Teams falling off a cliff that were surprising

[Rupert Patrick]

One team that should have been in this discussion but wasn't is the 1978 Colts. Winner of three straight divisional titles, the loss of Bert Jones for pretty much all but occasional appearances for the rest of his career sent this team over a cliff. The 38-0 undressing at the hands of Dallas in the MNF opener gave Baltimore fans a harsh purview of their beloved Colts' final five years in the city.

The thing that hurt the 1978 Colts as much as the Jones injury was the trading of Lydell Mitchell to San Diego (due to a nasty salary dispute) the week before the 1978 regular season began. The Colts got Joe Washington in return, who was good, but he wasn't of the calibre of Mitchell.

[Jay Z]

I expect people knew the early 1970s Colts were getting older, but they were not expected to decline as much as they did in 1972. The 1971 team was very impressive. The defense had plenty of younger players, Bubba Smith, Volk, Hendricks, Curtis were all going to be around for a while. Of course Bubba got hurt and was never the same. Curtis also started getting banged up. The team got off to a bad start, Joe Thomas fired McCaffrey and gutted the team.

[Evan]

1983 Jets: Fresh off of a 1982 AFC Title Game loss, they were expected to be a contender for Super Bowl 18. However, they had two straight 7-9 seasons in 1983 and 84.

This was the one that first came to mind to me. I lived on Long Island during that era, and the Jets were just loaded with blue-chip young talent that seemed ready to explode. A 14-2 type of year was forecast for 1983. Todd had seemingly matured, McNeil had emerged, Walker was still dangerous, the line had Powell, Fields, Ward, and the defense had the best pass rush in the league, and LB'ers like Buttle and Blinka who could make big plays. The DBs seemed ordinary, but weren't needed a whole lot because the pass rush was so good.

For what happened, I'd recommend reading Greg Prato's book "Sack Exchange". It's one of the better oral histories I've read. From the circumstances surrounding the departure of Walt Michaels, it traces an unfortunate fall of what could have been the premier team in the league by the mid-1980s.

[Saban1]

The Giants won three straight Eastern Conference titles during the early 60's, then unexpectedly fell to last place in 1964 with a record of 2 wins, 10 losses, and 2 ties.

The New York team won the Eastern Conference with an 11 and 3 record in 1963 and lost a close one to the Chicago Bears in the championship game. I don't think that anyone could see what was coming in 1964. When the Giants did not do so well in preseason games, Frank Gifford said "Listen, we'll win this thing -- because we always win." I think that most people believed him.

A tip off was losing their opener 38 to 7 to the not so powerful Philadelphia Eagles, a team that they beat easily twice in 1963.

There was questionable trades of defensive players Sam Huff and Dick Modzelewski, but the Giants' problems seemed to be more on the offensive side of the line that year

At the end of the year, Y.A. Tittle remarked that "We all played one year too long." By "we", I think that he was referring to the older Giants like Frank Gifford, Alex Webster, Andy Robustelli, Jack Stroud, Tom Scott, and himself, who all retired after the 1964 season.

[nicefellow31]

The Giants won three straight Eastern Conference titles during the early 60's, then unexpectedly fell to last place in 1964 with a record of 2 wins, 10 losses, and 2 ties.

The New York team won the Eastern Conference with an 11 and 3 record in 1963 and lost a close one to the Chicago Bears in the championship game. I don't think that anyone could see what was coming in 1964. When the Giants did not do so well in preseason games, Frank Gifford said "Listen, we'll win this thing -- because we always win." I think that most people believed him.

A tip off was losing their opener 38 to 7 to the not so powerful Philadelphia Eagles, a team that they beat easily twice in 1963.

There was questionable trades of defensive players Sam Huff and Dick Modzelewski, but the Giants' problems seemed to be more on the offensive side of the line that year

At the end of the year, Y.A. Tittle remarked that "We all played one year too long." By "we", I think that he was referring to the older Giants like Frank Gifford, Alex Webster, Andy Robustelli, Jack Stroud, Tom Scott, and himself, who all retired after the 1964 season.

What I also found interesting is that their Yankee stadium co-tenants were about to fall off a cliff as well. The Yankees had been dominant for almost 30 + years. I can only imagine what the NY Sports scene was like with both of these teams going into long spells of losing.

[sheajets]

1983 Jets: Fresh off of a 1982 AFC Title Game loss, they were expected to be a contender for Super Bowl 18. However, they had two straight 7-9 seasons in 1983 and 84.

This was the one that first came to mind to me. I lived on Long Island during that era, and the Jets were just loaded with blue-chip young talent that seemed ready to explode. A 14-2 type of year was forecast for 1983. Todd had seemingly matured, McNeil had emerged, Walker was still dangerous, the line had Powell, Fields, Ward, and the defense had the best pass rush in the league, and LB'ers like Buttle and Blinka who could make big plays. The DBs seemed ordinary, but weren't needed a whole lot because the pass rush was so good.

For what happened, I'd recommend reading Greg Prato's book "Sack Exchange". It's one of the better oral histories I've read. From the circumstances surrounding the departure of Walt Michaels, it traces an unfortunate fall of what could have been the premier team in the league by the mid-1980s.

What really irks me is that I believe they (and Green Bay around the same time) had Bill Walsh in for an interview about the HC position in 1979 and never offered him in

[Evan]

1983 Jets: Fresh off of a 1982 AFC Title Game loss, they were expected to be a contender for Super Bowl 18. However, they had two straight 7-9 seasons in 1983 and 84.

This was the one that first came to mind to me. I lived on Long Island during that era, and the Jets were just loaded with blue-chip young talent that seemed ready to explode. A 14-2 type of year was forecast for 1983. Todd had seemingly matured, McNeil had emerged, Walker was still dangerous, the line had Powell, Fields, Ward, and the defense had the best pass rush in the league, and LB'ers like Buttle and Blinka who could make big plays. The DBs seemed ordinary, but weren't needed a whole lot because the pass rush was so good.

For what happened, I'd recommend reading Greg Prato's book "Sack Exchange". It's one of the better oral histories I've read. From the circumstances surrounding the departure of Walt Michaels, it traces an unfortunate fall of what could have been the premier team in the league by the mid-1980s.

What really irks me is that I believe they (and Green Bay around the same time) had Bill Walsh in for an interview about the HC position in 1979 and never offered him in

In Jan. 1976 the Jets interviewed Walsh after he quit Cincinnati. In his book “Building a Champion”, Walsh wrote “The Seattle Seahawks and the New York Jets were looking for head coaches, and I was one of three top candidates. But both teams seemed to lose interest in me. I was really excited about the Jets job because I wanted to coach Joe Namath. He was right at the end of his career, and I thought to have Namath directing my offense would be terrific. Some people thought I was the logical choice, but Lou Holtz was hired.”

[BD Sullivan]

Regarding the fact that the Jets (and no other team) hired Walsh, it should be recalled that Paul Brown was reportedly trashing his abilities to every team. Instead of ignoring the rantings of someone whose ego and vindictiveness got the better of them, these teams presumably chose to bow before the aura that still surrounded Brown.

[Saban1]

I don't know if the 1967 Cleveland Browns would be considered a team that fell off a cliff, but it seemed that way to me because I watched most of the Browns games in 1966 and 1967. The 1966 team seemed like a wonderful team to me and I felt that they lost out on playing in the NFL Championship that year mostly because of inequities in the schedule. Of course, the Dallas Cowboys became a contender that year and were much improved over their 1965 team.

Every team in the east played one team from the west and Cleveland got to play Green Bay. The Browns lost that game by one point by an 8 yard for a TD screen pass to Jim Taylor near the end of the game after Cleveland had been leading the entire game up to that play. People were surprised that the Browns played the mighty Packers so tough, but it still was a game in the loss column that was big as far as the Eastern Conference race was concerned. The Dallas Cowboys played the Vikings that year as their Western opponent, who were not in the same class as the Packers, and won.

Anyway, there were other things, but I thought that the 1966 Browns were one of their best teams of the decade. So, in 1967, i thought that Cleveland would play about the same as they did n 1966. I was wrong. They did get one break in that the Eastern Conference was split into two divisions that year and the Browns were placed in something called the Century Division. Dallas was placed in the Capitol Division.

After only winning one preseason game, Cleveland did play Dallas in their opener at home and lost 21 to 14 and Dallas almost stopped the Browns running game cold. It was the fist time that Cleveland had ever lost a home game to Dallas after playing the Cowboys in Cleveland every year since 1961. Maybe a bad sign, but some might say that Cleveland did play Dallas tough, and Dallas was a good team.

The next week, the Browns looked terrible losing to Detroit 31 to 14 after leading early in the game 14 to 3. Then, 28 unanswered points by Detroit. I was then starting to wonder, "What is wrong with Cleveland this year?"

The most humiliating was a 55 to 7 loss to the Green Bay Packers. The Browns considered themselves to be about equal to the Packers, especially after their loss by only one point to Green Bay in 1966. That game (55 to 7 in 1967) pretty much killed that idea.

They also struggled to beat weak teams and were even upset by the Giants, who were the worst team in the NFL, and probably all of pro football the year before. They managed to win close games against the Cardinals twice, the Minnesota Vikings, and the Washington Redskins.

Due to playing in a weak division, the Cleveland Browns made the playoffs only to get slaughtered by the Dallas Cowboys 52 to 14. At Green Bay, Vince Lombardi watched the game to see who they should prepare to play the following week. After watching the game for about 5 minutes, Lombardi said,"OK, its Dallas." Lombardi and his staff then left the room to start preparing for the NFL Championship game with the Dallas Cowboys.

Cleveland did play in the old Playoff Bowl against the Los Angeles Rams the following week. The Browns dropped that one, 30 to 6. The sports headline in a local paper said, "Rams Toy With Browns, 30 to 6."

[Saban1]

I don't know if the 1967 Cleveland Browns would be considered a team that fell off a cliff, but it seemed that way to me because I watched most of the Browns games in 1966 and 1967. The 1966 team seemed like a wonderful team to me and I felt that they lost out on playing in the NFL Championship that year mostly because of inequities in the schedule. Of course, the Dallas Cowboys became a contender that year and were much improved over their 1965 team.

Every team in the east played one team from the west and Cleveland got to play Green Bay. The Browns lost that game by one point by an 8 yard for a TD screen pass to Jim Taylor near the end of the game after Cleveland had been leading the entire game up to that play. People were surprised that the Browns played the mighty Packers so tough, but it still was a game in the loss column that was big as far as the Eastern Conference race was concerned. The Dallas Cowboys played the Vikings that year as their Western opponent, who were not in the same class as the Packers, and won.

Anyway, there were other things, but I thought that the 1966 Browns were one of their best teams of the decade. So, in 1967, i thought that Cleveland would play about the same as they did n 1966. I was wrong. They did get one break in that the Eastern Conference was split into two divisions that year and the Browns were placed in something called the Century Division. Dallas was placed in the Capitol Division.

After only winning one preseason game, Cleveland did play Dallas in their opener at home and lost 21 to 14 and Dallas almost stopped the Browns running game cold. It was the fist time that Cleveland had ever lost a home game to Dallas after playing the Cowboys in Cleveland every year since 1961. Maybe a bad sign, but some might say that Cleveland did play Dallas tough, and Dallas was a good team.

The next week, the Browns looked terrible losing to Detroit 31 to 14 after leading early in the game 14 to 3. Then, 28 unanswered points by Detroit. I was then starting to wonder, "What is wrong with Cleveland this year?"

The most humiliating was a 55 to 7 loss to the Green Bay Packers. The Browns considered themselves to be about equal to the Packers, especially after their loss by only one point to Green Bay in 1966. That game (55 to 7 in 1967) pretty much killed that idea.

They also struggled to beat weak teams and were even upset by the Giants, who were the worst team in the NFL, and probably all of pro football the year before. They managed to win close games against the Cardinals twice, the Minnesota Vikings, and the Washington Redskins.

Due to playing in a weak division, the Cleveland Browns made the playoffs only to get slaughtered by the Dallas Cowboys 52 to 14. At Green Bay, Vince Lombardi watched the game to see who they should prepare to play the following week. After watching the game for about 5 minutes, Lombardi said,"OK, its Dallas." Lombardi and his staff then left the room to start preparing for the NFL Championship game with the Dallas Cowboys.

Cleveland did play in the old Playoff Bowl against the Los Angeles Rams the following week. The Browns dropped that one, 30 to 6. The sports headline in a local paper said, "Rams Toy With Browns, 30 to 6."

Cleveland did have some talented players on that 1967 team. Paul Warfield, Gary Collins, Ernie Green, etc., and Leroy Kelly was sensational. Don't know how Cleveland would have done without Kelly.

Quarterback Frank Ryan had a bad year due to a bunch of different injuries and had a terrible game against the Green Bay Packers when the Browns lost 55 to 7. This is probably the reason that receivers Warfield and Collins' numbers were lower than usual. Also, I think that they missed tight end Milt Morin, but Catfish Smith did well playing for Morin. The running game with Kelly and Green really carried Cleveland in 1967.