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Those are two questions you’ll either ask or get ahead of the Super Bowl 56 matchup between the Bengals and Rams.
Super Bowl squares is a common office pool or party game, and it is easy to play. It’s a game of chance and each player draws two “numbers” but it can make the Super Bowl experience more rewarding if your favorite team isn’t playing.
How do you play Super Bowl squares? Which numbers produce the winning combination most? Here is Sporting News’ guide to those questions, including rules, tips and a printable squares grid.
SUPER BOWL PICKS: Against the spread | Straight up
How do Super Bowl squares work?
- Print a 10×10 grid or set one up virtually using one of the many free sites out there.
- Be sure to include an extra blank row (horizontal) and column (vertical) for drawing numbers.
- Get your party guests, co-workers and any other players to select squares by signing their initials within the grid. Each square is worth one entry.
- The board is set when all 100 squares are filled. It is important to fill out the entire board before numbers are drawn.
- Draw numbers 0-9 at random for both teams.
- Winners are traditionally determined by the second digits of the score at the end of each quarter. For example, if the Chiefs have a 17-10 halftime lead, the player whose initials occupy the square with a “7 for the Chiefs and a “0” for the Buccaneers is the winner.
Most Super Bowl squares are played on a 10×10 grid with a “home” team row on top and the “visitor” column on the side. So in this year’s matchup, the Bengals would be across the top and the Rams would be down the side.
A grid starts with 100 “squares.” You can make the grid on a poster board or download a grid online, and it helps to have those squares labeled from 1-100.
The next step is filling out the board. That needs to be done before you randomly draw the numbers for each team.
How should you pick a square? It could be a family birthday, a jersey number or a sentimental number. The truth is it doesn’t matter. The numbers for the Bengals and Rams will be drawn at random once all the boxes in the 100-square grid are filled.
One thing to keep in mind. If you select multiple squares in the same row or column, then that decreases the number combinations you will have because you will only have one number for one of the two teams.
TIP: You can also use “winning score” and “losing score” instead of the team names for a more complex pool, but for the sake of simplicity we will stick with “Bengals” and “Rams.”
When all 100 squares have been filled out with players, then the board is set.
Then, it’s time to draw numbers. Which numbers should excite you most?
What are the best numbers for Super Bowl squares?
Most Super Bowl squares pools give a prize at the end of the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter and the final score.
There have been a total of 220 winning number combinations in Super Bowl history (which is a limited sample size), but here’s how those combinations have hit by quarter. The home team is on the horizontal access and the road team is on the vertical axis.
For reference, in the game between the Buccaneers and Chiefs last season the winning combos were 7-0, 1-6, 1-9 and 1-9.
In the history of the Super Bowl, the four best combinations have been 0-0 (19 times), 0-3 (11 times), 0-7 (11 times) and 7-0 (10 times).
| COMBO | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | SUM |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 11 |
| 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 33 |
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 24 |
| 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| 6 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 24 |
| 7 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 38 |
| 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 9 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 15 |
| 0 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 19 | 55 |
| SUM | 17 | 4 | 36 | 24 | 4 | 10 | 44 | 10 | 7 | 64 | 220 |
How to draw numbers for squares
You should designate a person to hold a drawing to randomly place numbers 0-9 across the Bengals row and the Rams column. Use Post-It notes, an online number generator or get creative. This is supposed to be fun.
TIP: You could also do a 25-square grid where each home and road team gets two numbers instead of one. In that case, each player would have two numbers for each team. This is a good way to make the game fun at smaller gatherings.
Once the board is full, each player has two numbers.
Your numbers should align with your square from both the vertical and horizontal position. So, let’s say your numbers are “7” for the Bengals and “3” for the Rams.
How do you win Super Bowl squares?
Most standard Super Bowl squares pools pay a winner after the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter and final score. How is that determined? Go back to those numbers of “7” and “3.”
That player would win if the Bengals lead 7-3 or Rams lead 13-7 after the first quarter. The magic “number” is always the last number in the score. Obviously, 7, 3 and 0 are among the most-popular numbers, even if it doesn’t always work out.
Printable Super Bowl squares grid
Need a printable grid for your Super Bowl squares? Now that you know how to fill it out, here’s a PDF version for Super Bowl 56.
You can download your Super Bowl squares grid by clicking here.
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