Best teams not to win Super Bowl, Part 3: Brett Favre was denied twice

As we count down the days until Super Bowl LI, Yahoo Sports is taking a look at the best teams to not win it all. First we dove into a group of contenders that didn’t quite make the cut, and now we’re unveiling our top seven picks. (Here’s Part 1 and Part 2 in the series)

When three of us put our heads together here at Shutdown Corner to vote on the best teams to not win the Super Bowl, we each agreed on four of the top five. The fifth team was different on every ballot.

Two of us had the outlier team fifth, while the other voted his third. In case you were wondering, that’s how we got to seven teams in our countdown.

In case you weren’t, here are our picks for Nos. 7 through 5.

The napkin stats don’t speak highly of the No. 7 team on the list. The Vikings finished a mere 12-4 during the regular season, and their expected win-loss record was worse than that. Their strength of schedule was weak, and they lost three of their last five regular-season games to boot.

However, two of those losses came after the NFC North was clinched and Brett Favre started bickering with head coach Brad Childress over control of the offense. From November on, Minnesota’s average margin of victory was 24 points, and a look around the skill positions tells you why.

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Favre had one of his best seasons as a pro at age 40, throwing 33 touchdowns against a career-low seven interceptions, with a career-high passer rating of 107.2.

It was difficult to defend all of Minnesota’s weapons, too, as six players caught at least 43 passes. One of them was Adrian Peterson, and he benefited greatly from the more balanced offense. He racked up 1,819 yards from scrimmage and a career-high 18 touchdowns.

The defense more than held its own as well. It finished sixth in yards allowed and the front seven, led by All-Pros Jared Allen and Kevin Williams, was particularly fierce.

But perhaps the ultimate testament to this edition of the Vikings is what it took to bring them down.

They turned the ball over five times at New Orleans in the NFC championship game, and yet they still had a chance to win it late. At least until this:

In overtime, a lengthy kickoff return and a controversial pass interference call on linebacker Ben Leber set up Saints kicker Garrett Hartley with a game-winning field goal attempt, which he nailed:

In summation: It took five turnovers (including six total fumbles), an awful late interception, a special teams letdown and some incredibly questionable officiating for the Vikings to lose on the road in overtime to a team that would go on to win the Super Bowl by two touchdowns and would later be punished for allegedly trying to hurt Vikings players during the game.

That sounds like extraordinary misfortune, and a team that’s among the best to not win it all. Unfortunately for Vikings fans, they’re not done on our list.

Neither is Brett Favre, as it turns out. The No. 6 team on our countdown was top-five in both points scored and points allowed in 1997, and it entered Super Bowl XXXII as an overwhelming favorite to repeat as champion.

It’s important to remember the context of the mid-’90s too. The NFC had won 13 straight Super Bowls, 11 by double digits. The Packers were facing John Elway and the Broncos, who had been embarrassed in three prior Super Bowls.

Early on, it looked like that’s the way the game was headed:

Only this Super Bowl went from inevitable blowout to arguably the finest ever played. Terrell Davis became the first player in Super Bowl history to rush for three touchdowns and finished with 157 yards on the ground, earning MVP honors and leading Denver to a championship while exposing a Packers defense that had been relatively so-so (20th in yards allowed, 23rd in yards per carry) against the run all season.

But there were no other demonstrable weaknesses to be found. Favre earned his unprecedented third consecutive NFL MVP award (which he shared with Barry Sanders) and orchestrated an offense that averaged more yards per play than any other team in the league.

The Packers had a roster decorated with veterans who had won the title the year before. They were good, and they knew they were good, which may have ultimately been their undoing.

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Safety Leroy Butler made no bones about the fact the team was aiming to go 19-0, but instead, Green Bay stumbled to a 3-2 start. Even though it eventually caught fire and finished 13-3, the three losses were to teams that finished a collective 18-29-1, and it’s not hard to connect the dots to overconfidence in those losses, to say nothing of the perceived inferiority of Denver in the Super Bowl.

Late in the game, head coach Mike Holmgren made headlines by instructing his defense to allow the Broncos to score the go-ahead touchdown in an attempt to give Favre and the offense enough time to respond:

That’s how close the team was to cementing its place in history. Sure, the Broncos outplayed Green Bay, but the Packers still had two timeouts and a decent chunk of time left. Who’s to say for certain what would have happened?

We’ll never know. Here’s what we do know. The 1997 Packers were one of the best teams not to win the Super Bowl.

The Steelers won the Super Bowl four times in the 1970s. To hear Hall of Fame lynchpin Jack Lambert tell it, none of those editions were the best they had. Instead, it was our No. 5 team.

After winning it all the previous two years, Pittsburgh’s 1976 season was almost derailed in the first month. The Steelers lost four of their first five games, and then lost quarterback Terry Bradshaw to a concussion after an ugly body-slam sack by Browns defensive end Joe “Turkey” Jones.

With rookie Mike Kruczek stepping in, Pittsburgh leaned on its ground game but counted on its famed Steel Curtain defense, which put together one of the most incredible runs in NFL history. Over the final nine games, the Steelers posted five shutouts and allowed just 3.1 points per game. That’s right, a little more than a field goal per contest.

The only team that managed any shred of scoring was Houston in Week 11, and Pittsburgh still won 32-16. So more than half the points the Steelers allowed over the final nine contests came in one game.

Those numbers are jaw-dropping. So was the Steelers’ pressure:

Bradshaw eventually returned, and the backfield combination of Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier provided more than enough offense to help Pittsburgh win the AFC Central.

Both running backs were injured in the divisional round against the Colts, however, and the Steelers lost the AFC championship game to the Raiders, who went on to win Super Bowl XI.

Still, Pittsburgh had five All-Pros on defense and placed eight defenders in the Pro Bowl, which is no surprise after unheard-of dominance on that side of the ball.

It wasn’t quite good enough to overcome the injuries, but it was good enough to earn them a hallowed place in history.

Coming Thursday: A team that lost one of the most famous games in NFL history, and a team that endured one of the most heartbreaking moments in Super Bowl history.