1956-1957 Chicago Cardinals

[Bryan]

The Chicago Cardinals had an unusually good year in 1956, finishing 7-5 and being #2 in points allowed. Their defensive secondary was top notch...Night Train Lane and a young Jimmy Hill at the corners, while Woodley Lewis, Lindon Crow, and Julian Spence shared the safety duties. Opposing passers managed only 8 TDs versus 33 INTs for a 33.5 rating.

The Cardinals were 3-9 in 1957 and had one of the worst defenses in the league. There were some changes in the front 7 on defense, including the underrated Stan West's removal from the important MG/MLB spot, but the Cardinals secondary was like a sieve. Spence was gone, Woodley Lewis had been questionably shifted back to offense, Night Train had some minor injuries. All in all, opposing passers had 17 TDs versus only 12 INTs for an 83.0 rating.

Was this 50 point rating differential the greatest passing defense collapse in history?

[oldecapecod11]

No doubt, this question will be answered as soon as our resident expert, tj troup, sees this thread.
It should not be long...

[King Kong]

1963 Bears had 34.8 passer rating against. The next year the Bears allowed opponents to have a 91.1 rating.

[coachtj]

....resident expert? how about ....addicted to film study? '56 cardinal secondary coached by wally l. and he is no longer coaching the cardinals in '57. left safety position without spence is a hole to be attacked. bears from 63-64 are much more interesting(and painful for me) same coach, same players. injury, and they just do not play as well. then they rebound in '65, and then coach allen leaves. which takes me to '67 bears which rank second at 42.7 using the "dooley defense". which is basically a rip at allen since it is a rolled nickel coverage. then dooley becomes head coach and bear secondary falters to 83.8. four other teams that plummeted are '77 colts 45.4(3rd) to a dead last ranking of 90.4, the '83 vikings at 70.3 to dead last in '84 under les s. at 104.4, the '66 chargers(1st) to last in '67 at 81.4, and finally the '74 browns at 61.6 to '75 at 90.4(25th). am sure there are others.

[BD Sullivan]

four other teams that plummeted are '77 colts 45.4(3rd) to a dead last ranking of 90.4, the '83 vikings at 70.3 to dead last in '84 under les s. at 104.4, the '66 chargers(1st) to last in '67 at 81.4, and finally the '74 browns at 61.6 to '75 at 90.4(25th). am sure there are others.

*The '78 Colts were devastated when Bert Jones was injured right before the season started, and never recovered for close to a decade--after moving to Indy. The Sack Pack collapsed, and of course, Robert Irsay came up with the brilliant idea to fire OFFENSIVE line coach Whitey Dovell during the season until Marchibroda intervened.

*The '84 Vikings won their last game in their 10th contest. In their last six games, they gave up almost as many points (241) as they had in the first 10 (243). After they had given up 45 to Green Bay for Game 11, Steckel accused the team of quitting--then apologized the next day after watching the films.

*The '67 Chargers were actually 8-1-1 when their defense imploded, allowing an average of 37 points per game in the last four contests. Before, they had only allowed 20 per game, with a 51-10 loss to Oakland skewing that number somewhat. The second Oakland meeting was a 42-21 loss that took a good deal of wind out of the team--it came after having played on Thanksgiving, so they put in a huge amount of extra time of preparation. Lamonica still ripped them apart.

*The '74 Browns were a team that had been running on fumes the year before when they finished 7-5-2. Age and bad drafts caught up with them.

[Rupert Patrick]

four other teams that plummeted are '77 colts 45.4(3rd) to a dead last ranking of 90.4, the '83 vikings at 70.3 to dead last in '84 under les s. at 104.4, the '66 chargers(1st) to last in '67 at 81.4, and finally the '74 browns at 61.6 to '75 at 90.4(25th). am sure there are others.

*The '78 Colts were devastated when Bert Jones was injured right before the season started, and never recovered for close to a decade--after moving to Indy. The Sack Pack collapsed, and of course, Robert Irsay came up with the brilliant idea to fire OFFENSIVE line coach Whitey Dovell during the season until Marchibroda intervened.

The collapse of the 1978 Colts was among the most shocking in pro football history, as going into the season, many thought the 78 season would be Baltimore's turn to win it all. During the 1975-77 window, Bert Jones was probably the best QB in the NFL during an era of a lot of HOF QB's and great HOVG types like Stabler and Anderson. To try to find a comparable player for Jones, I would say Tom Brady, except injuries brought Jones down after three seasons. Bert Jones would have been in my opinion one of the all time greats if he had not suffered arm injuries.

The thing that also ruined the Colts was the loss of Lydell Mitchell to the Chargers, as Mitchell was an all purpose back who could run and catch a lot of screens. Without Jones, I think the Colts would have been a .500 team with Mitchell, but without Jones and Mitchell, the Colts quickly became one of the worst teams in the league.

[Shipley]

Colts GM Joe Thomas must be part of this discussion too. Yes, he did a good job blowing up an aging roster in the early 70s and quickly rebuilding it into a playoff team, but he became increasingly crazy and paranoid, which is also part of why they fell apart so quickly after several playoff appearances.

Getting back to the original topic of this thread, one move Cards coach Pop Ivy made as incoming coach in 1958 was to trade for Dick Nolan of the Giants, presumably to fortify his secondary. I think he sent Pat Summerall and Lindon Crowe to the Giants in exchange, but would welcome confirmation of that. Luckily for him, Nolan was traded back to the Giants after one season with the Cardinals, who I'd describe as one of several NFL Siberia teams from the 50s (others would be Packers, Steelers, Eagles, Yanks/Bulldogs, Redskins, etc.) I interviewed Nolan a couple of years before he died for a Coffin Corner profile I did about him ("Dick Nolan: Man of Many Seasons"). My father was his teammate at Maryland in the early 50s, and I met him at a reunion to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1953 national championship.

[Rupert Patrick]

Colts GM Joe Thomas must be part of this discussion too. Yes, he did a good job blowing up an aging roster in the early 70s and quickly rebuilding it into a playoff team, but he became increasingly crazy and paranoid, which is also part of why they fell apart so quickly after several playoff appearances.

Thomas was gone from Baltimore after the 1976 season, where he moved on to be the GM in San Francisco. His destruction of all the 49ers historical artifacts and legacy is in my opinion a crime against humanity. Thomas quickly wore out his welcome in San Fran following his paranoia following the assassination of Harvey Milk, where Thomas feared he was the next target of the assassin and tried to get the MNF game (Steelers at 49ers) that evening postponed.

[Bryan]

1963 Bears had 34.8 passer rating against. The next year the Bears allowed opponents to have a 91.1 rating.

Good find...an even bigger drop than the Cards.

[Bryan]

Colts GM Joe Thomas must be part of this discussion too. Yes, he did a good job blowing up an aging roster in the early 70s and quickly rebuilding it into a playoff team, but he became increasingly crazy and paranoid, which is also part of why they fell apart so quickly after several playoff appearances.

I view it as being the opposite. Thomas did a tremendous job at rebuilding the Colts in short order and fielding a competitive team in the tough AFC East division. The Colts fell apart so quickly because they lost their best players due to either injury (Jones, Kunz) or trade (Mitchell, Chester). The team in general and the defense specifically was kind of an overachieving group, so losing Bert Jones was probably going to spell instant doom regardless of anything else. For instance, in 1979 Jones won more games in 4 starts (3) than Greg Landry won in 12 starts (2). I think the Colts would have been better off with Joe Thomas than without him, and I don't see how Thomas' actions could be reason as to why the Colts fell apart so quickly.

Thomas' tenure in SF was a disaster, but he did acquire Freddie Solomon, Fred Quillan and Steve DeBerg, and most of popular veterans he unloaded didn't do much in their post-SF careers (much like the Colts previously). The one move I don't understand because it was so uncharacteristic of Joe Thomas was the trade for OJ Simpson (which eventually netted Buffalo Joe Cribbs and Jim Kelly). I have to assume that DeBartolo was behind it, because Thomas attributed no value to "crowd favorites" and would never unload draft picks for veteran players. It made no sense. Not being able to attract a decent head coach after Monte Clark forced his way out was probably the big reason why Joe Thomas would never succeed in SF, but the Simpson trade was the nail in the coffin, IMO.