Notable/Interesting 7-9 teams in NFL history

[Crazy Packers Fan]

Ooh, here's a good one: 1998 Pittsburgh Steelers. They beat Green Bay, they beat Jacksonville, and they were in fantastic playoff position at 7-4. Then came the collapse. I don't remember what caused the collapse, because I was too focused on that razor-thin wild card race between the Packers and the 49ers in the NFC. I know that most of Pittsburgh blamed Kordell Stewart, but given what we saw from him three years later, I think he didn't get a fair shake. That Steelers team looked like a Super Bowl contender before the collapse; they wound up with a losing record.

[Brian wolf]

Of course, the 2010 Seahawks, who won their division at 7-9 and had that memorable wild card win over a better Saints team with Lynch going Beast Mode.

Looking back, I couldnt believe Cutler and the Bears were 8 point favorites over them in the divisional round. I almost took the Hawks as underdogs, thinking Hasselbeck would play well in Chicago, but instead, he stunk up the joint, allowing the team to replace him in 2011. However ... considering that the offense and especially the defense would improve in 2011 and 2012, could Hasselbeck had won it all with them in 2013 had he stayed?

If Hasselbeck stays in 2011-12, do they still add Wilson?

In his ten years with the Seahawks, Hasselbeck could have easily topped over 200 TD passes and 31,000 yards passing, had his receivers caught his passes better. They were notorious for dropping the ball, though misty, rainy weather, played a factor.

[ShinobiMusashi]

One of my favorite teams of all time is one that is a bit of an oddball at 7-9, the 2004 Houston Texans;

-The team was only 3 years old after starting as an expansion team in 2002.

-I don't know that they were forgotten about, more like nobody really knew anything about this team to begin with. Even in real time I couldn't believe how little coverage or talk they got on any pregame shows. And even today most Houston Texans fans now have no clue about this season.

-This whole season was just a fun ride to be a fan of this team since the start to live through in real time. This team was a lot better than anybody remembers

-Started the season off with a close loss at home against a 12-4 Chargers team that was loaded with talent; Drew Brees, Ladanian Tomlinson, etc, had them tied up at 20-20 going into 4th quarter before losing it 27-20. Then followed by the most frustrating loss of the season in week 2 in Detroit to the Lions, a team they should have beaten.

-After an 0-2 start they go into Arrowhead and upset the Chiefs team loaded with HOF'ers, Jared Allen, Priest Holmes, Willie Roaf, Will Shields, Tony Gonzalez. Defense puts in one of the best performances of the season on the road against 2nd ranked offense in NFL that year with Jamie Sharper going pretty much one on one with Priest Holmes all game. Andre Johnson has one of the best catches of his career to secure the win late in the game. This had to have been a crushing blow to Kansas City, who were 0-2 going in, the best offense in the league in what was supposed to be a get right game at home and they got taken down and put to 0-3.

-The next week they beat the Raiders in the only time the franchise ever played against The GOAT Jerry Rice, first every win streak in franchise history to get to 2-2. Another fantastic game by Jamie Sharper, who deserves way more credit than he gets for his 3 years he spent on the expansion Texans 2002-2003-2004.

-The week after that they come back from 21-0 to take the Vikings into OT in one of the better games of the entire 2004 NFL season, an underrated regular season gem, duel between Randy Moss vs Andre Johnson with some spectacular moments. They end up losing it in the end off a walk off Culpepper bomb in OT.

-Week 6 after that comes the very first ever win over the Titans in franchise history, which to me meant just as much if not more than the first win over Dallas in the inaugrual game.

-They follow up with a great 20-6 win over Jaguars that featured one of my favorite moments in team history when Demarcus Faggins ran back a pick six to secure the win and jumped up on the wall in the end zone with the fans(one of my favorite pictures in NFL history, has always been my desktop background still to this day). This win put the Texans at 4-3, their first ever winning record, if not for the overtime loss to the Vikings they would have been 5-2.

Look at David Carr's stat line during the 6 game stretch from week 2 to week 8 of that season and it looked like we had a legit QB with a future in the NFL:

Win/Loss record: 4-2
Completions: 119/184(64.7)
Yards: 1,688(281 per game avg)
TD/INT: 9/3
Rating: 103.7

-From there the reality sinks in with 2 really bad losses to Denver and Indianapolis, blowout losses that put Houston back at 4-5

-Then came the Sunday Night Football game against another legend against Green Bay and Favre. The game was going good until Carr got suplexed on his head and knocked out. This was a fun primetime game(first primetime game since the inaugural game vs Dallas) that Green Bay won 16-13 on a FG that BAAAARELY made it in. Houston was very close to winning this game.

-They rebounded from that 3 game losing streak by completing the first ever sweep of the Titans, this time beating them in Houston for the very first time, in a 21-3 comeback with another great Andre Johnson catch to secure the win.

-2 more losses to 2 tough teams followed with losses to the Colts and Jets dropping the Texans to 5-8.

-The defense dominated the next 2 games vs the Bears and Jaguars, only allowing 5 total points in both games. Aaron Glenn, Jamie Sharper, and Gary Walker were a fun group to watch. Also rookie CB Dunta Robinson to me was the rightful NFL ROTY he had a phenomenal rookie year(that he could never live up to the rest of his career unfortunately). The two wins got them to 7-8.

-They finished the season with a super ugly 22-14 loss to a pretty terrible Cleveland Browns team to finish 7-9, this was a pretty big preview of things to come in 2005, just a total lack of effort in this game that had the crowd booing the team.

Running back Dominick Davis was absolutely a beast, broke onto the scene in 2003 his rookie year a 4th round draft pick and had some phenomenal games, didn't come in really full time until around 6th week of 2003 and just killed it and ran for 1,031 yards in 10 starts. Was an underrated unheralded breakout star of that season that got no love from the NFL media that year. Runs for 1,188 and 13 touchdowns in 2004 with 68 receptions and 588 receiving yards. Had to have been the MVP of that terrible 2005 team, ran for 976 yards in only 11 games he played. His last 2 games before going out with season ending injury he runs for 155 yards against Baltimore then 139 against Tennessee the next week then he goes down and out for the season. Reinjured before the start of the 2006 season and that was the end of his career, he gets pretty much totally forgotten. Man from what I seen pound for pound during that stretch I would say he was the most talented running back in Houston Texans team history even over Arian Foster. Especially considering who was blocking for him. Put him behind Vonta Leach, Duane Brown, Chris Myers that came here in the years after he got hurt and man that's a scary thought. And then saying that got to feel like his talent was wasted on this Texans team with zero o-line, had he been drafted by anybody else I feel like he would have been a huge star in the NFL those years 2003-2005, a guy that was running for 1,500-1,800 yards MVP caliber runner. To me he was the ultimate what if in team history and one of those unsung forgotten guys in 2000's NFL. Now you can't even find a highlight video of the guy.

This was the very first time to get excited about the team. It really felt like they had a bright future and that there was something there with the trio of Carr, Davis, and Andre Johnson(Randy Cross called them the triplets of the new millenium in the Chiefs game with a graphic with all 3 guys).

This was the first time to feel like Texans had a shot at the playoffs and small little window that I have so much nostalgia for. Of course it fell apart through the rest of the year(still some fun games though including sweeps of Jags and Titans, the close loss to Favre on SNF). The buzz and excitement wouldn't reach this level again until late 2009 or after the 2-0 start to 2010 season, a full 5-6 years later, the early Kubiak years didn't have any of the feels like this little window did.

But looking back they played a pretty tough schedule, with losses to some tough playoff teams, the Jets, Colts X2(the year Manning was on fire breaking Marino's TD record), Minnesota, Green Bay, Denver, and San Diego, that's 7 of their 9 losses with the other 2 being frustrating losses to the 2 worst teams in the league that year in Detroit and Cleveland so a team that should have been 9-7, and a few of those losses to the playoff teams were super close games(Minnesota, Green Bay, San Diego), should have been 9-7 team, very close to being 10-6/11-5 or 12-4 team.

[ShinobiMusashi]

Ooh, here's a good one: 1998 Pittsburgh Steelers. They beat Green Bay, they beat Jacksonville, and they were in fantastic playoff position at 7-4. Then came the collapse. I don't remember what caused the collapse, because I was too focused on that razor-thin wild card race between the Packers and the 49ers in the NFC. I know that most of Pittsburgh blamed Kordell Stewart, but given what we saw from him three years later, I think he didn't get a fair shake. That Steelers team looked like a Super Bowl contender before the collapse; they wound up with a losing record.

Good one. They collapsed again in 1999 after a decent start if I remember right. Its a wonder that Cowher survived that period and kept his job.

[JohnTurney]

1995 Rams
New Coach, Rich Brooks, in a more dynamic offense, supposedly, a lot of 11 personnel, away from Ground Chuck II
Starts 5-1 and after 13 weeks in the hunt at 7-6

running game was poor, Jerome Bettis didn't fit in an offense without solid lead blocker and of course replaced on 3rd downs. The defense was a big play defense, scored 5 defensive TDs but gave uo yards. Played a pas rush defense (Jet defense) and would get gashed but had good athletes on D-Line.

Sean Gilbert was moved to RDE from defensive tackle, had to be one of biggest 4-3 DEs ever. D'Marco Farr made a ton of big plays. Kevin Carter a rookie.
... defense played a good deal of dime and nickel ... more than in past seasons, or at least since Fritz Shurmur was there.

however, lots of errors on offense and STs gave up 9 non offensive TDs, including 3 in final 3 weeks, causing them to go 7-9. But over last 3 weeks Chris Miller out and Mark Rypien threw for a lot of yards playing a lot of catchup.

Ike Bruce ended the year with over 1,700 yards (no pro bowl - couple big games came after the voting).

team went backward in 1996 (they though Lawrence Phillips was ideal back for t hat offense) then two very bad years under Vermeil.

Rams were thought to have turned a corner mid season of 1995, talk of sneaking into a wild card spot but wheels came off in the end. IMO Isaac Bruce, Roman Phifer, D'Marco Farr, Toby Wright, Todd Lyght were pro bowl-adjacent players, probably Wayne Gandy, too. On a good team, some of those guys go to Hawaii. Always though was an interesting team, first year in new city, adjustments, new coach, new schemes on offense and defense, started well, then held it together, then folded in the end.

[ShinobiMusashi]

1995 Rams
New Coach, Rich Brooks, in a more dynamic offense, supposedly, a lot of 11 personnel, away from Ground Chuck II
Starts 5-1 and after 13 weeks in the hunt at 7-6

running game was poor, Jerome Bettis didn't fit in an offense without solid lead blocker and of course replaced on 3rd downs. The defense was a big play defense, scored 5 defensive TDs but gave uo yards. Played a pas rush defense (Jet defense) and would get gashed but had good athletes on D-Line.

Sean Gilbert was moved to RDE from defensive tackle, had to be one of biggest 4-3 DEs ever. D'Marco Farr made a ton of big plays. Kevin Carter a rookie.
... defense played a good deal of dime and nickel ... more than in past seasons, or at least since Fritz Shurmur was there.

however, lots of errors on offense and STs gave up 9 non offensive TDs, including 3 in final 3 weeks, causing them to go 7-9. But over last 3 weeks Chris Miller out and Mark Rypien threw for a lot of yards playing a lot of catchup.

Ike Bruce ended the year with over 1,700 yards (no pro bowl - couple big games came after the voting).

team went backward in 1996 (they though Lawrence Phillips was ideal back for t hat offense) then two very bad years under Vermeil.

Rams were thought to have turned a corner mid season of 1995, talk of sneaking into a wild card spot but wheels came off in the end. IMO Isaac Bruce, Roman Phifer, D'Marco Farr, Toby Wright, Todd Lyght were pro bowl-adjacent players, probably Wayne Gandy, too. On a good team, some of those guys go to Hawaii. Always though was an interesting team, first year in new city, adjustments, new coach, new schemes on offense and defense, started well, then held it together, then folded in the end.

That's another good one, if I remember right Mark Rypien came in for a few games as a backup and didn't do bad. I was a big Rypien fan because Super Bowl XXVI was like the first game I can remember ever watching and he was like superhero of the game, so throughout the 90's I always rooted for him whenever he would come in as a backup(with the Browns in 94, and the Rams in 95). If I remember right he came in and played well in a game against the Vikings in the Metrodome the same field where he won the Super Bowl.

[7DnBrnc53]

Good one. They collapsed again in 1999 after a decent start if I remember right. Its a wonder that Cowher survived that period and kept his job.

Well, it's the Rooney way (to give coaches every benefit of the doubt). However, it's easy to do that with Chuck Noll, who won four SB's. When you do that with Cowher and Tomlin, it doesn't look as good.

[74_75_78_79_]

Good one. They collapsed again in 1999 after a decent start if I remember right. Its a wonder that Cowher survived that period and kept his job.

Well, it's the Rooney way (to give coaches every benefit of the doubt). However, it's easy to do that with Chuck Noll, who won four SB's. When you do that with Cowher and Tomlin, it doesn't look as good.

I don't have a particular season prior to this last season, "knowing what I know now", in which I possibly have an opinion on when Tomlin 'should' have..."resigned". I spent all that time being loyal to him to never even think of it. But not winning a playoff game his final nine years, yes, doesn't look good and sure enough there are numerous HCs who, if having took over after 2016, would have won numerous playoff games thru 2025 if only because of a 'different voice' now at the helm and not necessarily being a better coach.

I would not place Cowher in that same "doesn't look good" category at all. After the 0-3 start in 2000, I even caught myself wondering just for a moment if it was now...'time'. One of my best-friends, a Steeler-fan who I at the time recently just met, set me straight in a hurry! And after finishing 9-7 in the end - just shy of the playoffs - there could have been no reason for any hot-seat talk going into 2001.

Who else would have brought the 'Burgh, in their first year at Heinz, right on back to top-seed at 13-3 (defense back on top, pumping one last breath of life into Kordell) and lead the Steelers to a Lombardi by 2005 (but not before propelling Maddox to his 15-minutes along with another top-seed two years after that, this time at 15-1)? No one, IMO.

Three-straight years without a playoff-win is all it ever was with Cowher; and it only happened once. After six-straight playoff berths from the start, a slump was bound to happen. Especially losing players and assistants every year and not even having O'Donnell anymore at QB. And two-in-a-row without a playoff-win only happened once as well, his first two seasons (a one-sie just happening twice, in '03 & '06).