Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

The strangest 2-14 team ever,

Worst record in the league but outscored by only 48 points all season.

Never lost by more than 14 points, most 2-14 teams get beat by 20+ a handful of times.

And it was their only losing season from 1976-1988!

8 losses by a touchdown or less!

How in the world did things go so badly?

Their two losses to Baltimore were the Colts' only victories that season.

On offense I think part of the reasoning why the Patriots were bad was Steve Grogan suffered injuries, and Matt Cavanaugh was not able to step in and quarterback consistently. Statistically, his best game of the season was Week 4, a 21-27 overtime loss at the Steelers, where he threw for 325 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT. We found out that Cavanaugh was not an NFL starting caliber QB. More of a career backup. But he does not field all the blame. The defense was not great either, ranked 22nd in points, 25th in yards. Three of those losses were blown leads in the fourth quarter. But the other 11, the Patriots either came back to force OT and lost or they were out of the game by the fourth quarter.

Also lost a game on a Hail Mary. One of the most snakebit teams of all time.

rhickok1109 wrote:Their two losses to Baltimore were the Colts' only victories that season.

The second of those came in the final week of the season. The 2-13 Patriots against the 1-14 Colts was one of the worst NFL matchups of all time. The Patriots losing got them the first pick in the 1982 draft, which they used on Kenneth Sims. The Colts used the second pick on Johnie Cooks. Neither of the two ever played in the Pro Bowl.

The effective 3rd pick was quarterback Dave Wilson, who was picked by the Saints in the 1981 supplemental draft. He didn't make the Pro Bowl either.

The top 3 picks in the draft never making the Pro Bowl also happened in 1972 and 1979. It hasn't happened in any draft since.