Ten broad historical takeaways from Super Bowl XLVIII:
1. Russell Wilson became just the fourth quarterback in NFL history to win a Super Bowl before his third season. The previous three were Kurt Warner, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, all of whom also won as NFL sophomores.
2. The Seahawks became just the second team in the last decade to lose their Super Bowl virginity, joining first-time winner New Orleans from 2009. Now, a total of 19 active franchises have won the Super Bowl, while 13 have not. Meanwhile, only six cities have gone without a Super Bowl despite being active for the entire Super Bowl era (Atlanta, Buffalo, Detroit, Minnesota, Philadelphia and San Diego).
3. The Broncos have now lost five Super Bowls, which is more than anyone else. New England, Minnesota and Buffalo have all lost four, but at least the Pats have three wins and Denver has two. Only four active franchises have never been to a Super Bowl (Detroit, Cleveland, Jacksonville and Houston).
4. The Broncos losing means Peyton Manning doesn't get a ring despite leading the league in passing yardage. That means no quarterback has ever won the Super Bowl in a year in which they led the league in that category. Brady (2007), Rich Gannon (2002), Warner (2001), and Dan Marino (1984) also lost Super Bowls after accumulating more passing yards than anyone else, but that's it. Just goes to show how overrated passing yards are.
5. Not a single NFL MVP has won the Super Bowl this century. Manning could have broken that streak, too, but fell well short Sunday evening. Every one of the last 14 MVPs have made the playoffs, but Warner and Gannon lost the big game in '01 and '02, Shaun Alexander fell short with the Seahawks in '05, Brady lost to the Giants in the 2007 Super Bowl and Manning was beaten by the Saints in '09. So since Warner won with St. Louis in 1999, MVP quarterbacks are 0-5 in the Super Bowl.
6. This was the third-most-lopsided game in Super Bowl history, but the Seahawks' margin of victory was in fact larger than any Super Bowl winner's since 1990. Seattle's 22-point halftime lead was the second-largest in Super Bowl history.
7. Denver became only the ninth team in NFL history to score fewer than 10 points in the Super Bowl. Keep in mind that, during the regular season, the Broncos became the first team in NFL history to score more than 600 points in total.
8. The Broncos have been outscored by a total of 126 points in their seven Super Bowls. No other team has been outscored by more than 70. The Bills and Vikings, who are a combined 0-8 in the big game, have been outscored by 127 points combined.
9. Manning's career Super Bowl passer rating of 81.0 ranks eighth among the 11 active quarterbacks who have thrown at least 30 passes in Super Bowl games. He's ahead of only Roethlisberger, Rex Grossman and Matt Hasselbeck.
10. Wilson's rating of 123.1 was the second-highest among active quarterbacks in the Super Bowl, behind only Joe Flacco (124.2 last year). Brady, Manning, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees have all fallen short of that mark. Even the retired Kurt Warner couldn't get higher than 112.3 in his three Super Bowls. That performance from Wilson was the third-highest-rated passing day in the last 20 Super Bowls.
