BroBible
It’s been close to a century since the NFL hosted its first-ever championship game a little over a decade after the league came into existence while officially ushering in its Playoff Era. Plenty of records have been set and broken since then, but there are more than a few that may never be topped.
You’re tempting fate whenever you describe a sports record as “unbreakable,” but every league boasts some achievements that are impressive to the point where it’s almost impossible to imagine anyone will be able to surpass them.
That’s the case with the NFL, and these are the postseason marks that seem poised to stand the test of time.
A number of teams have staged some incredibly dramatic comebacks after finding themselves seemingly down and out in a playoff game.
For example, the Jaguars stunned the Chargers in a wild card showdown at the beginning of January 2023, as Jacksonville was facing a 27-0 deficit toward the end of the first half before surging back to advance with a 31-30 victory. That was the second biggest comeback in the postseason and one point shy of the 28-point hole the Colts overcame against the Chiefs in 2014.
However, there’s only one team that’s won a playoff game after going down by more than 30: the Bills, who found themselves trailing the Oilers 35-3 in the third quarter of their wild card game on January 3, 1993. Buffalo erased the 32-point deficit to force overtime before kicking a field goal to win (and going on to lose the third of what ended up being four consecutive defeats in the Super Bowl).
It was also the biggest comeback in any NFL game before the Vikings came back after going down by 33 against the Colts in 2022.
A number of NFL teams have fallen victim to some dismal rushing performances that ended up costing them in the playoffs. However, there is only one that has ended up with a negative number of yards on the ground when everything was said and done.
The Lions became the first (and, to date, last) team to check that box when they faced off against the Packers in the wild-card round in 1994. Green Bay managed to hold Barry Sanders to -1 yards on 13 rushing attempts in a game where Brett Perriman lost four on his only carry, and the single yard Dave Krieg was able to salvage on the ground meant they finished with -4 in the 16-12 loss.
The Patriots had an uncanny (and, if you were a fan of the team they were playing against, infuriating) ability to figure out ways to win when Tom Brady and Bill Belichick were running the show, and they did exactly that against the Ravens in the divisional round on January 10, 2015.
The Patriots are...
