Football play-offs

A trio fights against a curse of 194 seasons

The "perennial losers" Buffalo face the Denver Broncos at the start of the NFL play-offs.

(Bild: AFP)

They are considered "perennial losers". But before the start of the NFL play-offs this Saturday, three teams with this malus are considered hot candidates for the Super Bowl. Together, the Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions have been waiting 194 seasons for the title in the best football league in the world, but this year the trio have won 42 of their 51 games so far.

Salary cap, NFL Draft, at least a somewhat strength-weighted schedule based on the previous year's performance - everything in the National Football League is actually geared towards ensuring that the strength of the teams always remains in flux and that all teams rotate into the circle of title contenders at some point.

But due to poor management, injuries or unfortunate coaching choices, there are some clubs that seem downright cursed. Among them are the Bills, the Vikings and the Lions, who are not only suffering from an almost eternal title-less period, but have also been traumatized by dramatic defeats or historic negative records.

Four Super Bowl defeats in a row
The Buffalo Bills, for example, were a particularly sad exception in the 1990s. Between 1991 and 1994, the team from New York went to the Super Bowl four times in a row - and always lost. The first defeat against the New York Giants was particularly traumatic. Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal with eight seconds to go, which at the time was anything but a sure-fire winner. An event that lives on in the minds of Bills fans and even inspired the movie "Buffalo 66".

In recent years, the Bills have always been considered a hot contender for the redemptive first Super Bowl title. They have one of the best quarterbacks in the league in Josh Allen, but have encountered a new trauma in the form of the Kansas City Chiefs. Three times in the last four seasons, Buffalo lost to their nemesis in the playoffs. So 64 years after their inaugural season, the Bills are still waiting for their first title.

Josh Allen is one of the best playmakers in the NFL.

(Bild: Getty Images/2022 Getty Images)

On Sunday, the Bills will face the Denver Broncos to start the season and are the clear favorites. The good news is that Buffalo, who finished second in the American Conference (AFC) with a 13-4 record in the basic round, can at most meet the Chiefs in the NFL semifinals.

Traumatic field goals
The Minnesota Vikings are Buffalo's unfortunate twin in many respects. The two clubs share the sad record of four Super Bowl appearances without a title and have been waiting 63 years for the coveted coup since their foundation, despite great stars such as Fran Tarkenton, Randall Cunningham, Randy Moss, Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson. There are even pages on the internet that explain why the Vikings are perhaps the unluckiest NFL franchise ever.

Sad playoff moments include a missed field goal in the 1998 conference final, another from just 27 yards in 2015 against Seattle and a penalty in the final seconds of the 2009 conference final that put the Vikings out of reach of a field goal that would have lifted them to the Super Bowl. 

That they would end their personal curse this year would truly be a miracle. Hardly anyone would have believed that the Vikings would even make the play-offs at the start of the season, which they did with 14 wins and only three defeats. That's because quarterback Sam Darnold, who had already been written off by many, turned a Cinderella-like corner. Maybe it will be enough for a fairytale ending.

Receiver Justin Jefferson is the Minnesota Vikings' top star.

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

However, Minnesota face a difficult game right at the start against the Los Angeles Rams, who got into their stride in the second half of the season. The game scheduled for Monday was moved to Glendale (Arizona) due to the fires raging in Los Angeles. Incidentally, the duel between the coaches is special: Minnesota coach Kevin O'Connell, a hot contender for the Coach of the Year award, was once Sean McVay's offensive coordinator with the Rams.

Title only in the primeval era
Unlike the Bills and the Vikings, the Detroit Lions have already won the title in the best football league in the world four times. However, they did so in the primeval era of the sport, between 1930 and 1957, which means they have been waiting 67 years (the current NFL season is officially the 2024 season), even longer than Minnesota and Buffalo, for the big coup.

In the Super Bowl era that began in 1966, the Lions only won a single play-off game until 2023! They only reached at least the semi-finals for the first time in the previous season. In 2008, Detroit became the first team not to win a single game in the first round!

The Lions scored 564 points in the basic round, the most of any team.

(Bild: Associated Press)

In the current season, however, the Lions impressed with incredible creativity in terms of trick plays, winning 15 of their 17 games, making them the strongest team in the NFC and perhaps even the biggest title contender for a long time.

Coach Dan Campbell, as verbally aggressive as he was with his decisions on the field, proclaimed two weeks ago: "We're going to the Super Bowl." But their long-running curse already seems to be getting to the Lions. Some of their most important defensive players will be missing from the play-offs due to injury. It doesn't help that they have a bye for the opener.

Clash of arch-rivals
In the other clashes of the first play-off round, Houston will host the Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC and Baltimore, also a hot Super Bowl candidate, will take on arch-rivals Pittsburgh. Like Detroit, Kansas City has a bye as the best team in the conference. In the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles face the Green Bay Packers and Washington, with its strong rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, visits the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.