The 10 Greatest Comebacks in NFL History

The largest comeback in NFL history is the Minnesota Vikings' 33-point rally past the Indianapolis Colts on December 17, 2022, a 39-36 overtime win after trailing 33-0 at halftime. The largest in the playoffs is Buffalo's 32-point comeback against Houston on January 3, 1993, and the largest in a Super Bowl is New England's 25-point recovery from 28-3 down in Super Bowl LI.

Those three records answer the trivia question. The ranking below is a different question: which comebacks were the greatest, weighing the size of the hole against what was on the line when the team climbed out of it.

The 10 Greatest Comebacks at a Glance

Largest Comebacks by Round

Ranked purely on the size of the deficit, with no weighting for stakes, here is the record in each round of the modern NFL.

The Bills' 32-point comeback is the playoff record overall. Before the 1970 merger, the championship round worked differently: Detroit's 20-point rally past San Francisco in the 1957 Western Conference playoff is the largest comeback in a game that decided a conference title.

1. Super Bowl LI: Patriots 34, Falcons 28 (OT)

With 8:31 left in the third quarter at NRG Stadium, Atlanta led 28-3. No team had ever trailed a Super Bowl by more than 10 points and won. Win-probability models had New England somewhere below one percent.

What followed was 25 unanswered points. James White caught a five-yard touchdown with 2:06 left in the third quarter, though the extra point hit the upright. Stephen Gostkowski added a 33-yard field goal. Dont'a Hightower strip-sacked Matt Ryan to set up Danny Amendola's six-yard touchdown catch, and White ran in the two-point try. White then scored from a yard out with 57 seconds left, and Brady found Amendola again for the conversion that tied it 28-28. The play everyone remembers came in between: with under three minutes to go, Robert Alford tipped a Brady pass and Julian Edelman caught it inches off the turf, the ball bouncing off Alford's shoe on the way down, for 23 yards.

New England won the overtime coin toss in the first extra period in Super Bowl history and never gave Atlanta the ball. White scored from two yards out. Brady threw for 466 yards on 43 completions, both Super Bowl records, and won his fourth Super Bowl MVP; White's 14 catches and 20 points were also records.

Why it ranks first: it is not the largest deficit ever erased, but it is the largest in a championship game, in the most-watched game of the year, against a team that had scored on five straight possessions. Note that it is not an upset — New England was favored, which is why it does not appear on The 10 Biggest Upsets in Super Bowl History.

2. "The Comeback": Bills 41, Oilers 38 (OT)

Buffalo hosted Houston in an AFC Wild Card game on January 3, 1993 without Jim Kelly, who had been hurt in the regular-season finale, and without Thurman Thomas for most of the second half. Houston had beaten the Bills 27-3 in Orchard Park a week earlier and led 28-3 at halftime. Early in the third quarter, Bubba McDowell returned a Frank Reich interception 58 yards to make it 35-3.

Reich then threw four touchdown passes in the second half, three of them to Andre Reed, after a Kenneth Davis one-yard run and a recovered onside kick got Buffalo started. The Bills scored 28 points in the third quarter alone and led 38-35 before Houston tied it with a field goal at the end of regulation.

In overtime, Nate Odomes intercepted Warren Moon at the Houston 37, and Steve Christie made a 32-yard field goal 25 seconds in. Moon had thrown for 371 yards and four touchdowns and lost. Buffalo went on to reach a third straight Super Bowl. The 32-point deficit is still the largest ever overcome in a playoff game.

3. Vikings 39, Colts 36 (OT)

The record for the largest comeback in any NFL game belongs to a Saturday afternoon game at U.S. Bank Stadium on December 17, 2022. Indianapolis led 33-0 at halftime, built on a blocked-kick return touchdown and a pick-six, and Minnesota had 87 total yards.

Minnesota then scored on possession after possession. Dalvin Cook's 64-yard catch-and-run cut the lead to two, and Kirk Cousins found T.J. Hockenson for the two-point conversion that tied it 36-36 in the closing minutes. In overtime, after Patrick Peterson intercepted Matt Ryan, Cousins moved the ball 55 yards in six plays and Greg Joseph kicked a 40-yard field goal with three seconds left.

The win clinched the NFC North for Minnesota. It sits third here rather than first only because it was a December regular-season game — a huge one for the division, but not an elimination game. As a raw feat, nothing in league history matches it.

4. Colts 45, Chiefs 44

Kansas City led this AFC Wild Card game 38-10 early in the third quarter on January 4, 2014, and the Colts' 28-point recovery is still the largest comeback in a playoff game that did not need overtime.

Andrew Luck went 29 of 45 for 443 yards and four touchdowns with three interceptions — a genuinely wild stat line — and T.Y. Hilton caught 13 passes for 224 yards and two scores, both franchise playoff records. The play that turned it was Luck's own: a Donald Brown fumble near the goal line bounced backward, and Luck scooped it up and ran it in himself to make it 41-38. Hilton's 64-yard touchdown catch late in the fourth quarter provided the winning points. The teams combined for 1,049 yards, an NFL postseason record, and 89 points — enough to place it among the highest-scoring games in NFL history.

Kansas City had lost running back Jamaal Charles on the opening drive and three more starters as the game went on, and Alex Smith's 378 passing yards and four touchdowns were wasted. The Chiefs would not win a playoff game until January 2016.

5. Jaguars 31, Chargers 30

Trevor Lawrence threw four interceptions in the first half of this AFC Wild Card game on January 14, 2023, and Jacksonville trailed 27-0. Then he threw four touchdown passes.

The Jaguars scored on five straight possessions after the break. Lawrence finished 28 of 47 for 288 yards, and the recovery from a four-interception half is close to unprecedented for a second-year quarterback in his first playoff game. Jacksonville went for two after cutting the lead to 30-26 and failed, which meant the last drive had to end in points either way.

Riley Patterson's 36-yard field goal as time expired won it. At 27 points, it is the third-largest playoff comeback ever, and the largest by a team that did not need overtime to finish it off other than Indianapolis in 2014.

6. 49ers 38, Saints 35 (OT)

New Orleans was 0-12 heading into Candlestick Park on December 7, 1980, and led 35-7 at halftime. The 49ers were a 5-8 team in Bill Walsh's second season with a second-year quarterback named Joe Montana.

Walsh's halftime adjustment was to simplify, not to gamble. San Francisco scored four straight touchdowns, three of them Montana's doing — a one-yard run, a 71-yard strike to Dwight Clark, and a seven-yard throw to Freddie Solomon with under two minutes left that tied it. Montana went 24 of 36 for 285 yards. Ray Wersching's 36-yard field goal won it in overtime.

It stood as the largest comeback in NFL history for 12 years until Buffalo's, and it is the game that first showed what Montana would become. San Francisco went 13-3 and won the Super Bowl the following season.

7. Bills 37, Colts 35

Indianapolis led 26-0 at halftime at Rich Stadium on September 21, 1997, having scored on four Cary Blanchard field goals plus touchdowns from Aaron Bailey and Marshall Faulk. Buffalo, with Todd Collins at quarterback, had produced nothing.

The Bills then scored 37 points in the second half. Antowain Smith ran for three touchdowns, including a 54-yarder in the fourth quarter, and Collins threw for 275 yards and two scores. Buffalo took the lead late and held on when Indianapolis's answering drive fell short.

At 26 points it is the fourth-largest comeback ever and the largest in a game that neither went to overtime nor mattered in January — a reminder that most of the truly enormous holes get dug on ordinary Sundays.

8. Chiefs 51, Texans 31

Houston led 24-0 in the second quarter of this AFC Divisional game at Arrowhead on January 12, 2020, and had just recovered a muffed punt. Kansas City then outscored the Texans 51-7 the rest of the way, including touchdowns on seven consecutive possessions.

Patrick Mahomes went 23 of 35 for 321 yards and five touchdowns without an interception and led the team in rushing with 53 yards. Travis Kelce caught 10 passes for 134 yards and three touchdowns, all of them in the second quarter.

The 24-point deficit is the largest ever erased in a divisional-round game, and it is the most consequential comeback on this list after Super Bowl LI: Kansas City went on to beat Tennessee and then rally from 10 down in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LIV, ending a 50-year title drought. Three comebacks in one postseason, and the franchise's first championship since Super Bowl IV.

9. 49ers 39, Giants 38

New York led 38-14 with just under 17 minutes to play in this NFC Wild Card game on January 5, 2003. San Francisco scored 25 points the rest of the way.

Jeff Garcia threw two touchdown passes, ran for another, and converted two two-point tries during the rally, finishing 27 of 44 for 331 yards. Terrell Owens had caught a 76-yard touchdown on the game's opening play and came back to make the conversion catches that kept it alive. Garcia's 13-yard throw to Tai Streets with exactly one minute left provided the lead.

The Giants still had a chance: a 41-yard field goal attempt on the final play. The snap was low, holder Matt Allen rolled out and threw downfield, and the pass fell incomplete. The NFL acknowledged afterward that the officiating crew had missed a call on the play that should have given New York another snap. It remains the fifth-largest playoff comeback.

10. Lions 31, 49ers 27

The oldest game on this list is also the one with the highest stakes relative to its size. San Francisco led Detroit 24-7 at halftime of the Western Conference playoff at Kezar Stadium on December 22, 1957 — the winner went to the NFL Championship Game — and pushed it to 27-7 in the third quarter. The 49ers were reportedly so confident that championship tickets were being printed before the second half.

Tom Tracy, who had not carried the ball in four games, ran for two touchdowns including a 58-yarder. Tobin Rote, filling in for the injured Bobby Layne, threw a 36-yard touchdown to Steve Junker. Detroit's defense forced four fourth-quarter turnovers, and Jim Martin's field goal made it 31-27.

A week later Detroit routed Cleveland 59-14 for the NFL title. That remains the Lions' last championship, which makes this 20-point rally the single most valuable comeback any franchise on the current no-title list has ever produced.

Why the Biggest Comebacks Keep Getting Bigger

Three of the six largest comebacks in NFL history have happened since 2013, and that is not a coincidence.

• The two-point conversion arrived in 1994 and changed the arithmetic of a deficit. A 16-point hole became a two-possession hole rather than a three-possession one.
• Rules protecting passers and receivers have made the no-huddle, four-down offense a viable way to score in bunches. A 1970s team trailing by 25 had almost no mechanism to catch up.
• Clock rules favor the trailing team more than they used to, letting an offense compress more snaps into less time.

The countervailing force is that leads themselves have gotten harder to build, which is why postseason blowouts have grown rarer. Fewer 30-point leads means fewer chances at a record comeback.

FAQ

What is the biggest comeback in NFL history? The Minnesota Vikings' 33-point comeback against the Indianapolis Colts on December 17, 2022. Minnesota trailed 33-0 at halftime and won 39-36 in overtime on Greg Joseph's 40-yard field goal.

What is the biggest comeback in NFL playoff history? Buffalo's 32-point comeback against Houston in the AFC Wild Card round on January 3, 1993. The Bills trailed 35-3 in the third quarter and won 41-38 in overtime. Backup quarterback Frank Reich threw four second-half touchdown passes.

What is the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history? New England's 25-point comeback against Atlanta in Super Bowl LI on February 5, 2017. The Patriots trailed 28-3 in the third quarter and won 34-28 in the first overtime in Super Bowl history.

Has any team come back from more than 28 points down in the playoffs? Only Buffalo, from 32 down in 1993. The Colts' 28-point rally past Kansas City in January 2014 is second, and it is the largest playoff comeback that did not require overtime.

Which quarterback has the most fourth-quarter comebacks? Tom Brady, with more game-winning drives and fourth-quarter comebacks than any quarterback in NFL history across the regular season and playoffs combined. Peyton Manning and Drew Brees are the closest challengers.

What is the largest comeback in a conference championship game? Eighteen points, achieved twice: Indianapolis over New England on January 21, 2007 (38-34) and Cincinnati over Kansas City on January 30, 2022 (27-24 in overtime). Both teams trailed 21-3.

Does overtime count toward the comeback record? Yes. The record is measured by the largest deficit a winning team faced at any point, regardless of when it won. Four of the ten games here went to overtime, which is why the overtime rules matter to how these finishes played out.

Which of these comebacks led to a championship? Two. New England won Super Bowl LI outright, and Kansas City's rally past Houston in January 2020 was the first step toward the title it won three weeks later. Detroit's 1957 comeback also led directly to an NFL Championship, one round later. Full title history is in List of Every Super Bowl Winner by Year.

This page is reviewed after each NFL season, and the record tables update whenever a game breaks one of them.