Lowest Scoring Teams of the Super Bowl Era

No, no, and no. Although if you chose the '76 Buccaneers, you would only be half wrong. It's the 2-12 1977 Bucanneers - a team more anemic in scoring than the hapless (and winless) 1976 edition. The '77 Bucs scored a hopeless 7-8 points a game; the '76 Bucs scored almost 9. That performance lands them at #4, sharing a spot with the 1991 Indianapolis Colts. 8.9 points was enough to win them 1 game that year; of course they were giving up 5 fewer points than the '76 Bucs. The 1990 Patriots sit at #13 (11.3 points per game); the 1972 Houston Oilers are #17 (11.7 points per game)

As one may expect, the teams that are among the lowest scoring of the last 42 years, the winning percentages of these teams are horrendous. The top 10 combine for a collective record of 22 - 148 (.129). The best of the worst: #6, the 1977 Green Bay Packers. At 4-11, they scored 9.7 points per game. In retrospect, it's surprising that a team that scored 10 points a game would win 4 of them.

Equally surprising, the winless 1982 Baltimore Colts (0-8-1) at #32 actually scored more points in an average game than the 1973 New Orleans Saints (5-9) at #15 - 12.6 PPG vs 11.6 PPG. While it's easy to see how a team that scores 12-13 points a game and gives up 26 would go winless, how does a team that scores between 11 and 12 points a game, while giving up 22 win 5 games? Consistency - the Colts were simply bad, the Saints had decent games and horrendous games.

The best of the 100 lowest scoring teams in terms of winning percentage? The 8-8 1994 Phoenix Cardinals at #93, which scored 14.7 PPG, but allowed 16.7.

How about the 7-9 1993 Chicago Bears? At #87, Not much in the way of offense - 14.6 PPG, but 14.4 points against. The only other team that has a positive points for/points against ratio were the 1977 Washington Redskins (14 PF, 13.5 PA) - #66 on your list and 9-5 on the season.

At 0-11, the Miami Dolphins have scored 183 points or 16.6 points per game. No where near the Top 100 lowest scoring. The San Francisco 49ers have scored 150 points on the season; if the season ended today that would be enough to place them at 49^th with 13.6. The Falcons with 155 points would be #69, The Chiefs would be #93.

So, while we may be watching history with the New England Patriots apparently scoring at will and on a march to become the highest scoring team of the Super Bowl era, we're also watching history being made at the other end of the spectrum as well.