Super Bowl XXVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Washington Redskins and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Buffalo Bills to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1991 season. The Redskins defeated the Bills by the score of 37–24, becoming the fourth team after the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Oakland Raiders, and the San Francisco 49ers to win three Super Bowls. The Bills became the third team, after the Minnesota Vikings (Super Bowls VIII and IX) and the Denver Broncos (Super Bowls XXI and XXII), to lose back-to-back Super Bowls. The game was played on January 26, 1992 at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the first time the Super Bowl was held in that city.
Both teams finished the regular season with the best record in their respective conference. The Redskins posted a 14-2 regular season record, and led the league during the regular season with 485 points. Washington head coach Joe Gibbs entered the game seeking his third Super Bowl victory with the team, but with his third starting Super Bowl quarterback, Mark Rypien. The Bills finished the regular season with a 13-3 record and advanced to their second consecutive Super Bowl, largely through the play of quarterback Jim Kelly and their "K-Gun" no-huddle offense. However, their defense ranked second to last in the league in yards allowed.
The Redskins jumped to a 24–0 lead early in the third quarter of Super Bowl XXVI, from which the Bills could never recover. Washington also sacked Kelly four times and intercepted him four times. Rypien, who completed 18 of 33 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns, with 1 interception, was named Super Bowl MVP.
The telecast of the game on CBS was seen by an estimated 79.6 million viewers. This was the first time that a major television network successfully scheduled Super Bowl counterprogramming: Fox aired a special live football-themed episode of its popular sketch comedy show In Living Color during the halftime show.
Read more about Super Bowl XXVI: Background, Television and Entertainment, Game Summary, Starting Lineups, Officials
Famous quotes containing the word bowl:
“Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!
Our virgins dance beneath the shade—
I see their glorious black eyes shine;
But gazing on each glowing maid,
My own the burning tear-drop laves,
To think such breasts must suckle slaves.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)