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January 20, 2008

Championship game dominance

FOXBORO -- While it certainly is impressive that the Patriots are appearing in the conference championship game for the fifth time in seven years, other teams have had even more dominant stretches.
Buffalo played for the AFC title five times in six years from 1988 through '93, losing to the Bengals in '88 before winning four in a row from '90 to '93. Unfortunately for the Bills, they lost all four of those Super Bowl appearances.
Pittsburgh also played in five of six AFC championship games, and six of eight, from 1972 through '79.
In the NFC, Philadelphia and Dallas each played in four straight conference title games, although with significantly different results. While the Cowboys won in '92 and '93, lost in '94, and then won again in '95, the Eagles lost three straight, from 2001 through 2003 before finally winning in '04, over the Falcons. Philadelphia lost in the Super Bowl that season to New England.
The most dazzling recent run, however, was that of the San Francisco 49ers, who played in the NFC championship game in six of seven years from 1988 through 1994, going 3-3. They beat the Bears, 28-3, in the '88 season, followed that with a 30-3 rout of the Rams, then lost to the Giants in 1990, 15-13. After a year's absence, the Niners returned to the NFC title game in the 1992 season, when they lost to Dallas. It was the first of three straight meetings with the Cowboys for the right to go the Super Bowl, with Dallas also winning in '93 (38-21), but the 49ers finally knocking them off in '94, 38-28.

Posted by Jim Donaldson  at 3:09 PM | Permalink