The New England Patriots have faced a lot of heartbreak in their team history, and included is their 5 Super Bowl losses.
The Patriots have been to 11 super bowls in their team history and are 6-5 in Super Bowls since the 1985 season.
The Patriots were bad from their founding in 1960 until the mid-1990s when they had success with Bill Parcells, Pete Carroll and Drew Bledsoe. Then came Belichick and Brady in 2000, when they came they established a winning culture of making 9 Super Bowls from 2001 to 2018, when they were 6-3 in that span.
The Patriots currently have the most wins and losses in Super Bowl history, they’re tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for most wins and tied with the Denver Broncos for most Super Bowl losses.
There have been very heartbreaking losses, and there are a few that were expected, and we’ll take a look at those distinctions shortly.
Super Bowl XX: New England Patriots shellacked by the Chicago Bears
The 1985 Patriots had one of their most Cinderella seasons in team history. They were 11-5 on the season, and they were 11-5 and in third place in the AFC East behind the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins, and the No. 5 seed in the AFC. They upset the No. 4 Jets in the Wild Card round, as the Wild Card teams would face each other at the time. Next, they upset the No. 1 Los Angeles Raiders in the Divisional round. Then, at the Orange Bowl they defeated the No. 2 Dolphins in the AFC Championship, otherwise known as The Squish the Fish game.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears had one of the best seasons in NFL History in 1985 as they were 15-1, with the only loss being against the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football.
The Bears were expected to win the Super Bowl, and boy did they blow the Patriots out. The score was 46-10, and the Bears had the biggest blowout in Super Bowl history at the time. They had the record for the biggest blowout until four years later when the 49ers blew out the Broncos 55-10, and they still have the record to this day.
Patriots quarterback Tony Eason started at quarterback, and was replaced by Patriots legend Steve Grogan after a poor performance of 0/6, which made him the only Super Bowl starting quarterback to not complete a pass in the big game.
Although this was a blowout, this is only the least disappointing Super Bowl loss for the New England Patriots.
Super Bowl XXXI: Brett Favre and Desmond Howard stole the show vs New England Patriots
In the 1996 season, Drew Bledsoe and the New England Patriots bounced back from a 6-10 record in the previous season in 1995.
Drew Bledsoe was a No.1 pick in 1993 and Bill Parcells came in as head coach after three dismal seasons in the early 1990s.
In 1996, the Patriots were 11-5 and was the No. 2 seed in the AFC Conference and won against the Pittsburgh Steelers, who lost the Super Bowl a year prior and the Jacksonville Jaguars in their 2nd year in the league.
Meanwhile, Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers were 13-3 and the #1 seed in the NFC. Packers would win against the San Francisco 49ers and the Carolina Panthers, who were also in their second season in the league.
In the game, Brett Favre had 2 50+ yard touchdown passes to Andre Rison and Antonio Freeman (81). Freeman’s touchdown broke the record for the longest touchdown pass in Super Bowl history at the time, which was previously held by three touchdowns of 80 yards. That record would be broken by Mushin Muhammad of the Panthers in the Super Bowl XXXVIII loss against the Patriots.
To cap off the win for the Cheeseheads, Desmond Howard returned a 99-yard kickoff return touchdown, which was the longest kickoff return touchdown in Super Bowl history at the time. That record would be beaten by Baltimore Ravens receiver Jacoby Jones when he returned it back for 108 yards in the Super Bowl XLVII win against the 49ers.
Drew Bledsoe also threw four interceptions which tied a record for most interceptions thrown by a quarterback in a Super Bowl, which would get broken by Rich Gannon when he threw five in the Super Bowl loss against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002.
This loss was more disappointing than Super Bowl XX because the Pats were a better team with a better quarterback than in 1985, and they did put up more of an effort.
Super Bowl LII: The Philly Special defeats Brady and the New England Patriots
Tom Brady and the Patriots were coming off their 5th Super Bowl win which featured an amazing comeback against the Atlanta Falcons.
The Philadelphia Eagles had one of their best seasons in team history with a 13-3 record. They were able to make the Super Bowl despite their MVP candidate quarterback Carson Wentz going down with a Torn ACL and going with Nick Foles for the rest of the season.
This was a rematch of Super Bowl XXIX in which the Patriots won against the Philadelphia Eagles and wide receiver Deion Branch won MVP. This would be the 1st of 2 straight rematches as they would win a defensive affair with the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII.
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This game brought the Philly Special where Nick Foles was in the shutgun position and then motioned to the right and then running back Corey Clement took the snap and reversed it to tight end Trey Burton. Burton then threw to Foles for the touchdown for the Eagles in this legendary trick play.
This was an offensive Super Bowl, as this game was the most total yards in any NFL game with 1,151 yards, in which the previous record had stood since 1950 when the Los Angeles Rams and the now-defunct New York Yanks had 1,133 yards between both teams.
The New England Patriots had 613 total yards in a game, which is also a record of most yards by a single team in a Super Bowl, which was previously held by Washington when they had 602 yards in their win against the Denver Broncos in 1988.
Tom Brady had 505 passing yards, 3 touchdowns and no interceptions, which made him the only quarterback to have a 500+ yard, 3 touchdowns no pick game and still lose the game.
This was disappointing because the Pats could’ve easily won this game but in the final seconds Brady fumbled and the Eagles got the ball back to seal the win.
Super bowl XLVI: Ahmad Bradshaw touchdown seals upset vs New England Patriots
The 2011 season, was the start of a new streak for the New England Patriots. This was the start of their 8 straight appearances in the AFC Championship.
Earlier in the season, they had lost to the New York Giants in Week 9, 24-20 after a game-winning touchdown by tight end Jake Ballard by Eil Manning, in their first rematch since the Super Bowl loss four years earlier.
The Patriots had to defeat Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos, fresh off the walk-off touchdown to Demaryius Thomas in the first play of overtime in the Wild Card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then, in the AFC Championship they had to win a nail-biter against the Baltimore Ravens, when Sterling Moore stripped Lee Evans of the game-winning touchdown and Billy Cundiff shanked the game-tying field goal.
The Giants won the NFC East as a 9-7 team and were the No. 4 seed in the NFC Conference playoffs. They crushed the Atlanta Falcons at MetLife Stadium, then went on to win two road games against the 15-1 Packers and San Francisco 49ers in order to reach the big game.
For the second straight time in their Super Bowl appearances, the Pats and the Giants would face each other in the big game.
The Patriots had a disastrous first quarter as Tom Brady was called for an Intentional Grounding in the end zone when he threw it out of pressure from Justin Tuck, which resulted in a Safety for the Giants. Next, Victor Cruz scored the opening touchdown for the Giants, and they led 9-0.
The Pats were able to storm back in the second quarter when, they scored 10 which included a touchdown pass from Brady to Danny Woodhead.
Some of the biggest plays of the game stole the show from the Pats. Wes Welker had a drop which set the Patriots back in danger of losing. Then on the final drive of the game, Mario Manningham had a long sideline catch that advanced for the Giants, and then Ahmad Bradshaw scored the game-winning touchdown sitting down and the Giants stole the Super Bowl from the Patriots for the 2nd time.
Super Bowl XLII: David Tyree and Plaxico Burress end New England Patriots perfect season.
The 2007 season, the Patriots became one of two teams to have an undefeated regular season when they went 16-0.
This was the rematch of the Week 17 game against the Giants where Tom Brady broke the regular season passing touchdown record with his 50th and Randy Moss caught his 23rd receiving touchdown, which is also a regular season record.
The New York Giants were 10-6 in the 2007 season, which was 2nd place in the NFC East behind the Cowboys and in the first Wild Card spot in the NFC ahead of Washington. The Giants had to defeat the Bucs, Cowboys, and the Packers to make it to the big game.
This has to be the most disappointing Super Bowl loss in Pats history because of the circumstances surrounding this game. The Patriots were about to complete their perfect season, which has never been achieved since the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
What ended up happening is when Giants quarterback Eil Manning escaped a sack from Richard Seymour and then threw it up to David Tyree and then the helmet catch happened, which is one of the greatest catches of all-time.
The Giants won it by an Manning pass to Plaxico Burress for the game-winning touchdown, which would dismantle the perfect season that the Patriots were striving for.
This loss would cast a bad spell on the Pats for several season, as the next season Tom Brady would tear his ACL and be out for the season. The Patriots would not win another Super Bowl until the 2014 season when Malcolm Butler would pick off Russell Wilson at the goal-line.
Regardless of the result of this game, this was one of the greatest Super Bowls of all-time. This would also be the greatest upset in probably all of pro sports history.