Buccaneers’ 38-3 loss to Saints was worst loss ever for a Super Bowl winner

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If you watched the Buccaneers lose 38-3 to the Saints in Week Nine and thought there’s no way Tampa Bay could win the Super Bowl, that was understandable. No team in NFL history had ever won the Super Bowl after suffering that bad a loss in the regular season.

Of the 55 teams that have won the Super Bowl, the Bucs were the first to lose a game by 35 points in the regular season, according to John Breech of CBSSports.com.

The previous worst loss ever by an eventual Super Bowl winner was suffered by the 1994 49ers, who lost to the Eagles 40-8 in the regular season.

Only three other times has an eventual Super Bowl winner lost by 30 points or more in the regular season, and one of those times the quarterback was Tom Brady: The 2003 Patriots lost 31-0 to the Bills in Week One but went on to win the Super Bowl. The other two times it happened were the 1976 Raiders losing 48-17 to the Patriots and the 2012 Ravens losing 43-13 to the Texans.

Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians said after that 38-3 loss that “Everybody’s pissed off” and the loss “can’t carry over” into the regular season. It didn’t.