Well folks, we're 24 hours away from knowing whether or not the Detroit Lions are going down in history as the only 0-16 team in the history of the NFL. The 'Are they the worst team ever?' have all been written already, and the comparisons to previous awful teams have been made. So what do I think? I have to say they're the worst I've seen since the 1-15 Patriots in 1990. There have been other teams to finish 1-15 since then, but many of them were competitive in at least a few outings. These Lions are downright awful, and I do think they're the worst ever. But not for the reasons other have thrown out there, mainly statistical stuff. I think they're the worst ever because in today's NFL, the talent disparity is nowhere near what it once was. The 1-15 Patriots from 1990 played in a 28 team league as opposed to the 32 team league that exists now. That means more teams with three good running backs instead of two, and two good quarterbacks instead of one, etc. Nowadays most teams are dangerously thin in at least area, and are an injury away from having their season wrecked. Once you hit week nine or so darn near every team is missing key people with no reasonable backups to fill in.
When people talk about expansion watering down the league, this is what they mean. It means that the Carolina Panthers alternate between being Super Bowl contenders and struggling to finish .500 because either Steve Smith or Jake Delhomme got hurt. Or that the Chicago Bears can put out a team that doesn't really change that much from year to year personnel wise but manages to alternate playoff berths with sub.-500 seasons. Or that Redskins haphazard approach to personnel can lead them to dramatically flip their rosters over within a a two to three year period and remain in the same 6-10 to 10-6 radius every season. What I'm saying is that because the talent is stretched so much thinner now than it was 20 years ago, it's darn near impossible to be so much worse than everyone else that you can't win one game.
So how did this happen? Well, they may just have the worst defense ever. They've given up 32 points a game, and never less than 12 all season. They've given up 40+ points on three different occasions, and 30+ six other times. That means that they've given up over 30 points in the majority of their games! Wow. They've also given up over 400 yards of offense eight different times highlighted by three games where they gave up over 250 yards rushing, including one where they gave up 318 rushing yards. That's a Nebraska under the wishbone kind of number. Try to digest all that for a minute. Now the offense wasn't good, but it wasn't awful on a biblical scale like the defense has been. I guess drafting all those wide receivers wasn't such a good idea after all.
and they have done folks