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ShareThisThe worst playoff team in history
This is a companion post to yesterday's best non-playoff team in history.
The worst playoff team in history is, as some of you guessed, the 1998 Arizona Cardinals. They played the weakest schedule in the league and were still outscored by 53 points. They only played one team with a winning record (Dallas. They did play them twice, losing both times.) According to the simple power ranking scheme, the Cardinals were the 26th-best team (out of 30) in the league in 1998. Here are their nine wins:
- Week 3 - they beat the 3-13 Eagles
- Week 4 - they beat the 4-12 Rams
- Week 6 - they beat the 4-12 Bears
- Week 9 - they beat the 5-11 Lions
- Week 10 - they beat the 6-10 Redskins
- Week 12 - Redskins again
- Week 15 - Eagles again
- Week 16 - they beat the 6-10 Saints
- Week 17 - they beat the 5-11 Chargers
Cardinal fans might point out that, by definition, you can't be the worst playoff team in history if you actually won a playoff game. And this team somehow did manage to do that, beating Dallas in Dallas before losing in Minnesota. I don't care. This team was so bad that they take the title anyway.
I'll close with a list of all playoff teams since the merger that the simple rating system says were below average. For obvious reasons, there are a lot of 1982 teams here. For reasons that are not obvious (to me, anyway), the vikings appear eight times on the list.
TM YR Rating
================
ari 1998 -7.4
ram 2004 -6.0
atl 1978 -4.6
cle 1982 -3.7
pit 1989 -3.7
chi 1977 -3.6
atl 1982 -3.6
sea 2004 -2.9
tam 1979 -2.8
den 1983 -2.8
stl 1982 -2.7
nwe 1982 -2.7
hou 1989 -2.5
min 1987 -2.5
nyj 1991 -2.4
atl 2004 -2.2
chi 1994 -1.9
phi 1995 -1.7
min 2004 -1.7
ind 1996 -1.6
min 1977 -1.6
jax 1996 -1.5
nyj 1986 -1.4
ind 1995 -1.3
mia 1970 -1.3
nor 1990 -1.3
cle 1985 -1.3
cin 1990 -1.1
tam 2005 -1.0
car 2003 -0.9
buf 1995 -0.9
sea 1988 -0.7
rai 1993 -0.7
ram 1979 -0.6
dal 2003 -0.5
hou 1978 -0.4
det 1993 -0.3
min 1980 -0.3
min 1978 -0.2
min 1996 -0.1
min 1993 -0.1
min 1997 -0.1
pit 1983 -0.1
chi 1979 -0.0
This entry was posted on Friday, May 26th, 2006 at 4:05 am and is filed under General, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
I still think playoff success has to figure into it a bit. The '87 Vikings and '95 Colts teams both made it to the Championship game and both lost in the final minute with incompletions in the endzone. That kind of playoff performance has got to offset their regular season ineptitude somewhat when considering worst playoff teams ever (ditto '96 Jags, who lost a heartbreaker in the Championship to the Pats).
Wow! 2004 really was a bad year for the NFC! I can see at least 4 teams on the list, and the Falcons are 16th, despite IMO being clearly the second best team in the conference that season.
I still think the 2004 Rams were the worst playoff team of all time. And like Arizona, they managed to win a playoff game. However, the team they beat was also ranked among the worst playoff teams of all time.
Somewhat surprising to see the '86 Jets on there, since they started off the season 10-1. The Jets absolutely gave away the playoff game to the Browns, with a roughing the passer penalty on Gastineau on a 3rd and 24 incompletion, leading 20-10 with less than four minutes to play. A win over the Browns would have put the Jets just one game away -- @ Denver -- to set up an all New York Super Bowl.
I love these stories (or blog entries or whatever you want to call them) and can't wait for more. I'd love to see each team year by year, best teams overall, worst teams to win Super Bowls (cough2001Patriotscough) etc., etc., etc.
Interesting to see the 1970 Dolphins on that list. They were just five years into their franchise history, and just two years from becoming the most dominant team ever.
Doug, why don't you consider playoff performance when judging the worst playoff teams? Your three worst playoff teams all won a playoff game, which I think ought to count for something. It might not make a difference with the 1998 Cardinals, but I think if your methodology included the postseason, the 1977 Bears (who lost their playoff game 37-7) would rightly become worse than the 1989 Steelers (who won their first playoff game before losing their second by a point).
No reason, really. Just because I didn't want to do the extra programming, I guess. I certainly wouldn't argue with anyone who wanted to factor playoff success into it. As Seinfeld once said, "I'm not sure how official any of these rankings are anyway."
Now that I think about it, though, it's pretty easy to make a case that we shouldn't factor playoff success into these rankings. Since none of these teams deserved to be in the playoffs to begin with, whatever they did once they got there is irrelevant.
It's sort of like illegally obtained evidence in a court case.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, how can the Cardinals be the worst playoff team of all time, if they beat another playoff team in the playoffs?"
"Move to strike!!"
"Granted. The jury will disregard the Cardinals' win over Dallas in the wildcard round."
I'm surprised Minnesota is the only 1987 team on there considering that was the year the league went on strike and they used replacement players. And maybe it's just the way I remember it, but Minnesota's replacement players were the worst of all of them and when players started crossing the picket lines, none of Minnesota's did.
As for the other Minnesota teams, the 77, 78 and 80 teams probably made it because after the Vikings Super Bowl years ended, no one else really stepped up until the Bears made the playoffs under Ditka. The 2004 team made it because somebody had to in the NFC that year, and I'm not sure about the 93, 96 and 97 teams.
Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum!
The 1987 Vikings were 0-3 in replacement games and 8-4 the rest of the season. I don't know how much that would change things on the list.
Re: 1986 Jets
They were possibly the worst double digit win team ever. The Jets were terrible after the 10-1 start and that start wasn't as great as it appears. Outside of spanking the Broncos on MNF, getting by Miami in the 51-45 overtime affair, and roughing up Seattle in the Kingdome 38-7 (which was the difference between the 10-6 Jets making the playoffs and the 10-6 Seahawks staying home), the Jets beat a bunch of bad teams and struggled to beat New Orleans and Buffalo (twice).
Their last five regular season games:
Dolphins 45, Jets 3
Rams 17, Jets 3
49ers 24, Jets 10
Steelers 45, Jets 24
Bengals 52, Jets 21
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Looks like you posted this 2 years too soon
[...] steamrolled by Mike Vick and the Falcons in the second round. The 1998 Arizona Cardinals — perhaps the worst playoff team ever — played the easiest schedule in the league and were outscored by 53 points. But then the [...]
4 years too soon..... *cough* seattle *cough*
Aww, that would be five years, as the post was written between the '05 and '06 seasons.
Seattle 2010: the first 7-9 playoff team in history.
Point differential -97, with all nine losses by at least 15 points (no other playoff team had more than six).
SRS -9.4, much worse than the '98 Cardinals.
Granted two close wins over decent teams (overachieving 11-5 Bears and underachieving 9-7 Chargers), but all others were against losing teams, and as said the manner of the losses more than make up for those two wins.
Like the above Cards, also won a playoff game; unlike Arizona, they got to host it against a 11-5 team, as if giving them a playoff berth wasn't ridiculous enough.