Ranking the Super Bowls, #26: Super Bowl XVII

(photo credit: netbrawl.com)

On Jan. 14, 1973 the Miami Dolphins beat the Washington Redskins to seal their place in NFL history forever as the only undefeated team. Ten years later in 1983, the two teams meet again in Super Bowl XVII that would be a different story.

The Redskins were looking for their first Super Bowl win while the Dolphins were looking for their third Super Bowl victory.  Two legendary coaches face off on that January 30th night in 1983.  The Redskins led by coach Joe Gibbs while the Dolphins were coached by Don Shula.

Miami started out strong taking a 17-10 lead into halftime but the Redskins would score 17 unanswered points in the second half to seal their first Super Bowl victory.  The Redskins won the game off behind the talented running back and Super Bowl MVP, John Riggins.  Riggins finished the game with a touchdown and a super bowl record 166 rushing yards with another Super Bowl record 38 attempts.

This was one of those Super Bowls that didn't really feature high prolific quarterbacks as the Redskins had Joe Theismann who threw for two touchdowns but also two interceptions and in 23 pass attempts only had 15 completed catches.

The Dolphins were quarterbacked by David Woodley who threw for only 97 yards and one touchdown while also throwing an interception.  Riggins actually ran for more yards with his 166 yards then Theismann threw for since the Redskins only had 143 passing yards.

Football has changed a lot since this Super Bowl as it would be rare for quarterbacks to throw under 250 yards combined let alone 97 and 143 yards alone.  Just a few months after this Super Bowl the Dolphins would draft Dan Marino who would forever change the NFL stat lines completely.