Can you decode our Super Bowl message? The questions provide hints that can help you crack the code.
Unless otherwise specified, questions assume current NFL rules, that all games are completed as scheduled, and that all coins are fair.
Q: If the Eagles get the ball to start overtime in a playoff game, how many winning and losing margins are possible (where winning and losing by the same amount count as different results)?
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Answer: 18
Solution: This is a tricky one, as most of the 18 possibilities are very unlikely. Here is one example way for each possibility to happen – showing that no others are possible is left as an exercise to the reader.
-6: Get stopped, give up a touchdown
-3: Get stopped, give up a field goal
-2: Take a safety
-1: Score a TD, miss PAT, give up TD+PAT
1: Score TD, make PAT, give up TD, stop PAT
2: Get stopped, score a safety
3: Score a FG, get a stop
4: Score a TD, give up PAT return for 2, get stop
5: Score FG, score safety
6: Score TD, no PAT, get stop
7: Score TD+PAT, get stop
8: Score TD+2pt, get stop
9: Score FG, get pick-6
10: Score TD, give up PAT return for 2, get pick-6
11: Score TD, allow 1 pt safety on PAT, get pick-6
12: Score TD, miss PAT, get pick-6
13: Score TD, make PAT, get pick-6
14: Score TD, 2pt conversion, get pick-6
Q: Chiefs’ (and former Eagles’) Head Coach Andy Reid famously won a Punt, Pass, and Kick competition when he was 13. What is the sum of the jersey numbers of the Eagles’ primary punter, passer, and kicker?
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Answer: 15
Solution: Punter Braden Mann wears 10, QB Jalen Hurts wears 1, and Kicker Jake Elliott wears 4, for a sum of 10+1+4=15.
Q: The Eagles and the Chiefs are no strangers to the Super Bowl, having met there two years ago and having a combined 10 appearances. At the start of this season’s NFL playoffs, how many Super Bowl matchups were possible between two teams with no previous Super Bowl appearances?
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Answer: 1
Solution: Only four NFL teams have never appeared in the Super Bowl – the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, and Detroit Lions. Of those, only HOU-DET was a possible matchup at the start of the playoffs.
Q: No NFL team has ever gone 17-0 in a regular season, although a couple have had shorter perfect seasons. What is the maximum number of teams that could go 17-0 in the same regular season?
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Answer: 4
Solution: This year, for example, none of the Eagles/Lions/Patriots/Chiefs played each other, so they theoretically could have all gone 17-0, so at least 4 is possible. Since each team plays its whole division, there is a maximum of 1 team per division, and since each division plays an entire division from the opposite conference, there is a maximum of one team per opposing pair of divisions that can go 17-0. With 4 pairs, this means 4 is the maximum number of teams.
Q: We’re hoping to see an exciting game take place in New Orleans, but New Orleans has actually hosted the two biggest blowouts in Super Bowl history: Super Bowl 24, when Joe Montana and the 49ers dismantled the Broncos, and what other number Super Bowl, perhaps best remembered for a rushing touchdown scored by 335-pound defensive tackle William “Refrigerator” Perry?
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Answer: 20
Q: How many of the players on the field on a standard NFL offensive play can legally catch a forward pass (i.e. record a reception or interception)?
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Answer: 22
Solution: This is a trick question, they all can! Ineligible players can’t be the first to touch a forward pass, but can catch one on a ricochet (this has happened before!).
Q: Super Bowls are often displayed in Roman Numerals, such as this year’s SB LIX. If all Super Bowls to date were written in Roman Numerals, how many would be Palindromes?
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Answer: 9
Solution: I,II,III,V,X,XIX,XX,XXX, and L are all palindromes (the won’t be another until C). SB 1 was not called the Super Bowl at the time, and SB 50 used Arabic numerals instead of Roman numerals, but if all of them had used Roman numerals, there would be 9 palindromes.
Q: What is the fewest wins a team can have in a season and win the Super Bowl?
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Answer: 3
Solution: While implausible, if every regular season game ended in a tie, one team in each conference would be awarded a playoff bye with 0 wins. They would then have to win just 3 playoff games to win the Super Bowl. For those curious, division championships would be awarded to the team with the most net touchdowns (touchdowns scored minus touchdowns allowed) in each division, or decided by a coin flip among teams tied in that stat. The four division winners in each conference would then be compared in the same way to determine seeding.
Q: Two Super Bowls have featured two (non-ceremonial) coin tosses (the two overtime games, SB LI and SB LVIII). In both games, the tosses had different winners. What were the odds (in percent) that in both games, each of the two teams would win exactly one of the two coin tosses?
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Answer: 25%
Solution: The odds that the team that lost the regulation coin toss would win the OT one, assuming a fair coin, are 50%. The odds of this happening twice, in two independent games, are 50%*50%=25%
Think you’ve got it solved?
Click to reveal cipher solution
This is an alphanumeric cipher (1=A, 2=B,…,26=Z), so the answers 18-15-1-4 20-15 22-9-3-20-15-18-25 become ROAD TO VICTORY.
We guess the Eagles got the message as they defeated the Chiefs 40-22 to win the Super Bowl.
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