Six Pack of Failures

Detroit Lions

Like the Cleveland Browns, Detroit is the only other team to lose every game of a 16 game schedule. The Lions suffered their embarrassment in 2008 and slowly climbed back into contention despite just two victories the following season. But beginning in 2010, it appeared the Lions were solidly rebuilding making the playoffs in 2011 with a 10-6 record but then winning just four games a year later. Since 2012 Detroit has made the postseason twice more, but both games were first-round wild card losses.

Unlike the Browns, the Detroit Lions have tasted playoff action three times since that dismal 2008 campaign whereas Cleveland has not been in a playoff game since 2002. The Lions had two consecutive 9-7 seasons in 2016 and 2017 losing a wild card game in ’16. But last season they dropped to 6-10 and this past season went three worse finishing 3-12-1. Could Matthew Stafford’s days in Detroit be numbered as the Lions try to rebuild? He’s been the quarterback since 2009 with Detroit and this season despite solid numbers, he and his teammates were considered to have a disappointing season.

Cincinnati Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals would have made this list even before the season began. They were expected to suffer a losing season but after dropping their first 11 games on the schedule, conversations began about how they might join Detroit and Cleveland as the only teams to lose all 16 games. Then came the New York Jets at home and the Bengals suffered the ultimate embarrassment of losing every game by topping the Jets 22-6.

After Andy Dalton was benched for Ryan Finley, Dalton got his job back for the Jets game and he led them to victory. The taste of a win did not last long however and the Bengals would lose the next three games until they won just their second contest on the final day of the season beating Cleveland 33-23. Now Cincinnati owns the number one overall pick in this year’s draft. This won’t be the first time the “Bungals” as many have called them owning the league’s first pick in the draft. In 2003 they had the first selection and took Carson Palmer. 1995 brought Ki-Jana Carter and the year before Dan Wilkinson. Now in 2019, they get their fourth shot at picked a player they hope will become a star and help the team get out of this funk. Cincinnati has not had a winning season since 2015 when they finished 12-4 capping of five straight seasons of playoff appearances although all five were first-round exits.

L.A. Rams

From Super Bowl LIII to finished third place in the NFC West, the L.A. Rams were expected to defend their division title after winning it in two straight seasons in 2017-18. But all the Rams could manage this past season was to have a winning record of 9-7 good for third place in the NFC West. The surprising 49ers took the title away from L.A. and the Seattle Seahawks also did two better than the Rams making the postseason finishing 11-5.

At quarterback, Jared Goff may have been the biggest disappointment for the Rams as his quarterback rating, in the end, was just 86.5 and he tossed 16 interceptions for the season. But star running back Todd Gurley did not live up to expectations either rushing for only 857 yards in 15 games and posting a per-carry average of 3.8. With the success of the 49ers and their stout defense as well as the rejuvenated Seahawks, the road ahead for the Rams will be a difficult one.

Steelers

The last team to mention that failed to achieve potential in 2019 was my Pittsburgh Steelers. After a disappointing 2018 campaign that saw them fall one game short of making the playoffs, the defense made strides to improve in the offseason and before the season began, Steelers Nation witnessed the shedding of locker room cancers, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown. The “Killer B’s” were no more and all that remained from that trio was Ben Roethlisberger.

For Big Ben, he lost two primary weapons but the hope was the JuJu Smith-Schuster and James Conner would fill the void left behind by Bell and Brown. But in just game two of the season, Roethlisberger suffered a season-ending elbow injury and Mason Rudolph became the man on the spot. Rudolph would hit a slump and get benched for rookie Devlin “Duck” Hodges who initially played extremely well and inspired fans to wear duck outfits and jump on his bandwagon.

Hodges’ success was short-lived however and when it came to playing the New York Jets, Hodges got benched in the first half and Rudolph was back in. The story of Pittsburgh’s season came next when Rudolph injured his shoulder and was done for the year. Back came Hodges just as bad as he was in the first half.

Just as it was in 2018, the Steelers had one game remaining and it was against the #1 seed in the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens on their turf. Baltimore had announced several key starters would not play but for the Steelers, they needed a win and a Tennessee Titans loss to the Texans in Houston to make the playoffs. Last season it was the Ravens who needed to lose to the Browns for Pittsburgh to qualify now it was that same Baltimore team Pittsburgh needed to beat but with help from the Texans.

Not only did Houston pull starters and lose, but the Steelers went out and were embarrassed by Ravens backups losing 28-10 and finishing an even 8-8. The story of 2019 for the Pittsburgh Steelers was injuries. Roethlisberger was out nearly the entire season. So was Stephen Tuitt. James Conner battled injuries all year and hardly played. JuJu Smith-Schuster missed significant time with a concussion and bum knee. Vance McDonald could not stay healthy. All this and the Pittsburgh defense was outstanding.

Signed in the offseason was Donte Moncrief and he was awful eventually getting cut. Minkah Fitzpatrick came to the Steelers from the Miami Dolphins in way of a trade that saw the Steelers sacrifice their 2019 first-round draft pick and he began his Black and Gold career sizzling intercepting passes and picking up loose fumbles. While his momentum slowed towards the end of the season the trade for Fitzpatrick set the tone for the Steelers secondary for next year.

Mike Tomlin did an excellent job coaching perhaps his best in 2019 as no one figured Pittsburgh would win eight games with all the injuries. But the season expectations still fell way short and the Steelers were easily the best of this group listed and would probably be considered by most to have achieved the most disappointing results from the 2019 season.