Super Bowl by Numbers

Denver won the AFC West with a 13-3 record before seeing off San Diego and then New England in the playoffs. Seattle won the NFC West with a similar 13-3 record and beat New Orleans and San Francisco on route to New York. These two teams haven’t met in the league since 2010 but did play each other in preseason with the Seahawks winning 40-10 at CenturyLink Field.

Between 1977 and 2001 these two teams were divisional rivals in the AFC West before the league expanded to 32 teams and Seattle were moved to the NFC. They first met in October 1977 with the Broncos coming out on top 24-13 and have met in the league 52 times since. Denver leads 34-19 in head-to-heads. They previously met in the playoffs during the 1983-84 season in the AFC Wildcard game. The Seahawks won that 31-7.

Super Bowl xlviii is the first since 2009 to feature the top seeds from both conferences. This game will also see the number one offence take on the number one defence for the first time since 1990 when the Giants defence prevailed over the Bills offence. The top defence and offence have met five times before in the Super Bowl with defence prevailing on four of those occasions.

This will be the seventh Super Bowl appearance for Denver who have won it twice before in 1998 and 1999. Seattle’s only previous appearance was a defeat to Pittsburgh in 2005. Both teams have already played at the Metlife Stadium this season. The Broncos beat the Giants 41-23 back in September while the Seahawks shut out the Giants 23-0 in December.