Data story · NFL
The biggest NFL comebacks of the last ten seasons.
In 2,639 regular-season games from 2016 to 2025, only nine winners were ever 21 points behind, and one was 33 behind. A comeback is a strip that starts deep in one team’s colour and crosses to the other side at the very end.
Every strip on this page is a real NFL strip from the Huezle app, drawn by the app’s own code. More about NFL.
How to read the strips
Each strip is one game, one band per minute of play, from Kick-off on the left to the Final Whistle on the right. Teal means the away team was leading, burnt orange means the home team was leading, and pale sand means the score was tied. The deeper the colour, the bigger the lead, up to full colour at 17 points. A regular game is 60 bands; overtime adds more.
Because every lead of 17 or more is drawn at full strength, a 33-point hole and a 21-point hole look equally deep. What tells them apart is how long the dark run lasts and how late it breaks.
Vikings 39, Colts 36 (2022)
- Away Leading
- Tied
- Home Leading
Nothing else in these ten seasons comes close. Minnesota, at home, trailed Indianapolis by 33 points at halftime and were still 33 down six minutes into the third quarter. They pulled level in the final minutes of regulation and won 39–36 with the last score of overtime. It is the comeback usually cited as the largest in NFL history. On the strip, a solid run of teal fades to sand and only tips into orange in the final band.
Down 21 in the fourth quarter
- Away Leading
- Tied
- Home Leading
The next-biggest deficit overcome is 21 points, and eight games share it. The one that waits longest is Miami at Baltimore in Week 2 of 2022: the Ravens led from the first minute, were 21 ahead from halftime into the fourth quarter, and Miami took its first lead of the game in the last minute. Because Miami were the away team, this strip runs the other way: orange first, teal only at the end.
Same deficit, different shapes
The 21-point comebacks are not all alike, and that is what makes them nameable. Where the deep colour sits, and when the strip crosses over, tells one game from another.
- Away Leading
- Tied
- Home Leading
- Away Leading
- Tied
- Home Leading
- Away Leading
- Tied
- Home Leading
The Colts over the Bengals in 2020 is the early comeback, with most of the strip in the winner’s colour. The Cowboys over the Eagles in 2025 dug out of the same hole at the same point and still needed the last minute. The Chiefs over the Chargers in Week 1 of 2016 led briefly in the first quarter, fell 21 behind in the third, and won 33–27 in overtime, so its strip is longer than 60 bands.
How rare a comeback is
| Biggest deficit the winner faced | Games, 2016–2025 | Share of decided games |
|---|---|---|
| 10 points or more | 352 | about 1 in 7 |
| 14 points or more | 133 | about 1 in 20 |
| 17 points or more | 42 | about 1 in 63 |
| 21 points or more | 9 | about 1 in 290 |
Of the 2,639 games, 10 ended tied and 2,629 had a winner. 2020 had the most comebacks from 17 points or more, with nine.
Not official records. The margin is read at the end of every minute of play, so a lead that existed for only a few seconds inside a minute can be missed, and these deficits can differ slightly from the official play-by-play. The data covers regular-season games from 2016 to 2025 only; playoff games are not included.
For football on a holiday, see Thanksgiving football trivia. For a season-long comeback rather than a single game, the Premier League’s great escapes reads the same way. The rest of the comebacks, and every blowout, are waiting in the NFL category.
Huezle draws one game’s score, minute by minute, and asks which two teams played. Try a comeback.
Download on the App StoreFree on iPhoneQuestions
What is the biggest comeback in NFL history?
The Minnesota Vikings’ 39–36 overtime win over the Indianapolis Colts in December 2022, after trailing 33–0 at halftime, is the comeback usually cited as the largest. In Huezle’s data, no other regular-season winner from 2016 to 2025 trailed by more than 21.
How many NFL teams have come back from 21 points down?
In the 2016 to 2025 regular seasons, nine winners trailed by 21 points or more at the end of a minute of play, counting the Vikings’ 33-point comeback. The deficits are read once a minute, so they are close to but not the same as official figures.
What was the biggest fourth-quarter comeback in recent seasons?
Among 2016 to 2025 regular-season games, the Miami Dolphins were 21 points behind the Baltimore Ravens two minutes into the fourth quarter in September 2022 and won 42–38. Only the Vikings, in overtime, overcame a bigger fourth-quarter deficit.
More guides
- Premier League great escapes, matchday by matchday.Clubs that sat bottom of the Premier League late in the season and stayed up, and two that fell from the top half to relegation, drawn matchday by matchday.
- The greatest Premier League title races, matchday by matchday.Premier League title races since 1995-96 as strips of colour: late swings, wire-to-wire champions, Leicester in 2015-16 and the leaders who let it slip.
- Thanksgiving football, minute by minute.Thanksgiving football trivia: six Lions and Cowboys holiday games from the last ten years drawn as strips of colour, one band per minute. Can you name them?
- How to read a century of presidential elections in colour.US presidential elections since 1900 drawn as strips of colour, one band per state from west to east. Learn to read the eras from four real strips.
Now try naming one yourself.
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