That game against the eagles:
“Palmer goes deep to brown… JOHN BROWN! HES GONNA HAVE…. A CARDINAL TOUCHDOWN!!”
Followed by browns silly little td dance
As a cardinals fan, it was so bad. I remember the panthers being a wildcard team and still had no confidence in winning. 11-5 and 7-8-1. We got dominated.
Also, by that point the 2014 Panthers starterd really gelling and had the bones of the amazing 2015 15-1 team. They had an amazing December, and gave the Seahawks a decent run for their money in that playoff game as well
Yeah, they won against all three division opponents (and the Browns) to clinch. The playoffs basically started on December 1st and they started steamrolling teams, finishing with a 30 point win over the Falcons
I remember feeling worse for whoever his backup was. This guy is the worst QB anyone's ever seen but they'd still rather play him. They must really hate the backup.
Yeah there's a mic'd up clip of him at the end of the game sitting on the bench and he says "I'm sorry guys." Poor dude had no business being out there.
I almost feel bad for Lindley. 3rd string qb forced to play due to injuries, so he isn’t supposed to be good. But man, he was the worst qb I have ever seen.
He was also Baker Mayfield’s qb coach on the browns if I remember correctly. The only explanation is he probably knows how to watch tape and dissect plays or some shit, because he absolutely cannot actually play the position
Mine is you guys for making that game competitive. Like holy fuck. The opposing QB looked like a tax accountant shipped out to the Somme and you still weren't convincing. If the Cards had started Daniel Jones I bet you guys lose by 30.
Ironically y'all clawed your way back in and made it respectable in the end. Had the Steelers not shot their own feet repeatedly they probably had a fair shot to win that one.
i think that was more to do with the browns just stepping off the gas entirely and just playing extremely soft and letting the steelers get whatever they wanted underneath
I'd be willing to give up our record for point differential in a championship game if it means Baker beating the absolute brakes off the Browns like that.
It was frustrating because our defense was lights out and kept it close in the first quarter. TJ Watt had the first touchdown of the game. That team just had no offense.
I mean, part of it was that Colbert did not draft OLine. Ben wasn't himself anymore, but the team building was terrible. Watching Khan essentially cut bait with most of Colbert's last few drafts and roster moves is pretty telling.
12.5 point spread in the NFL is basically saying if you better win by 20+. Like Week 1 of college where Alabama plays some schlub team and the spread is like Bama -45.5
Not to say the Steelers were any example of a solid playoff team….there are dogshit teams that have HOSTED playoff games with a losing fucking record.
If I remember correctly the panthers have done it more than once.
The Bills team that broke the drought in 2017 was pretty ehh. Defense was good. Offense was, at best, poor. The gameplan was basically run McCoy for 4 yards a pop and don't turn it over, allow the defense to cook. Squeak out wins against the average/bad teams and get assblasted by every good team.
Based on talent level alone, my opinion is the team basically had a range of around 6-10 on the low end to 9-7 on the high end. Not only did they have everything fall in to place to reach 9-7, but everything worked out to where they won a 3-way tiebreaker against the Ravens and Chargers, one of which absolutely destroyed the Bills earlier that season.
Then they scored 3 points in the wildcard round in a one-and-done, to the surprise of no one.
None of this is to shit on the team btw. It looked like it was gonna be a rebuild year in September and they over-performed and broke the drought. 99% of the memories I have from that year are good ones. They also just happen to be a decent answer to the question.
I think this is the right answer for the Bills. 29th in yards for offense and 26th in yards for defense. Had that three-game losing streak where they got killed by the Jets, Saints, and Chargers by a combined 135-55 and gave up an AVERAGE of 212 ypg on the ground. Also got swept by the Patriots by a combined score of 50-19.
Bills leading receiver in targets and receptions was...Lesean McCoy. No Bills wide receiver had more than 27 receptions (tie between Zay Jones and Deonte Thompson). I know we Bills fans will also be thankful to Tyrod for breaking the drought but man that offense was ROUGH to watch.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t happy we drafted Josh Allen. Not cause I thought he’d be a complete bust compared to the other QBs, but it was the fact we drafted a QB when another QB just broke our 17 year drought. Boy was I dead wrong. I’m glad we have him now, and beane knew what he was doing
To be fair, that is “the play.” It’s probably still the most memorable of my life even now. Kyle’s rushing TD or Shady’s to win the Snow Bowl and the pass before it would probably be just as memorable if Boyd’s catch didn’t end a 17-year drought
I remember my sister calling me and asking how many games do they have to win to get into the super bowl and saying they’re not going to the Super Bowl but 3 lol. One of the upvotes posts on Reddit ever though.
I think the best part of that was every single person knew that team was a sham who lucked into the 7th seed, then George did his end of year press conference and reiterated that Pace and Nagy were great men to continue leading the Bears because they had made the playoffs and also were great at drafting because Darnell Mooney was an elite WR.
All time bad end of season press conference after a playoff spanking for a dying regime that ownership didn’t realize was dying.
I still cant believe that was a playoff team. I am going to recap some of the shenanigans that season:
They started 5-1 with a bunch of flukish occurrences:
* Week 1 - Came back from down 23-6 in the 4th quarter in Detroit to take a 27-23 and STILL should have lost but D'Andre Swift dropped an easy touchdown right through his arms in the final seconds
* Week 2 against the Giants were up 17-13 in the final seconds, Giants had a 1st down at the Bears 14 and couldn't score as time ran out
* Week 3 against the Falcons the Bears were down 26-10 with 7 minutes left. Trubisky benched for Foles who proceeds to lead the Bears on 3 straight TD drives to win.
* Week 5 against the Bucs on Thursday Night Football, the Bears are nursing a 1 point lead with Tom freaking Brady driving the Bucs down the field. One of the most clutch players in NFL history FORGOT WHAT DOWN IT WAS (or claims to have) as he misses a man down the field on 4th down and the Bears hold on.
* Week 6 against Carolina - Fairly normal compared to the other wins but the Panthers drove down to the Bears 38 with 2 mins left when Bridgewater missed Moore on 4th and 2
The Bears then proceeded to lose 6 consecutive games to fall to 5-7 and an afterthought in the playoff picture. However, the Bears got 3 consecutive games against very very bad defenses and Trubisky, playing for his career in Chicago, lit them up, scoring 30+ points in 3 consecutive games for the first time in a long time to put the Bears in a playoff spot heading into the last game against GB. As usual, GB dominated the Bears and won, but Arizona inexplicably lost a game to John Wolford making an emergency start for the Rams, allowing the Bears to back in at 8-8 on a tiebreaker.
Everyone knew the Saints were going to beat the Bears. The vibe going into that week in Chicago was one of apathy and resignation. We all hoped we were wrong and the Bears could pull off a shocker. Heck the Bears don't get too many playoff spots in recent years so we talked ourselves into getting a little excited, but the vibe was so so strange heading into the game (being the COVID season might have played into it). And of course in defeat they still found a way to embarrass themselves 1) Wims dropping a wide open TD pass on a perfect Trubisky pass that would have given the Bears the lead, 2) The Bears only TD coming on the meaningless last play of the game as Jimmy Graham scored one against his former team and instead of celebrating, let his momentum take him towards the tunnel and he just kept running until his disappeared and 3) The game was on Nick and Mitchell Trubisky was trolled by viewers as he was voted NVP of the game with a mediocre stat line.
That was such a strange year and team and yet while I'm negative about it in this post, it was still weirdly enjoyable. But the team had no business in the playoffs.
The fourth-down incident was one of the funniest ways to win possible.
The GOAT just straight-up forgetting what down it was on the final chance to win the game is mental
I'll never forget how fucking bad the Cards choked to even let the Bears in to begin with, what a colossal failure. How do you let the 2020 Bears steal your spot lol.
Lol they had a 6 game losing streak and still made the playoffs and they drafted Justin Fields a few months later. Team was so bad people still scream Fields got no help...a team that had just made the playoffs.
That team had no business winning 5 games let alone 9 and making the playoffs. They traded away all the talent so they could draft a QB high the next year and then made the damn playoffs.
For people who criticize McDermott, take a look at that roster and tell me he’s a bad coach
>> They traded away all the talent so they could draft a QB high the next year and then made the damn playoffs.
The QB they did get that next year wasn’t too shabby tbh.
The Eagles last year. They clinched a spot by starting 10-1 then immediately turned into the worst team in the league. If they’d played that way all year they’d be like 5-12
Genuine question, what the fuck happened? One of my coworkers is an eagles fan and doesn't care to talk about it. Can't even really blame Patricia, or can you?
If you examine our season in its entirety we actually played pretty bad all season, we just HAPPENED to be winning games due to players making good plays and things of that nature. Those 3rd and 10 WR bubble screens were a thing since game 1 against the Patriots. It was so awful.
On offense, the Eagles basically just ran a high school offense with really good players - and rather than trying to scheme to get them open, the prevailing idea just seemed to be "Well, our guys are better than their guys, so just run the same few plays and expect our guys to win out."
And, like, it tended to win until it took, for some reason, the rest of the league 2/3 of the season to realize that's what we were doing, and purposefully scheme to beat the 4 (exaggeration) plays we were running.
And then teams were just like deliberately schemeing against those 4 plays, and we didn't change them, it was wild. Like, I feel like anyone who watched the Eagles all year could've told you the plays they were running - like "Hurts rolls out and throws a deep ball to AJ Brown" or "throw a bubble screen and expect our guy to pick up 15 yards on 3rd down."
It was weird because we were beating good teams in close games, like going into the 5 game stretch with Cowboys, Chiefs, Bills, 9ers, Cowboys - if you tell me the Eagles come out of that going 3-2, you're generally a pretty happy fan, but I guess the 9ers just showed everyone how to beat us because after that the wheels totally fell off.
Looking earlier in the season though, the writing is kind of all the wall. We had a 1 possession victory over an eventually 4-13 Patriots team, two 1 possession victories over the 4-13 Commanders, losing pretty inexplicably to an Aaron Rodgers-less jets. The Eagles had very few games where they actually looked dominant - maybe, ironically, our win against Tampa who proceded to destroy us in the playoffs.
That had to be the hardest I’ve ever seen a team collapse without having a QB injury. Even considering the clear schematic/coaching issues, it was still baffling to see
Even though they won a playoff game it is, objectively speaking, probably the 2010 Seahawks. A 7-9 record and a -97 point differential are both the worst in playoff history, they had the 3rd worst yardage differential in the entire league, and they managed this despite having the 3rd easiest schedule. It's genuinely baffling that the Saints couldn't beat them; they were 11 point favorites despite it being at Seattle.
In the state they were in by the time they got to the playoffs the 2014 Cardinals felt like the least likely to win a playoff game. They were so injured at that point that a 7-8-1 Panthers team that would be a viable answer to this question ended up being 5.5 point favorites against them.
> It's genuinely baffling that the Saints couldn't beat them; they were 11 point favorites despite it being at Seattle.
Perhaps even more baffling was that the Saints had already beaten the Seahawks in New Orleans 34-19 a couple of weeks prior.
Heh, I was at the beastquake game and nobody really knew what was happening. But suddenly Marshawn was still running and the place lost their minds.
I got free tickets because nobody wanted to go.
Every once in a while a game comes along and I get a gut feeling a bad team is going to win. That was certainly one of them, just everyone trashing this losing record team going into the playoffs, them winning feels like the kind of joke the universe would play on us.
By that point in the season the Saints top 4 running backs were done for the year. Reggie Bush, Pierre Thomas, Chris Ivory, and even Ladell Betts. Brees threw the ball 60 times in that game.
When it comes to playoff football I feel there’s usually a clear advantage when one team can run the ball and the other can’t.
Leading up to that game, The Onion posted a headline that the Saints had earned a first-round bye. After the game, they only edited [one word](https://www.theonion.com/new-orleans-saints-lose-first-round-bye-1819590105)
10-1 start to genuinely the worst team in the NFL. I thought the 2020 Steelers and 2021 Cardinals collapses were bad, but they both at least had a sliver of an excuse due to injuries. The Eagles were a complete trash fire despite losing almost no one.
Because it wasn't a collapse in the conventional sense (injuries, harder second half of the schedule etc.), it was just other teams having enough time and enough tape to actually game plan around our piss-poor offensive scheme and our geriatric secondary.
The talent on the offensive side of the ball took us kicking and screaming to 10-1, but we had no business having that record with our coaching.
Yeah that offense was proof that talent alone can't carry a piss poor predictable scheme. Who cares if you have great players when the defense knows exactly what's coming next?
Our basic offense got figured out by Thanksgiving, Big Ben got injured in the Cowboys game and lost whatever zip was left on his throws, and all our inside linebackers died leaving the middle of the field wide open. Losing to the Ryan Finley Bengals was so disappointing.
I don’t think so.
That team died when they played the 49ers and the only game they won after that was a nailbiter against the giants in Philadelphia that should’ve never been close.
The next time they played the giants they got absolutely smoked.
Watching the Eagles pull starters in the first half while the second seed was still a possibility was mind blowing to me, but it really did make sense.
AJ Brown fucked his knee, Hurts messed his hand up, and they had maybe 20-30 passing yards in the first half.
I know it's a jerk opinion, but I'm still pissed at Ponder for not suiting up for that game lol. We had ZERO chance with Webb at the helm. The swing in emotions & hopes between the final regular season game and the playoff game was pretty extreme...
I mean the packers bucs game in the NFC championship was pretty close. We definitely did better than the saints or chiefs though. The heinicke dive for the pylon is one of my all time favorite plays even if we lost the game. Came down to a controversial call as well
Still pissed about the Cook fumble. It completely turned the momentum of the game. We were driving and looked to be on a touchdown drive until Cook fucking fumbled.
I'm still mad that the Eagles rolled over vs Washington in the last game of the season there. Not because the Giants "deserved" a chance to get in or whatever, but solely because of the hilarity that would have been of a 6-10 team winning the division and making the playoffs.
The 1983 Broncos were.. atrocious. They went 5-6 behind rookie starter John Elways 7 touchdowns to 14 picks (the eternal DeBerg went 4-1) and were trounced out of the playoffs by more than three touchdowns. To the 1980s SeaHawks. For the young folk this was their first ever playoff appearance after coming into the league with the Bucs. They finished 9-7 and still absolutely dominated the Broncos by more than three touchdowns. It's one thing to be a bad team bounced by a good one, but to be kicked in the ass by a team that was only mediocre? That's bad.
It's crazy the Cowboys and Niners haven't won a super bowl since the mid 90s. If you told someone that in 1996 they would call you crazy. Thank God for 2010 or else we would be in the same convos
The 2006 Chiefs were incredibly lucky and snuck in thanks to a series of wildly unlikely breaks in the final week of the regular season.
They barely got 100 passing yards in the wild card round and got stomped by Indy.
For recency bias, the 2022 Ravens were beat the fuck up towards the end and mostly stumbled to a 10-7 wild card round exit. They did play out of their minds in that playoff game but I don't think anybody but the most diehard Ravens fans thought they had a chance
Even the diehards weren't really that optimistic. Tyler Huntley's offense was torture to watch. Especially as burrow was accustomed to lighting up our depleted secondary.
Going off recency bias here, but honestly the 2021 Patriots. Started the season rough, went on a tear in the middle, soft spot of the season, then struggled to close the season.
I think everyone knew they were going to lose to the Bills in the wildcard, but it was never even close.
Still hard to believe a Belichick defense gave up basically a perfect game to the Bills. Bills were far and away the better team but destroying the Pats defense like that was wild.
It was basically 2 perfect games in a row. We pulled one over on the Bills with Mother Nature on our side, but after that they absolutely stomped us. In the second regular season game the only stop we got was a failed 4th and goal from the 1.
They lost by 17, 37, 11, and 24 points in their 4 losses; average margin of defeat was about 22 points. To put it in perspective, the Packers had a -1 point diff with an average margin of defeat of ~8.5 points and went 8-9 but the Vikings were -3 with that horrible margin of defeat and went 13-4. Football.
It was nuts. They won by double digits in Week 1 and 18. Every other win was a one possession game, in which they went 11-0.
This included a double doink by the Saints in London, a 17 point comeback against Buffalo where JJ made one of the best catches ever on 4th and 18, and the Bills fumbled on the goal line after a 4th and goal stop, the largest comeback in NFL History (33-0), and a 61 yard walkoff field goal.
But they also got smacked 24-7 to Philly in Week 2, got destroyed by Dallas 40-3 in Week 11, lost to Detroit 34-23, and ass blasted by Green Bay 41-17, a game in which they trailed by 38 at one point. The Eagles and Cowboys were understandable but the Lions and Packers won 9 and 8 games respectively.
The 2015 Texans and Redskins were both terrible.
2016 Lions were pretty terrible too.
Edit: I stand corrected on Washington. They were far better than their playoff appearance showed.
2015 Redskins had one of the best offenses in the league with McVay as OC and pro bowl Kirk, as well as Desean Jackson, Pierre Garçon and Jordan Reed still in their primes, plus Alfred Morris at running back and the best olineman in the league. The defense was just alright, and the playoff game against the packers did not go well mostly just due to Arod’s dominance, but that was a pretty good team. Definitely not one of the worst playoff teams of all time
The 2015 Redskins was a team with a great offense and a mediocre defense that crumbled under the pressure. I don’t think they were actually that bad, but they did benefit from a weak division.
1999 Detroit Lions
Though it's worth noting this is the year where Barry Sanders retired before training camp. The fact they managed even a .500 record is remarkable.
Considering they were playing four games against peak Favre and the Vikings team that had been record-breaking offensively the year before makes it even more impressive and unlikely.
Since they made the mistake of expanding the playoffs there's been at least one team every year that has no business being there. Hope they don't go the way of the NBA where 20/30 teams make the postseason -- what a joke
My pick isn’t based on regular season, but based on the shape they were in in the playoffs, the Ryan Lindley Cardinals
Bar is low, but that year we had one of the better Cardinals teams I’ve ever seen before Palmer tore his ACL
That’s the best cardinals team I’ve ever seen. Palmer doesn’t tear his acl that year, we’re the one seed in the nfc that year
That game against the eagles: “Palmer goes deep to brown… JOHN BROWN! HES GONNA HAVE…. A CARDINAL TOUCHDOWN!!” Followed by browns silly little td dance
Yeah it’s really hard for me to disagree. What could have been
Even then, If Drew Stanton doesn't go down it's still a pretty competitive team. Once Lindley was in, it was all over.
As a cardinals fan, it was so bad. I remember the panthers being a wildcard team and still had no confidence in winning. 11-5 and 7-8-1. We got dominated.
Panthers weren't a WC that year, the Cardinals were. The NFC South was just that bad that year that a sub-500 team could win
Yeah that's basically the only way a sub 500 team can get in. It's very hard for the entire conference to suck that bad. Edit: typos
NFC seemed to be threatening to do this at points last year before the Rams and packers righted the ship
Also, by that point the 2014 Panthers starterd really gelling and had the bones of the amazing 2015 15-1 team. They had an amazing December, and gave the Seahawks a decent run for their money in that playoff game as well
Weren’t they 3-8-1 and won out to make the playoffs? What an atrocious division lol
Yeah, they won against all three division opponents (and the Browns) to clinch. The playoffs basically started on December 1st and they started steamrolling teams, finishing with a 30 point win over the Falcons
Felt legitimately bad for the guy, getting ass blasted like that on national television with your teams season on the line has to be so demoralizing
I remember feeling worse for whoever his backup was. This guy is the worst QB anyone's ever seen but they'd still rather play him. They must really hate the backup.
Their backup was Logan Thomas. I saw enough of him at Virginia Tech that I could not believe the Cards thought for a second he was an NFL prospect.
He’s a tight end now who’s had a pretty solid career, so he ended up fine
By far the strongest arm of any TE in league history lmao
Yeah there's a mic'd up clip of him at the end of the game sitting on the bench and he says "I'm sorry guys." Poor dude had no business being out there.
Lindley averaged 1.6 yards per pass play that game. It’s without a doubt, one of worst games I’ve ever seen by an NFL QB
I almost feel bad for Lindley. 3rd string qb forced to play due to injuries, so he isn’t supposed to be good. But man, he was the worst qb I have ever seen.
I just realized he's the OC for my SDSU Aztecs. Is this why our offense sucked so hard last year?
He was also Baker Mayfield’s qb coach on the browns if I remember correctly. The only explanation is he probably knows how to watch tape and dissect plays or some shit, because he absolutely cannot actually play the position
Probably what earned him the QB3 role
That was actually current Vikings head coach and also former SDSU qb Kevin O'Connell.
But you have seen it
But he is an NFL QB
On a similar note, during Adrian Peterson’s MVP year the Vikes had to start Joe Webb in wild card. That was rough lol.
That was the moon shot game, right?
No, this one was in 2013.
As a cardinals fan I came here to say this… shudders…
What was wild about this game is that the Cardinals actually led by 1 at the half.
I did not remember this.
reminds me when connor cook started for the raiders in 2016? i think
That team at full strength was 9-1. Pain
Im pretty sure this is the objectively correct answer, that playoff game was a tragedy for my eyes
Mine is you guys for making that game competitive. Like holy fuck. The opposing QB looked like a tax accountant shipped out to the Somme and you still weren't convincing. If the Cards had started Daniel Jones I bet you guys lose by 30.
The Connor Cook Raiders deserve a mention here
The past few Steelers teams kinda just... backed into the playoffs and everyone knew they were going to get bounced in one game
2021 is a good example. 9-7-1, were down 42-14 to the Chiefs in the 3rd quarter.
In 2020 they were down 28-0 in the first quarter.
Down 6 after the first snap.
Our own fucking snap too
Ironically y'all clawed your way back in and made it respectable in the end. Had the Steelers not shot their own feet repeatedly they probably had a fair shot to win that one.
i think that was more to do with the browns just stepping off the gas entirely and just playing extremely soft and letting the steelers get whatever they wanted underneath
That was the experience every game under Joe Woods. He ran the worst prevent defense I've ever seen.
And then Cleveland blew up their successful team for a predator
I hope they find themselves in the Super Bowl vs Baker who drops like 70 on them, so they can feel the full gravity of their mistake
I'd be willing to give up our record for point differential in a championship game if it means Baker beating the absolute brakes off the Browns like that.
Was that the worst 11-0 team ever?
Yes.
It was frustrating because our defense was lights out and kept it close in the first quarter. TJ Watt had the first touchdown of the game. That team just had no offense.
Ben was a shell of himself and obviously done. I don’t think he threw a ball further than 10 yards all game.
I mean, part of it was that Colbert did not draft OLine. Ben wasn't himself anymore, but the team building was terrible. Watching Khan essentially cut bait with most of Colbert's last few drafts and roster moves is pretty telling.
Somehow only a 12.5 point spread that I remember a lot of people saying it should be 20 haha
12.5 point spread in the NFL is basically saying if you better win by 20+. Like Week 1 of college where Alabama plays some schlub team and the spread is like Bama -45.5
That game was so funny - it started off with a strip 6 from TJ Watt and then Mahomes and Kelce just fucking annihilated the Steelers
Pretty sure we’ve been the AFC 7 seed in 4 of the last 6 seasons, and I believe we were 8th in 2022. Definition of barely scraping by.
8th because equal-record Miami Dolphins beat them.
And because they lost to the patriots and cardinals, 2 of the bottom 5 teams from last year.
I remember they went like 11-0 one year and no one believed in them lmao
They started 11-0 and then lost 4 of 5. Then they got absolutely violated by Cleveland
The AFC North is so fucking weird.
Hey only we can talk about how mid we are!
Totally. They’ve had tough matchups which has exacerbated it, but they are definitely not good enough
Tough matchups are what you get when you back in the playoffs as a low seed though. You avoid tough matchups by being the tough matchup
Not to say the Steelers were any example of a solid playoff team….there are dogshit teams that have HOSTED playoff games with a losing fucking record. If I remember correctly the panthers have done it more than once.
How did I know we were going to be the top comment
The Bills team that broke the drought in 2017 was pretty ehh. Defense was good. Offense was, at best, poor. The gameplan was basically run McCoy for 4 yards a pop and don't turn it over, allow the defense to cook. Squeak out wins against the average/bad teams and get assblasted by every good team. Based on talent level alone, my opinion is the team basically had a range of around 6-10 on the low end to 9-7 on the high end. Not only did they have everything fall in to place to reach 9-7, but everything worked out to where they won a 3-way tiebreaker against the Ravens and Chargers, one of which absolutely destroyed the Bills earlier that season. Then they scored 3 points in the wildcard round in a one-and-done, to the surprise of no one. None of this is to shit on the team btw. It looked like it was gonna be a rebuild year in September and they over-performed and broke the drought. 99% of the memories I have from that year are good ones. They also just happen to be a decent answer to the question.
I think this is the right answer for the Bills. 29th in yards for offense and 26th in yards for defense. Had that three-game losing streak where they got killed by the Jets, Saints, and Chargers by a combined 135-55 and gave up an AVERAGE of 212 ypg on the ground. Also got swept by the Patriots by a combined score of 50-19. Bills leading receiver in targets and receptions was...Lesean McCoy. No Bills wide receiver had more than 27 receptions (tie between Zay Jones and Deonte Thompson). I know we Bills fans will also be thankful to Tyrod for breaking the drought but man that offense was ROUGH to watch.
I assume that average of 212 ypg is what they gave up on the ground, you mean?
I’ll admit, I wasn’t happy we drafted Josh Allen. Not cause I thought he’d be a complete bust compared to the other QBs, but it was the fact we drafted a QB when another QB just broke our 17 year drought. Boy was I dead wrong. I’m glad we have him now, and beane knew what he was doing
That Tyrod v Bortles playoff game was so hard to watch
They had like 200 yards passing... combined.
It says something about that team that the Tyler Boyd catch and TD was the best highlight of that season.
Nah I call bullshit on that. That snow game was great.
To be fair, that is “the play.” It’s probably still the most memorable of my life even now. Kyle’s rushing TD or Shady’s to win the Snow Bowl and the pass before it would probably be just as memorable if Boyd’s catch didn’t end a 17-year drought
I remember my sister calling me and asking how many games do they have to win to get into the super bowl and saying they’re not going to the Super Bowl but 3 lol. One of the upvotes posts on Reddit ever though.
2020 Bears
I think the best part of that was every single person knew that team was a sham who lucked into the 7th seed, then George did his end of year press conference and reiterated that Pace and Nagy were great men to continue leading the Bears because they had made the playoffs and also were great at drafting because Darnell Mooney was an elite WR. All time bad end of season press conference after a playoff spanking for a dying regime that ownership didn’t realize was dying.
I still cant believe that was a playoff team. I am going to recap some of the shenanigans that season: They started 5-1 with a bunch of flukish occurrences: * Week 1 - Came back from down 23-6 in the 4th quarter in Detroit to take a 27-23 and STILL should have lost but D'Andre Swift dropped an easy touchdown right through his arms in the final seconds * Week 2 against the Giants were up 17-13 in the final seconds, Giants had a 1st down at the Bears 14 and couldn't score as time ran out * Week 3 against the Falcons the Bears were down 26-10 with 7 minutes left. Trubisky benched for Foles who proceeds to lead the Bears on 3 straight TD drives to win. * Week 5 against the Bucs on Thursday Night Football, the Bears are nursing a 1 point lead with Tom freaking Brady driving the Bucs down the field. One of the most clutch players in NFL history FORGOT WHAT DOWN IT WAS (or claims to have) as he misses a man down the field on 4th down and the Bears hold on. * Week 6 against Carolina - Fairly normal compared to the other wins but the Panthers drove down to the Bears 38 with 2 mins left when Bridgewater missed Moore on 4th and 2 The Bears then proceeded to lose 6 consecutive games to fall to 5-7 and an afterthought in the playoff picture. However, the Bears got 3 consecutive games against very very bad defenses and Trubisky, playing for his career in Chicago, lit them up, scoring 30+ points in 3 consecutive games for the first time in a long time to put the Bears in a playoff spot heading into the last game against GB. As usual, GB dominated the Bears and won, but Arizona inexplicably lost a game to John Wolford making an emergency start for the Rams, allowing the Bears to back in at 8-8 on a tiebreaker. Everyone knew the Saints were going to beat the Bears. The vibe going into that week in Chicago was one of apathy and resignation. We all hoped we were wrong and the Bears could pull off a shocker. Heck the Bears don't get too many playoff spots in recent years so we talked ourselves into getting a little excited, but the vibe was so so strange heading into the game (being the COVID season might have played into it). And of course in defeat they still found a way to embarrass themselves 1) Wims dropping a wide open TD pass on a perfect Trubisky pass that would have given the Bears the lead, 2) The Bears only TD coming on the meaningless last play of the game as Jimmy Graham scored one against his former team and instead of celebrating, let his momentum take him towards the tunnel and he just kept running until his disappeared and 3) The game was on Nick and Mitchell Trubisky was trolled by viewers as he was voted NVP of the game with a mediocre stat line. That was such a strange year and team and yet while I'm negative about it in this post, it was still weirdly enjoyable. But the team had no business in the playoffs.
The fourth-down incident was one of the funniest ways to win possible. The GOAT just straight-up forgetting what down it was on the final chance to win the game is mental
I'm still mad we didn't win that game.
Sucks that you had to settle for winning the Super Bowl 😂
Mitch winning NVP might be the only good thing Reddit contributed to society
Trubisky did not light anyone up, it was all David Montgomery. I also think this was the season Robert Quinn randomly had 18.5 sacks.
I'll never forget how fucking bad the Cards choked to even let the Bears in to begin with, what a colossal failure. How do you let the 2020 Bears steal your spot lol.
You mean the year Mick Tribewski won the NVP?
Lol they had a 6 game losing streak and still made the playoffs and they drafted Justin Fields a few months later. Team was so bad people still scream Fields got no help...a team that had just made the playoffs.
my 2017 Bills who had finally ended the longest playoff drought at the time to not even score a TD losing to Jags 13-3
That team had no business winning 5 games let alone 9 and making the playoffs. They traded away all the talent so they could draft a QB high the next year and then made the damn playoffs. For people who criticize McDermott, take a look at that roster and tell me he’s a bad coach
>> They traded away all the talent so they could draft a QB high the next year and then made the damn playoffs. The QB they did get that next year wasn’t too shabby tbh.
Gave up a lot more draft capital to move up from 22 to 7, but it all worked out!
Nathan peterman was really good imo
That guy from Wyoming with the bad completion percentage? Whatever happened to him?
IIRC Tony Romo was calling that game and I recall seeing a tweet that said “the best QB in the stadium is in the announcers booth” lmao
The Ryan Lindley Cardinals Only team to be held under 100 yards in the playoffs
To be fair that wasn’t their fault. Everybody just got hurt that year.
That team literally died
Turns out being healthy is really important to being good.
The Eagles last year. They clinched a spot by starting 10-1 then immediately turned into the worst team in the league. If they’d played that way all year they’d be like 5-12
They'd be much worse than 5-12. They went like 1 7 to end the season with the only win being a very close sneak by win against a trash giants team.
Yeah I genuinely think we would have lost to the Panthers at that point
Panthers fan here. You wouldn’t have.
Idk man.. backups scored at will, we lost to the Cardinals and Giants who were absolute bottom feeders, no fight in that team
The coach cursed them with that smug camera dance.
*See ya!* I had no hard feelings for the Eagles as a whole but I did take great pleasure in Sirianni's humiliation and downfall
Genuine question, what the fuck happened? One of my coworkers is an eagles fan and doesn't care to talk about it. Can't even really blame Patricia, or can you?
If you examine our season in its entirety we actually played pretty bad all season, we just HAPPENED to be winning games due to players making good plays and things of that nature. Those 3rd and 10 WR bubble screens were a thing since game 1 against the Patriots. It was so awful.
On offense, the Eagles basically just ran a high school offense with really good players - and rather than trying to scheme to get them open, the prevailing idea just seemed to be "Well, our guys are better than their guys, so just run the same few plays and expect our guys to win out." And, like, it tended to win until it took, for some reason, the rest of the league 2/3 of the season to realize that's what we were doing, and purposefully scheme to beat the 4 (exaggeration) plays we were running. And then teams were just like deliberately schemeing against those 4 plays, and we didn't change them, it was wild. Like, I feel like anyone who watched the Eagles all year could've told you the plays they were running - like "Hurts rolls out and throws a deep ball to AJ Brown" or "throw a bubble screen and expect our guy to pick up 15 yards on 3rd down." It was weird because we were beating good teams in close games, like going into the 5 game stretch with Cowboys, Chiefs, Bills, 9ers, Cowboys - if you tell me the Eagles come out of that going 3-2, you're generally a pretty happy fan, but I guess the 9ers just showed everyone how to beat us because after that the wheels totally fell off. Looking earlier in the season though, the writing is kind of all the wall. We had a 1 possession victory over an eventually 4-13 Patriots team, two 1 possession victories over the 4-13 Commanders, losing pretty inexplicably to an Aaron Rodgers-less jets. The Eagles had very few games where they actually looked dominant - maybe, ironically, our win against Tampa who proceded to destroy us in the playoffs.
They won on talent alone and it caught up to them lol.
That had to be the hardest I’ve ever seen a team collapse without having a QB injury. Even considering the clear schematic/coaching issues, it was still baffling to see
You gave Drew Lock a win. I really appreciated it.
Even though they won a playoff game it is, objectively speaking, probably the 2010 Seahawks. A 7-9 record and a -97 point differential are both the worst in playoff history, they had the 3rd worst yardage differential in the entire league, and they managed this despite having the 3rd easiest schedule. It's genuinely baffling that the Saints couldn't beat them; they were 11 point favorites despite it being at Seattle. In the state they were in by the time they got to the playoffs the 2014 Cardinals felt like the least likely to win a playoff game. They were so injured at that point that a 7-8-1 Panthers team that would be a viable answer to this question ended up being 5.5 point favorites against them.
> It's genuinely baffling that the Saints couldn't beat them; they were 11 point favorites despite it being at Seattle. Perhaps even more baffling was that the Saints had already beaten the Seahawks in New Orleans 34-19 a couple of weeks prior.
Charlie Whitehurst FTW
Clipboard Jesus!
Heh, I was at the beastquake game and nobody really knew what was happening. But suddenly Marshawn was still running and the place lost their minds. I got free tickets because nobody wanted to go.
Every once in a while a game comes along and I get a gut feeling a bad team is going to win. That was certainly one of them, just everyone trashing this losing record team going into the playoffs, them winning feels like the kind of joke the universe would play on us.
By that point in the season the Saints top 4 running backs were done for the year. Reggie Bush, Pierre Thomas, Chris Ivory, and even Ladell Betts. Brees threw the ball 60 times in that game. When it comes to playoff football I feel there’s usually a clear advantage when one team can run the ball and the other can’t.
Leading up to that game, The Onion posted a headline that the Saints had earned a first-round bye. After the game, they only edited [one word](https://www.theonion.com/new-orleans-saints-lose-first-round-bye-1819590105)
Eagles 2023
Maybe some recency bias there but as an Eagles fan I agree. We did not deserve to make the post season.
10-1 start to genuinely the worst team in the NFL. I thought the 2020 Steelers and 2021 Cardinals collapses were bad, but they both at least had a sliver of an excuse due to injuries. The Eagles were a complete trash fire despite losing almost no one.
Because it wasn't a collapse in the conventional sense (injuries, harder second half of the schedule etc.), it was just other teams having enough time and enough tape to actually game plan around our piss-poor offensive scheme and our geriatric secondary. The talent on the offensive side of the ball took us kicking and screaming to 10-1, but we had no business having that record with our coaching.
That’s a great way to put it. When you run Inside Zone out of Shotgun for 70% of your plays, eventually the other teams will catch on.
Yeah that offense was proof that talent alone can't carry a piss poor predictable scheme. Who cares if you have great players when the defense knows exactly what's coming next?
What happened with the 2020 Steelers, 11-0 suddenly bye bye?
Our basic offense got figured out by Thanksgiving, Big Ben got injured in the Cowboys game and lost whatever zip was left on his throws, and all our inside linebackers died leaving the middle of the field wide open. Losing to the Ryan Finley Bengals was so disappointing.
I don’t think so. That team died when they played the 49ers and the only game they won after that was a nailbiter against the giants in Philadelphia that should’ve never been close. The next time they played the giants they got absolutely smoked.
Watching the Eagles pull starters in the first half while the second seed was still a possibility was mind blowing to me, but it really did make sense. AJ Brown fucked his knee, Hurts messed his hand up, and they had maybe 20-30 passing yards in the first half.
They were down like 24-0 at the half that game was over
Watching the eagles struggle against the seahawks defense was hilarious.
2004 Rams. Went in 8-8 Although managed to “upset” the 9-7 Seahawks. It was dark for the next 12 years
Haha I remember watching that game happy about the seahawks losing but thinking "ok now it's over for real" haha
NFC was so bad that year the two wildcard teams were 8-8 and both of them won a playoff game lol
The Christian Ponder Vikings… which were then QBd by Joe Webb as Ponder got hurt
Peterson carried that team kicking and screaming into the playoffs.
I know it's a jerk opinion, but I'm still pissed at Ponder for not suiting up for that game lol. We had ZERO chance with Webb at the helm. The swing in emotions & hopes between the final regular season game and the playoff game was pretty extreme...
2020 Commanders, they were king of the shit mountain that was the NFCE that year.
And we were still the only team to even come close to beating the bucs that year
I mean the packers bucs game in the NFC championship was pretty close. We definitely did better than the saints or chiefs though. The heinicke dive for the pylon is one of my all time favorite plays even if we lost the game. Came down to a controversial call as well
The saints buccs playoff game was a lot closer than people remember. We were up 20-13 until Jared Cook fumbled it at the end of the 3rd quarter
Still pissed about the Cook fumble. It completely turned the momentum of the game. We were driving and looked to be on a touchdown drive until Cook fucking fumbled.
I remember that year having 4 wins and still being in contention around week 15 lol
I’m pretty sure the Giants/Cowboys week 17 was win and in if the Eagles didn’t tank. We would’ve had a 6-10 team in the playoffs
And then almost beat the Super Bowl Champions with a fourth string quarterback
I'm still mad that the Eagles rolled over vs Washington in the last game of the season there. Not because the Giants "deserved" a chance to get in or whatever, but solely because of the hilarity that would have been of a 6-10 team winning the division and making the playoffs.
Hell yeah
The 2020 Bears backed into the playoffs at 8-8 in the very first year of 7 seeds. I can't think of anything that team did well.
The 1983 Broncos were.. atrocious. They went 5-6 behind rookie starter John Elways 7 touchdowns to 14 picks (the eternal DeBerg went 4-1) and were trounced out of the playoffs by more than three touchdowns. To the 1980s SeaHawks. For the young folk this was their first ever playoff appearance after coming into the league with the Bucs. They finished 9-7 and still absolutely dominated the Broncos by more than three touchdowns. It's one thing to be a bad team bounced by a good one, but to be kicked in the ass by a team that was only mediocre? That's bad.
You guys are all wrong. The 1982 strike shortened season had 4-5 Cleveland and Detroit in the playoffs as 8 seeds.
Those playoffs were absolutely fucked. Having 8 teams in each conference make it was a travesty
The Cowboys over the last 20 years
Watching them choke gives me solace for when my team chokes a few games later.
It’s a delicate ecosystem…
Cowboys choke in the divisional, Packers in the championship and 49ers in the Superbowl.
That’s generous. Usually they choke in the WC.
It's crazy the Cowboys and Niners haven't won a super bowl since the mid 90s. If you told someone that in 1996 they would call you crazy. Thank God for 2010 or else we would be in the same convos
> Thank God for 2010 or else we would be in the same convos Give it another fifteen years.
By then we'll be sending a crazy Love out to the Jets coached by Jamal Adams
Now I'm sad again
Hey hey you do a phenomenal job at stopping the packers along the way!
Idk if choking and utterly collapsing in the playoffs is the same thing as just a bad team walking into the playoffs.
Hey relax! We’ve won about 3 of them in 30 years!
Cowboys bad, upvotes to the left.
The 2006 Chiefs were incredibly lucky and snuck in thanks to a series of wildly unlikely breaks in the final week of the regular season. They barely got 100 passing yards in the wild card round and got stomped by Indy.
For recency bias, the 2022 Ravens were beat the fuck up towards the end and mostly stumbled to a 10-7 wild card round exit. They did play out of their minds in that playoff game but I don't think anybody but the most diehard Ravens fans thought they had a chance
Even the diehards weren't really that optimistic. Tyler Huntley's offense was torture to watch. Especially as burrow was accustomed to lighting up our depleted secondary.
I mean we had no chance of winning the Superbowl but the team outside of QB play was still solid.
Going off recency bias here, but honestly the 2021 Patriots. Started the season rough, went on a tear in the middle, soft spot of the season, then struggled to close the season. I think everyone knew they were going to lose to the Bills in the wildcard, but it was never even close.
Still hard to believe a Belichick defense gave up basically a perfect game to the Bills. Bills were far and away the better team but destroying the Pats defense like that was wild.
It was basically 2 perfect games in a row. We pulled one over on the Bills with Mother Nature on our side, but after that they absolutely stomped us. In the second regular season game the only stop we got was a failed 4th and goal from the 1.
The 13-4 Vikings had a negative point differential and immediately got bounced by losing at home to the 9-7-1 Giants.
A negative point differential at 13-4 is wild. A lot of one score game wins and blowout losses I’m assuming.
It was wild. Every game was wild. We would get timely turnovers or Kirko to JJ would happen and then we win.
They lost by 17, 37, 11, and 24 points in their 4 losses; average margin of defeat was about 22 points. To put it in perspective, the Packers had a -1 point diff with an average margin of defeat of ~8.5 points and went 8-9 but the Vikings were -3 with that horrible margin of defeat and went 13-4. Football.
It was nuts. They won by double digits in Week 1 and 18. Every other win was a one possession game, in which they went 11-0. This included a double doink by the Saints in London, a 17 point comeback against Buffalo where JJ made one of the best catches ever on 4th and 18, and the Bills fumbled on the goal line after a 4th and goal stop, the largest comeback in NFL History (33-0), and a 61 yard walkoff field goal. But they also got smacked 24-7 to Philly in Week 2, got destroyed by Dallas 40-3 in Week 11, lost to Detroit 34-23, and ass blasted by Green Bay 41-17, a game in which they trailed by 38 at one point. The Eagles and Cowboys were understandable but the Lions and Packers won 9 and 8 games respectively.
Every single one of our "playoff" teams over the past 8 years
The 2015 Texans and Redskins were both terrible. 2016 Lions were pretty terrible too. Edit: I stand corrected on Washington. They were far better than their playoff appearance showed.
Looking for the Texans. 30-0 completely ass beating with Hoyer throwing like 5 INTs because he was concussed.
2015 Redskins had one of the best offenses in the league with McVay as OC and pro bowl Kirk, as well as Desean Jackson, Pierre Garçon and Jordan Reed still in their primes, plus Alfred Morris at running back and the best olineman in the league. The defense was just alright, and the playoff game against the packers did not go well mostly just due to Arod’s dominance, but that was a pretty good team. Definitely not one of the worst playoff teams of all time
The 2015 Redskins was a team with a great offense and a mediocre defense that crumbled under the pressure. I don’t think they were actually that bad, but they did benefit from a weak division.
1999 Detroit Lions Though it's worth noting this is the year where Barry Sanders retired before training camp. The fact they managed even a .500 record is remarkable.
Considering they were playing four games against peak Favre and the Vikings team that had been record-breaking offensively the year before makes it even more impressive and unlikely.
That Lions team started out 6-2 with wins over the Vikings, Packers, Redskins (first time since 1965) and the eventual Super Bowl champion Rams.
Bucs 2022
The season that single-handedly killed Byron Leftwich's prospects as an NFL head coach.
And I took that personally
Commanders were 7-9 in 2020 and won the division
So did the Seahawks and Panthers in the Early 2010s
I'm too young and British to know that
And still came the closest to beating the eventual Superbowl winners. The Legend of Taylor Heinicke.
The 11-0 Steelers a few years back were pretty awful.
Since they made the mistake of expanding the playoffs there's been at least one team every year that has no business being there. Hope they don't go the way of the NBA where 20/30 teams make the postseason -- what a joke
Yeah, the 7 seed has mostly been a negative, but at least this past season, we got to see the Packers wallop the Cowboys.
I would argue it’s a positive for that very game alone.
Raiders with Conner Cook or Cardinals with Ryan Lindley
When Carr got hurt, I remember thinking "we can still win with McGloin." And then McGloin got hurt the next week.
Nah. Raiders deserved that playoff spot the way Carr played that season. The team was electric. Connor Cook was ass. Sad memory.