(NBC Sports) - The Pittsburgh Steelers, winners of 12 regular season games and owners of one of the nastiest defenses in football, are 7-point favorites over the 9-win Arizona Cardinals, a team that didn’t get truly hot until it got to the postseason.

Pittsburgh’s got history. Arizona’s got ... deserts and cactuses.

It seems like a Super Bowl mismatch. Here’s how all the perceived mismatches of the past (a betting line in which one team was favored by more than a touchdown) shook out.

Super Bowl I
Kansas City Chiefs vs. Green Bay Packers

Green Bay was a 14-point favorite in the first-ever AFL-NFL Championship (the game wasn’t actually called the “Super Bowl” until the third edition).

For a while, the game was competitive – 14-10 at halftime - but as usually happened (at least in the first decade of these games) the cream rose in the second half and the Packers scored 21 unanswered in the second half to win what, in essence, was a postseason formality.

Super Bowl II
Oakland Raiders vs. Green Bay Packers

The Raiders were 13.5 point underdogs to Green Bay and played that way in a second-half rollover that overshadowed how close the game was early on.

Oakland trailed 13-7 late in the first half and was getting the ball back but a mishandled punt was recovered by the Pack and Green Bay knocked through a half-closing field goal to get up 16-7 at the break. After that, it was all Packers and they cruised 33-14.

Super Bowl III
New York Jets vs. Baltimore Colts

Generally accepted as the biggest Super Bowl stunner, the 18-point underdog Jets took advantage of a sloppy Colts team that coach Don Shula just didn’t have ready to play. The game itself was a snoozer – the Jets led 16-0 before Johnny Unitas came off the bench and directed a touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter. But the effects were seismic.

Super Bowl IV
Kansas City Chiefs vs. Minnesota Vikings

Believing the Jets win over Baltimore the previous season was an AFL fluke, the Chiefs were 12-point underdogs to Bud Grant’s Vikings. But the 11-3 Chiefs (who finished behind the Raiders in their division) threw a blanket over the Vikings' rushing attack, holding it to 67 yards.

The Vikings were 12-2 in the regular season but their plodding attack behind quarterback Joe Kapp was no match for a Chiefs team that was faster and every bit as strong as Minnesota. And Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson was at the top of his game in a 23-7 win.

Super Bowl XIV
Los Angeles Rams vs. Pittsburgh Steelers

Until the Cardinals, the Rams were the only nine-win team to make it to the Super Bowl. They were 10.5 point ‘dogs to the mighty Steelers. And while that betting line seems small relative to how historically great those Steelers teams of the 70s were, it was actually a huge line relative to previous years.

After Super Bowl IV in which the 12-point underdog Chiefs won by 16, lines narrowed significantly because it was clear the conferences were more evenly matched than previously thought. In any event, the Rams led this one 19-17 entering the fourth before the Steelers dodged a bullet and closed their decade appropriately with a 31-19 win.

Super Bowl XX
New England Patriots vs. Chicago Bears

The Patriots were so fortunate to have even gotten into this game in New Orleans, winning three straight road playoff games for a chance to face the mighty Bears. Because New England had built momentum entering the game, they were only 10-point underdogs to the Bears but, when the rubber hit the road, the Patriots played scared.

The Bears scored 44 unanswered points after New England jumped on top with a field goal off a first-drive Chicago fumble. It was 44-3 when the Fridge barreled in from the 1 late in the third quarter. Epic blowout.

Super Bowl XXI
Denver Broncos vs. New York Giants

The Broncos were 9.5 point underdogs but they led the Phil Simms-Lawrence Taylor-Bill Parcells Giants at halftime, 10-9. But New York scored 24 straight points after halftime and scored 30 points in the second half in a 39-20 win that stands as Phil Simms' (22 for 25 for 268 yards and three touchdowns) shining moment.

Super Bowl XXIV
San Francisco Niners vs. Denver Broncos

The worst. Super Bowl. Ever.

It was 27-3 at halftime as the 49ers – 12-point favorites – scored touchdowns of four of the first six San Francisco possessions. Joe Montana was a surgeon, going 22 for 29 for 297 yards and five touchdowns. Denver, in accepting its second blowout loss in three seas ons, barely showed up as its 12 first downs demonstrated.

Super Bowl XXVIII
Buffalo Bills vs. Dallas Cowboys

By 1993, the football-watching world had grown weary of the Buffalo Bills. A year earlier, in the Bills third straight Super Bowl appearance, they were ravaged by Dallas, 52-17 in Pasadena.

This time, installed as 10.5 point underdogs, they’d prove to be better competition. Buffalo led 13-6 at halftime But Dallas scored on a James Washington fumble return 55 seconds after halftime and the Bills didn’t score again in a 30-13 loss.

Super Bowl XXIX
San Diego Chargers vs. San Francisco Niners

This was the fattest line in Super Bowl history – 18.5 points – and the Niners rewarded the faith shown in them by putting on an offensive clinic with seven touchdowns (six on Steve Young touchdown passes) in a game that was a blowout from jump street (a touchdown to Jerry Rice three plays into the game). The final score? 49-26.

Super Bowl XXX
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys – at the tail-end of their run of 90s greatness – were 13.5 point favorites over the upstart Steelers in Tempe, Arizona. The Steelers, under head coach Bill Cowher, were nasty on defense, undaunting on offense.

And that’s how this one played out. It was 13-7 at the half.

But two interceptions thrown by Steelers quarterback Neil O’Donnell to a just-standing-there Larry Brown led to Dallas touchdowns and the very real hopes of a Pittsburgh upset over Barry Switzer and the Boys went by the board.

Super Bowl XXXI
New England Patriots vs. Green Bay Packers

This game was all about the return of the Packers to prominence. Favored by 14, they had more talent on both sides of the ball than the Bill Parcells-led Patriots who got to New Orleans with a win in the AFC Championship over the second-year Jaguars. Mike Holmgren, Brett Favre and Reggie White were in the forefront all week as Green Bay was expected to make a victory lap of things.

The Packers struck early, responded to a third-quarter Curtis Martin touchdown burst that made it 28-21 with a kickoff return touchdown by Desmond Howard and cruised to a 35-21 victory (on the number).

Super Bowl XXXII
Denver Broncos vs. Green Bay Packers

Brett Favre and the Packers were supposed to go back-to-back. And John Elway and the Broncos were supposed to lose their fifth straight Super Bowl (Elway was part of the previous three).

Didn’t happen. With Elway leading a 92-yard third quarter drive capped by MVP Terrell Davis’ 1-yard plunge, the Broncos claimed a 24-17 lead. Green Bay tied it early in the fourth but Denver relied on Davis for his third TD run and the Broncos – 11-point underdogs – made sure Favre didn’t get his second Lombardi.

Super Bowl XXXIII
Atlanta Falcons vs. Denver Broncos

Broncos wide receiver Rod Smith said he could tell the Falcons were just “happy to be there,” as the two teams went through warm-ups. The Falcons – 7.5 point underdogs –were lucky too. The 15-1 Minnesota Vikings were victimized by a missed field goal in the NFC Championship and lost to Atlanta in overtime, paving the way for the Dirty Birds.

Safety Eugene Robinson got pinched for soliciting a prostitute the night before the game (dirty bird, indeed!) and the Broncos – in Tampa on a business trip – won 34-19.

Super Bowl XXXVI
New England Patriots vs. St. Louis Rams

Rams wide receiver Ricky Proehl said to a group of teammates just before kickoff that, “A dynasty is born tonight.” Proehl was right. And wrong.

The Greatest Show on Turf Rams – 14-point favorites going in – got slammed all over the Superdome for the first 45 minutes of the game and trailed 17-3 before a furious comeback behind Kurt Warner tied it with less than two minutes left.

But New England, quarterbacked by second-year man Tom Brady, got into position for a 48-yard Adam Vinatieri buzzer-beater and won 20-17. It was the first of their three Super Bowl wins and one of the three biggest Super Bowl stunners.

Super Bowl XLII
New York Giants vs. New England Patriots

Even though the Patriots beat the Giants in the regular season finale, 38-35, and were not the same, high-octane machine that rampaged the NFL earlier in the year, they were 18-0. Installing them as 12-point favorites made sense.

But the Giants, emboldened by their performance in that three-point loss to end the year and playing with “nothing to lose” abandon, out-toughed New England and pulled off one of the three biggest upsets in Super Bowl history.

© 2009 NBC Sports.com

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