Super Bowl XXVI — 1991 Season

Result

Super Bowl MVP

Mark Rypien (QB, Washington Redskins)

Starting lineups

Starting offense

Starting defense

Note: Kenneth Davis, not Thurman Thomas, is the official starter at running back for Buffalo - a well-documented historical anomaly (Thomas missed the offense's first two snaps searching for his helmet on the sideline), not a data error; Thomas's own rushing/receiving production is still recorded above since he entered immediately and played the bulk of the game.

Box score

Passing

Rushing

Receiving

Game context

Super Bowl XXVI brought Buffalo back to the championship game just a year after its heartbreaking loss to the Giants, but the Bills again fell short, this time in a comprehensive 37-24 defeat to a dominant Washington team that finished the season 17-2. The game was scoreless after the first quarter, but Washington pulled away with 17 unanswered points in the second quarter and led 24-0 at halftime, effectively deciding the outcome before the second half even began. Washington's defense forced five Buffalo turnovers and held the Bills' vaunted rushing attack to just 43 yards on the ground, dismantling the identity of a Buffalo offense that had led the league in scoring during the regular season. Quarterback Mark Rypien was named MVP after completing 18 of 33 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns, leading an offense that piled up 417 total yards against a Buffalo defense that had no answers. Receivers Gary Clark and Art Monk each topped 100 receiving yards, giving Rypien multiple reliable targets throughout the game. Buffalo's Jim Kelly, under relentless pressure and sacked four times, completed 28 of 58 passes for 275 yards but threw four interceptions, while star running back Thurman Thomas was held to just 13 yards on 10 carries after reportedly losing track of his helmet before the opening kickoff and missing the first two offensive plays of the game, a bizarre and symbolic mishap for a team that never found its rhythm. A notable subplot emerged during the week before the game: Buffalo's defensive line coach was reported to have mocked Washington's offensive line in comments to the media, and head coach Joe Gibbs used the remarks as motivational fuel, showing his team the disparaging comments to sharpen their focus. The game also featured the first instant-replay reversal of a touchdown call in Super Bowl history, an early sign of replay review's growing role in the sport. On the entertainment side, Fox aired a special episode of "In Living Color" opposite the game's halftime show, an early instance of a network counterprogramming the Super Bowl broadcast that is often credited with pushing the NFL toward booking bigger-name musical acts for future halftime shows. The championship was Washington's third Super Bowl title in ten seasons under Joe Gibbs, and it made him the first coach to win multiple Super Bowls with different starting quarterbacks, having previously won with Joe Theismann in 1982 and Doug Williams in 1987. For Buffalo, the loss was the second of what would become four consecutive Super Bowl defeats, a run of misfortune that, despite the team's sustained excellence under Kelly, Thomas, Bruce Smith, and coach Marv Levy, would come to define the Bills' era as one of the most talented teams never to win a championship. This remained Washington's last Super Bowl championship before the franchise later changed its name in 2020.

Sources

• Pro-Football-Reference: Super Bowl Index
• Wikipedia: Super Bowl XXVI