The squad has reached the Super Bowl twice, losing Super Bowl XXXVIII 32-29 to the New England Patriots in 2003 and Super Bowl 50 24-10 to the Denver Broncos in 2016. They are the first NFL team to appear in two Super Bowls.
Carolina went 9-7 in 2001 but lost in the first round of the playoffs to eventual champion Baltimore Ravens. The following season, they finished with a 10-6 record but again lost in the first round, this time to New York Giants. In 2004, they returned to the Super Bowl after a three-year hiatus and lost 26-16 to New England.
They've gone back to the big game again in 2016 after another successful campaign where they finished with a 10-6 record. This time around, they defeated Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round before falling to Denver in the next round.
Super Bowl XLII was the first ever postseason game played in Miami. The Panthers took on the Arizona Cardinals and came away with a 31-25 victory over the defending champion New York Giants. It was the only playoff win during the Jim Morris era as coach of the Panthers. He was fired six games into the 2002 season after posting a 1-5 record.
The New England Patriots have made the most Super Bowl appearances (11) and are tied for the most Super Bowl victories with the Pittsburgh Steelers (six).
New England has more overall wins than any other team (24-17). The last time these two teams met was in February 2018 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, where the Patriots defeated the Vikings 21-20 in overtime thanks to a 1-yard touchdown run from James White.
Their latest meeting was on February 5, 2019 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The Patriots won 26-16.
New England is one of only four NFL teams that have appeared in every season since the league-wide kickoff penalty was introduced (the others are the Steelers, Cowboys, and Seahawks).
They're also one of three remaining undefeated teams left in the tournament (the other two are the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers).
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has been responsible for most of New England's successes over the years, winning six MVP awards and appearing in five Super Bowls. He's still going strong at age 40 with 2,922 passing yards this season alone.
The Falcons have been in two Super Bowls, the first during the 1998 season in Super Bowl XXXIII, where they lost 34-19 to the Denver Broncos, and the second 18 years later in Super Bowl LI, when they lost 34-28 in overtime to the New England Patriots.
They're one of four NFL teams (the Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, and New York Giants) to have played in both the original Super Bowl and the Super Bowl XLVIII. The others are the Green Bay Packers, who had a loss vacated due to player protests, and the Seattle Seahawks. Both the Falcons and Packers are also the only two teams to have played in both original games.
Besides the Patriots, no other team has appeared in more Super Bowls than the Falcons' two appearances. The Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers have each appeared in three Super Bowls, while the Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins have each appeared in two Super Bowls.
It's worth mentioning that the Falcons did not win either of their titles in '98 or '17; they just so happened to play in those games. If you add up all the regular season game wins between those two seasons, then take away any playoff losses, it works out to exactly 12 championship trophies. So if we were to count these past two seasons as championships too, then Atlanta would now have 14 total titles to be divided among all its players over the course of history.
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