20-16, while the Bengals didn't make it to the Super Bowl. Montana was passing on that drive. Boomer Esiason said after the game that losing like that was the worst.
The Cleveland Browns are a team.
The Cleveland and Denver Broncos played in the 1987 playoffs.
The stadium is in Cleveland.
It's still referred to as "The Drive" in Cleveland. The team seemed destined to go to their first Super Bowl after holding a 20-13 lead. The Broncos had the ball at their own 2-yard line. John Elway guided the Broncos down the field. He found Mark Jackson for a game-tying, 5-yard touchdown in the waning seconds. The Broncos won in overtime. The following year, Cleveland's season ended in the playoffs again, this time in Denver. This time it was because of "The Fumble", as the turnover in front of the Denver goal line late in the fourth quarter kept the Cleveland Browns out of the Super Bowl.
The Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers will play in the Super Bowl.
The AT&T Stadium is in Arlington, Texas.
Ben Roethlisberger's lone Super Bowl loss, coming against the Packers, is the most painful of the recent heartbreakers for the Pittsburgh fans. With 7:34 left in the game, the Steelers were down by three points, but rebounded from a 21-7 halftime deficit. Crosby kicked a field goal and Roethlisberger threw three incompletions on the final drive to seal the defeat for the Packers.
The football team from the South.
Kevin Dyson was close to scoring a touchdown on the last play of the Super Bowl.
The Houston Texans.
The Houston Texans will play the Kansas City Chiefs.
The stadium is in Kansas City.
The Texans were on the verge of their first appearance in the playoffs when they were up 24-0. A fake punt turned into a Kansas City touchdown and the game was over. The Chiefs scored 28 points in the second quarter and led at the half. The Houston Texans scored one touchdown in the last 40 minutes of the game, and the Kansas City Chiefs scored 51 points in the game.
The Indianapolis Colts.
The Indianapolis Colts played the Pittsburgh Steelers in the divisional round.
The dome is in Indianapolis.
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The Colts had all the pieces in all three areas of football and this was the best team of the Manning era. The Colts were heavily favored to win the game and the Super Bowl because they fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter. The last five minutes were unforgettable. NickHarper appeared to be on his way for a touchdown after he recovered a fumbled ball, but he was indecisive in his running. Ben Roethlisberger was able to trip upHarper. Manning could be seen on television saying, "Missed it!", after kicker Mike Vanderjagt missed a game-tying 46-yard field goal. "It's disbelief," he said. Everything seemed to be in our favor. I guess the Lord forgot about the football team.
The Jacksonville Jags.
The Jacksonville Jaguars will play the New England patriots in the playoffs.
Gillette Stadium is in Massachusetts.
Two plays in particular cost the Jags a trip to the Super Bowl as they had a 10-point fourth-quarter lead. The trick play that Danny Amendola threw to Dion Lewis was broken up by Myles Jack, who ran Lewis down after a 22-yard gain and ripped the ball out of his grasp. Jack got up and headed for the end zone, but the play was stopped because officials blew the play dead. The officials ruled that Jack was down by contact, and the Jags took over on their own 33 yard line. Tom Brady converted a third-and-18 with a 21-yard pass to Danny Amendola when the Pats got the ball back. The Pats scored a touchdown to cut the lead to 20-17 with 8:44 to play, and then scored the go-ahead touchdown on their next drive.
The TennesseeTitans are a football team.
The Super Bowl was played on January 30, 2000.
The Georgia Dome is in Atlanta.
The Rams scored three field goals in the first half. The Rams scored their first touchdown in the third quarter to take a 16-0 lead, but Tennessee scored 16 unanswered points to tie the score. It was the first time in Super Bowl history that a team overcame a large deficit. Kurt Warner threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce. Six seconds were left when the Titans drove to the 10-yard line. Rams LB Mike Jones tackled Kevin Dyson one yard short of the goal line to prevent a potential game-tying touchdown.
The area of the AFC West.
There is a.jpg.
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The Denver Broncos.
The Denver Broncos played the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1997.
The stadium is in Denver.
The 38-35 overtime loss to the Ravens in the playoffs and the 34-17 loss to the Pats in the playoffs were soul-crushing to many of the team's faithful. The Broncos had finished tied for the best record in the league and were poised to get John Elway his first Super Bowl win. "That game made us promise ourselves, the vets on that team, we would never let that happen again -- and we won two in a row," said Shannon Sharpe.
The Kansas City Chiefs.
The Kansas City Chiefs played the Indianapolis Colts.
The stadium is in Kansas City.
Nobody saw this coming. The Chiefs were the top seed in the playoffs after they were 13-3 in the regular season. The Chiefs were looking forward to their game against the Steelers, as they were a big favorite over the Colts. It never happened. The weather was so cold that the Chiefs were shocked by it, and the Colts won 10-7. The last field goal the Chiefs missed was in the final minute.
The Las Vegas Raiders.
The Oakland Raiders played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl.
The stadium is in San Diego.
There are many games to choose from. Is the reception good? Tuck rule? Is it true that Carr has a broken leg? The Raiders have only been to the playoffs once since the game was played nearly two decades ago. All-Pro center Barret Robbins went AWOL, Rich Gannon threw three pick-sixes and Jon Gruden was the coach of the Raiders. Lincoln Kennedy, a former right tackle, said that there was only one coach on the planet who could have beaten us that day. The Raiders have changed since then.
The Los Angeles Clippers.
The San Diego and Oakland Raiders played in the 1981 playoffs.
Jack Murphy Stadium is in San Diego.
Dan Fouts was the all-time leading passer for the Bolts, but he never made the Super Bowl. The team lost in the divisional round. It was the 1980 game that people point out because it was to the Raiders, Fouts threw for 336 yards and the Bolts held Oakland to six points in the second half. They lost by big margins in the championship game the next two years, so 1980 was their closest and most heartbreaking defeat.
The NFC EAST.
The 'Ice Bowl' was the 1967 NFL Championship Game between the Cowboys and Packers, which had a game-time wind chill of minus-48 degrees.
The Dallas Cowboys.
The Dallas Cowboys played the Green Bay Packers.
Lambeau Field is in Green Bay.
The Ice Bowl is one of the most historic games in the history of the game, and the Cowboys can choose from a lot of games. The temperature was minus-15 degrees with a wind chill factor of minus-48. The Packers faced a third-and-goal from the Dallas 1-yard line late in the fourth quarter, after the Cowboys held a 17-14 lead. He convinced Vince that a quarterback sneak would work. He won the game with 13 seconds to play. The Cowboys lost in the title game for the second year in a row.
The New York Giants.
The New York Giants played the San Francisco 49ers.
3Com Park is in San Francisco.
There are lots of options for the Giants, but the key word is "heartbreaking." There is nothing better than blowing a big lead in a playoff game. The Giants were led by Jim Fassel in the 2002 season. They led 38-14 late in the third quarter. It was heartbreaking to have it end on a bad snap by Junkin on a potential winning field goal. The NFL admitted after the game that there should have been pass interference when holder Matt Allen threw the ball to Rich Seubert.
The Philadelphia Eagles.
The Philadelphia Eagles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played in the 2003 playoffs.
Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium.
The Eagles were supposed to win it all. They had beaten the Bucs in the playoffs in both of the previous seasons, and entered the playoffs as the top seed. When the temperature was under 40 degrees in Philadelphia, the game was lost. The Eagles jumped out to a 7-1 lead after Brian Mitchell returned a kick 70 yards for a touchdown, but the Bucs dominated the rest of the way, handing the Eagles a 27-10 loss and the worst stomach punch in franchise history.
Washington football team
The Washington vs Dallas Cowboys game was played in 1979.
Texas Stadium is in Irving.
Washington was expected to finish last in the conference. If it could win at Dallas, it would win the division and not make the playoffs. Washington led 17-0 in the first half, then fell behind and took a 34-21 lead with seven minutes remaining. Roger Staubach threw two touchdown passes, including an eight-yard game-winner with 45 seconds left, to lead Dallas to a victory. Harvey Martin delivered a wreath to the Washington locker room after the game. Washington had called time with 14 seconds left to kick a field goal in a 34-20 win over Martin. Washington did not make the playoffs again until 1982, six years after it last did, because Dallas got its revenge.
The north is called the NFC North.
The Bears are from Chicago.
The Chicago Bears played the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl.
The stadium is in South Florida.
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The Bears were 13-3 and appeared to be in good shape to win their first Super Bowl title since 1985. Hester returned the opening kick 92 yards for a touchdown and the Bears had a storybook start to the game. The Bears fell behind late in the first half and never recovered after a number of Rex Grossman turnovers. The Bears haven't been back to a Super Bowl since.
The Detroit Lions.
The Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers will play each other.
Ford Field is in Detroit.
There are many heartbreaking and bizarre moments in the Lions' history. The first team in NFL history to lose twice in a season on 50-yard field goals on the final play of regulation is this season's team. The loss to the Packers in December of 2015 sticks out because of the 61-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Richard. It was the longest game-winning, game-ending Hail Mary in the history of the NFL, and it lifted the Packers to a stunning 27-23 victory.
The Green Bay Packers.
The Packers played the 49ers in the wild-card round.
3com Park is in San Francisco.
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It was the end of a potential Packers dynasty. They had come off two straight Super Bowls, a win and a loss, and seemed poised for a third, when Jerry Rice fumbled with less than 40 seconds to go. San Francisco's drive continued even though the officials missed the fumbled ball. The Packers would not get to another Super Bowl for another 12 years after Steve Young threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Owens with 8 seconds left. The NFL brought back instant replay for the following season.
The Minnesota Vikings are a football team.
The Atlanta Falcons played the Minnesota Vikings.
The Metrodome is named after Hubert H. Humphrey.
The Vikings have lost all four Super Bowls they've appeared in, but no loss is as well known and invokes as much pain as the 1998 NFC Championship Game between Minnesota and Atlanta. Denny Green was named the Coach of the Year after leading the Vikings to a 15-1 record. Gary Anderson had not missed a kick all season, having gone 35-for-35 on field goals and 59-for-59 on extra-point attempts. With the Vikings up 27-20 with two minutes left, Anderson lined up to kick a field goal that would have secured a Minnesota win, but the kick went wide left, Atlanta scored a touchdown to push the game into overtime, and Atlanta won on a field goal to advance to the Super Bowl
The south of the US.
The Atlanta Falcons.
The Atlanta Falcons are playing the New England patriots in the Super Bowl.
The stadium is in Houston.
What is your team's toughest loss?
The development of QB Mac Jones.
Art Smith was helped by being 1 of 10 kids.
Mahomes wants the credit given to his team.
Raiders are trying to avoid another collapse.
28-3. That's probably all you need to say when you're talking about heartbreaking losses. The Super Bowl loss by the Falcons is still brought up years later. The Falcons were close to their first Super Bowl win in the third quarter. After New England scored 25 straight points to tie the game and send it into overtime, the Pats won the Super Bowl. It's a loss that has hung over the fan base, if not the actual Falcons.
The Carolina panthers.
New England and Carolina played in the Super Bowl.
Reliant Stadium is in Houston.
The game was tied at 29 with iRunFars left. They were on their side. Tom Brady was given a short field from the New England 40 after John Kasay sent the ensuing kick out of bounds. Adam Vinatieri kicked a 41-yard field goal with 4 seconds left to win the game.
The New Orleans Saints.
The Los Angeles Rams will play the New Orleans Saints.
The Superdome is in New Orleans.
There have been seven gut-wrenching playoff exits over the past 11 years, including the Minneapolis Miracle, the Beast Quake and a last-second loss at San Francisco for a 2011 team that might have been the Saints' best ever. The "no call" in the NFC Championship Game, when officials missed an obvious pass interference flag that would have sent the Saints to their second Super Bowl appearance, was heartbreaking and horrifying. They led 13-0 and lost in overtime.
The Buccaneers are from the state of Florida.
The St. Louis Rams played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2000 playoffs.
TWA Dome is in St. Louis.
The Rams were leading the game 11-6) and the Bucs had one last chance to win it and advance to the Super Bowl. On second-and-23 from the Rams' 35-yard line, with 51 seconds on the clock, King found Emanuel on a whip route, where Emanuel dove for the catch at the 23-yard line. Side judge Walt Anderson initially ruled that Emanuel caught the ball, but it was later determined that the tip of the ball hit the ground, which led to the overturn of the ruling. Their Super Bowl quest was over after two plays. Emanuel was haunted by the play for a long time after the catch rule was revised. Emanuel said you feel like you let people down even if it's your fault. Those are things you have to live with for a long time.
The west of the united states.
The Seattle Seahawks' title hopes were ended in the Super Bowl by Malcolm Butler of New England.
The ArizonaCardinals
The Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers will play in the Super Bowl.
Raymond James Stadium is in the city of Tampa Bay.
After Larry Fitzgerald caught a 64 yard touchdown pass from Kurt Warner in the final minute of the Super Bowl, the Arizona Cardinals were two minutes and 37 seconds away from their first world championship since 1947. The world knows what happened after that. Ben Roethlisberger led the team on a 78-yard drive that culminated with Santonio Holmes catching the winning touchdown, staying in bounds by the tips of his toes, with 35 seconds left in the game. It was the first and only Super Bowl appearance for the Cards, but the loss still hurts.
The Los Angeles Rams.
Super Bowl XXXVI was played in St. Louis.
The Louisiana Superdome is in New Orleans.
The most heartbreaking Super Bowl loss is the one the Pats suffered against the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. Kurt Warner led a three-play, 45 yard drive to tie the score at 17 with gd remaining after the Rams had taken a first-quarter lead. Brady led a nine-play, 53-yard drive that was capped by a 48 yard field goal by the other team with seven seconds remaining. It would have been easy for the Rams to shrug off the loss since they won the Super Bowl two seasons earlier, but it was a devastating defeat that signaled the end of the greatest show on turf. The Rams didn't make the playoffs the next season.
The 49ers are from San Francisco.
The San Francisco 49ers played the New York Giants.
The park is in San Francisco.
With under three minutes to play, running back Roger Craig coughed up a fumbled ball that Lawrence Taylor recovered, and the Giants kicked their fifth field goal of the game as time expired to send the Niners home. The 49ers were denied a chance at a third straight title, and the end of Joe Montana's time with the team, because of the game. Montana had a broken hand, cracked ribs, and a bruised sternum after he was hit by Leonard Marshall in the first half. Montana was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs after the 1992 season after he suffered an elbow injury and only played one more half with the team. After the 1994 season, the Niners returned to the Super Bowl.
The Seattle Seahawks.
The Seattle Seahawks will play the New England Pats in the Super Bowl.
State Farm Stadium is in the state of Arizona.
What else could it be? Nine years ago, the Seattle Seahawks lost another Super Bowl when they were on the wrong end of some questionable calls and played their worst game of the season against Pittsburgh. It's impossible to top the pain of coming up a yard short of deflating Tom Brady and the Pats in Super Bowl XLIX. It wasn't just that they were close to pulling off a rare repeat before Russell Wilson was picked off by Malcolm Butler. The chemistry in the locker room was altered by that game. They haven't gotten past the second round of the playoffs.
