In case the football fans of the Pacific Northwest aren't sick enough in the aftermath of the big game, they may want to know that no Super Bowl loser has ever dominated a title game like the Seahawks did on Sunday.

 

I was so sure that Seattle's edge in total yards, time of possession and takeaways in a losing effort was unprecedented that I scoured all 39 previous Super Bowl box scores to prove it. Yep, just as I suspected, no losing team had ever matched the Seahawks' trifecta. Quite a few teams had won the time of possession battle and lost. A handful had put up more total yards and lost. And a couple had even won the turnover battle and lost. But no team had ever done all three and come away with an L.

Not until Sunday. Not until the Seahawks outplayed the Steelers on the vast majority of plays and still lost, thanks largely to two dubious penalty calls that cost Seattle a TD and a first-and-goal at the 1.

This was a historic, first-of-its-kind Super Bowl loss. I don't want to take anything away from the Steelers, except, of course, the Lombardi Trophy.

Seattle outgained Pittsburgh 396 yards to 339. Only five times in Super Bowl history had the loser gained more yards than the victor. And only twice — in Joe Montana's first win over the Bengals and Tom Brady's first win over the Rams — had a team been outgained as badly as the Steelers and won. (I guess this bodes well for Ben Roethlisberger.) But in both those victories, the Niners and Patriots had been +3 in the turnover battle. Pittsburgh was -1. More on that later.

Seattle had the ball for over 33 minutes, building a large time of possession edge as Pittsburgh failed to get a first down in the game's opening 19 minutes. While 10 teams have won the time-of-possession battle and lost the Super Bowl, only four losers surpassed the Seahawks' 6:04 edge in possession. And only twice in the history of the big game had a team gained more yards and led in time of possession and lost. Brady's Patriots were not only outgained by the Rams, but Kurt Warner's quick-strike attack actually held the ball for seven more minutes than New England. The lone other time this statistical quirk occurred was when Pittsburgh lost to Dallas in Super Bowl XXX. So maybe Sunday was a kind of karmic payback for the Steelers, who outgained the Cowboys 310-254 and held the ball for 7:38 more than Dallas in 1996.

Of course that loss was marked by the fact that Neil O'Donnell kept throwing the ball to Larry Brown. The Steelers were -3 in turnovers in that loss to the Cowboys, just as the Rams were against the Patriots.

Winning the turnover battle has been the single best harbinger of victory in Super Bowl history. Only twice prior to Sunday had a team given the ball away more than it had taken it away and yet still taken home the trophy.

In Super Bowl V — the ugliest Super Bowl of all time — the Cowboys managed to lose to the Colts despite a +3 edge in turnovers. The game featured a record 11 turnovers, an astounding seven by the somehow victorious Colts. Dallas also had a slight edge in possession (+2:46), but Baltimore had a substantial — 329-215 — edge in total yards.

The only other time the turnover winner had lost was in Super Bowl XIV when the Steelers overcame three Terry Bradshaw interceptions and a -2 turnover deficit to beat the Rams and win their fourth championship (one for the pinkie?). Despite the three picks, Bradshaw was named MVP because he threw for 309 yards as Pittsburgh compiled a 393-301 edge in total yards.

So the only two times a team had coughed the ball up more than its opponent and won the Super Bowl, it did so by handily outgaining the loser. But turning the ball over more while being outgained? Surely Roethlisberger's two interceptions to Matt Hasselbeck's one would sink the Steelers.

Not on Sunday. Super Bowl XL was the perfect storm for stormy Seattle. The Seahawks moved the ball better than the Steelers. They kept the ball longer than the Steelers. They held onto the ball more securely than the Steelers. They had six more first downs than the Steelers (20-14), a feat surpassed only twice by losing teams in SB history.

And yet the Seahawks lost.

Seattle fans have a right to feel sick. Their team just suffered the most unjust loss in Super Bowl history.

I'm guessing knowing that the previous 25 teams to gain more yards, keep the ball longer and not lose the turnover battle all won the Super Bowl won't make them feel any better.