A muffed punt changed Super Bowl LVIII; it also changed the 2005 Orange Bowl for USC

So, a muffed punt changed the course of a championship football game. That’s what happened in Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday in Las Vegas. The Kansas City Chiefs were outplayed by the San Francisco 49ers for the first two and a half quarters of the big game. Then the Niners muffed a punt in their own territory. The Chiefs recovered and immediately scored a go-ahead touchdown. Older USC fans can relate to having a championship game turn on a special teams mistake, and more specifically, a muffed punt.

If you’re a USC fan and you’re under 25 years of age, you might not remember the 2005 Orange Bowl in which USC won the national championship with a beatdown of Oklahoma.

Special teams, special teams, special teams. Let’s relive a USC national championship memory and connect it to both the Super Bowl and the Kansas City Chiefs:

OKLAHOMA FAST START IN 2005 ORANGE BOWL

Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

USC beat Oklahoma 55-19 in the 2005 Orange Bowl to win the national championship. Yet, it is worth noting that Oklahoma scored the first touchdown of the game. USC didn’t dominate the first 10 minutes. It dominated the last three quarters. One play changed that USC-OU game. It was a muffed punt, just like the muff which ignited the Kansas City Chiefs’ rally and helped the Chiefs win Super Bowl LVIII.

CATALYST

Photo by Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports (c) Copyright 2004 Tim Heitman

We wrote this about the abrupt and dramatic change in the 2005 Orange Bowl after Mark Bradley’s muffed punt for Oklahoma inside the Sooners’ own 10-yard line:

USC pounced on a muffed punt by Oklahoma’s Mark Bradley — the hinge point of the game — and then dominated the Sooners the rest of the way. OU scored first, and the game was tied at 7-7 late in the first quarter when Bradley muffed his punt. USC scored 45 of the game’s next 48 points….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/muffed-punt-changed-super-bowl-165430519.html

Author : Trojans Wire

Publish date : 2024-02-12 16:54:30

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