Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Of all the teams that started strong but faded late, which one did you think looked the best at their best before falling apart?

To make sure we don't have too many 2-0 or 3-0 teams, I'd like to specify that for this, you need to mention teams that were at least 4-0, 4-1, or 4-2.

Perhaps the 1974 Patriots, who started the season 6-1, beating both previous conference champions, the Dolphins and Vikings, along with the Rams, who went 12-2 in 1973 and would appear in the NFC Championship Game with the Vikings later in the 1974 season. Their only loss was a one-point loss to the Bills, who were the AFC Wild Card team, and in Week 8, the Pats would lose again to the Bills by a point. After losing to the Browns and Jets, their season began to fall apart, but still had control of the AFC playoff race with three weeks to go as their final three games were against the three AFC division winners - Dolphins, Steelers and Raiders.

If the Pats had somehow continued their Cinderella streak and won all three games, they would have won the AFC East with a 10-4 record on a head to head sweep over the Dolphins, and the Dolphins would have been the Wild Card. In this circumstance, the Pats would have gone into the 1974 playoffs as the team to beat. They wound up losing to the Steelers by four (21-17 at Foxboro), and took the lead over the Dolphins in the fourth quarter before Miami went ahead to stay and won 34-27. They kept up with the Raiders for the first half and took a 20-19 lead in the third quarter before the Raiders blew them out from that point forward, winning 41-26. The Patriots finished 7-7 on the season, regressed in 1975, came back in 1976, and have been a pretty strong team most of the time (except for the Victor Kiam years) ever since.

The 2016 Vikings have to be in this discussion. During a 5-0 start, they bottled up Aaron Rodgers, routed the playoff-bound Texans, and handled the defending conference champion Panthers on the road. Then after the bye week, it was as if a switch was flipped and suddenly they could do nothing right. The contrast between how they looked the first month of the season and after was shocking.

Dallas 1983. Went from 12-2 to losing a wild card game at home.

1987 Chargers. Started 8-1 (granted 3 were replacement games) and lost their last 6. Scored 23 or more in 3 of 4 of their first non-replacement games. Couldn't get past 18 the last 8 games of the year.

1960 Colts: Started out 6-2 as two-time defending champs, 1/2 game ahead of Packers. Lost their last four games.

1962 Redskins: Started out 4-0-2, a game ahead of the Giants. Went 1-7 the rest of the year.

1965 Cardinals: 5-3, one game behind Browns who they had destroyed in Week 2. They lose their last six games. HC Wally Lemm leaves to go back to Houston

1966 Cardinals: 7-1-1, leading Cowboys by 1.5 games. Lose four of their final five contests.

1967 Cardinals: 5-3-1, led Browns by half-game. Lose four of the last five again.

1970 Cardinals: 7-2, a game ahead of Giants and two ahead of Dallas who they had just destroyed on MNF. They finish 1-3-1 and Charlie Winner is fired.

1971 Bears: 5-2, a game behind Vikes after beating Dallas in the Morton-Staubach QB Switch game. Lose six of their final seven games and Jim Dooley is fired.

1972 Jets: 5-2 and tied with Steelers for WC berth. Lose five of last seven--though four of the losses came against playoff teams.

1976 49ers: 6-1 and a 1/2 game lead over Rams. Lose five of their last seven. Monte Clark quits during offseason.

1977 Browns: 5-2 and a game ahead of Steelers. Lose to Cincy and then Brian Sipe is lost for year against Steelers. Lose six of last seven and Forrest Gregg is fired.

1978 Packers: 7-2 and two games ahead of Vikes. Go 1-5-1 the rest of the way.

1981 Eagles: 9-2 and a game ahead of Dallas. Lose four last five and then get bounced by Giants at home in WC game.

Not quite a fold, but a disappointment nonetheless:

1963 Browns: Started out 6-0, including a win on the road against the Giants, then go 4-4 the rest of the way and miss playoffs.

The '69 Rams started 11-0 only to go on to lose their last three regular season games and then the classic Western Conference championship game to the Vikings.

The '03 Vikings started 6-0 only to miss the playoffs on the last play of the regular season with a 9-7 record.

The 1986 Jets stick out to me. I thought they looked real good at 10-1 but they looked horrible losing their last 5 games.

1974 Bengals 6-3, half-game behind Steelers, lose four of their last five games.

1978 Redskins started out 6-0 and had a two-game lead over Dallas, then lost eight of their last 10 games

1984 Jets started out 6-2, then won only once in their last eight games.

1991 Saints start out 7-0, go 4-4 for the rest of the regular season, then lost to Atlanta at home in WC game.

Mark wrote:The 1986 Jets stick out to me. I thought they looked real good at 10-1 but they looked horrible losing their last 5 games.

Pretty incredible team. As you said, not only did they lose their last 5, they lost badly. 45-3, 45-24, 52-21 to teams that didn't even make the postseason.

I do like using the 1986 Jets as a 'case study' when the issue of "building momentum for the playoffs" or "which is the hot team going into the postseason" is mentioned. The Jets were possibly the 'coldest' playoff participant in NFL history, yet they still won their first game, and should have defeated Cleveland on the road in their divisional round game.

I would like to nominate the 1999 Back-in Bowl participants...the Seahawks (8-2 to 9-7) and the Dolphins (8-2 to 9-7).