NFL Power Rankings Week 17: This Season's Most Disappointing Teams
With the Minnesota Vikings set to play the Philadelphia Eagles in the league's first Tuesday night game since 1946, it seems only fitting that a "most disappointing teams" piece comes with it to round out the year.
We are pretty much all the way through the season, and the playoff picture is all but set. There are no comebacks to be had and no surprising turnarounds to be turned around. The fat lady has sung.
Teams have already sealed their fate as disappointments, surprises or as those that did just as was expected of them, and nothing can be done in the final week to change the minds of the people in the football world.
There are those teams that came out last season as quite good teams and ended this one as quite terrible, and then there are those who came out of the gates as Super Bowl picks and ended up with a top 10 draft pick.
Here we have 10 teams that were covered with high hopes for the season only to fall flat and make a ton of people look like idiots in the process.
10. New York Giants
1 of 10
After their collapse against Philadelphia a week ago and their ugly loss to Green Bay this week, the Giants are the latest addition to this list.
They looked poised to at least get back to the level they were at in 2007, when they were a wild card team, and possibly 2008, when they won the division.
Instead, they are watching their playoff hopes crumble before them and are looking at watching another year of playoffs from their couches instead of playing in games in January.
They started out with a very promising 6-2 record in the first nine weeks, but they have gone 3-4 since with two terrible losses in the past two weeks.
They are one of the few teams left that can still salvage their season with a little help from Green Bay next week, but after the past two weeks, you would have to put a gun to my head for me to put money on it.
9. Indianapolis Colts
2 of 10
It's hard to put a team that is likely heading into the playoffs as one of the most disappointing of the season, but with the Colts, I think it had to be done.
Indy is coming off a season in which it was threatening to go 16-0 before it decided to rest its starters, ending the season with a nothing-to-scoff-at 14-2 record, and went to the Super Bowl.
This season started out with an upsetting loss to the Houston Texans in which they had a run defense that had a big brick of Swiss cheese playing defensive tackle.
They then showed off that they have no run game, as their top two backs have yet to break 1,000 yards this season.
From that point they went on to have their games hinge on Peyton Manning, as he once again put up huge numbers and has dragged them into the playoffs, barring a slip-up this week.
8. San Diego Chargers
3 of 10
The slow-starting nature of the San Diego Chargers finally came back to bite them in their San Diego butts.
San Diego has started slow in the past, but instead of having to catch the inept Denver Broncos this season, they ended up having to catch a much more ept (if inept is a word, then ept is a word, dammit) Kansas City Chiefs squad.
They were the ultimate "good on paper" team this season, as they ranked in the top three in passing yards and run and pass defense this season but have only won eight games to this point.
Their disappointing season came to a head on Sunday when they lost to the Cincinnati Bengals, who have more problems than the U.S economy.
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7. Carolina Panthers
4 of 10
After losing their starting quarterback of the last decade, nobody expected the Panthers to be a playoff team, but winning only two games? That's just disappointing.
With their first pick in the 2010 draft they selected Jimmy Clausen, who has been an utter disappointment, and I may move to Tibet if I have to see his smug grin on the sidelines again. Show some disappointment, man—your team is 2-13!
They went 8-8 a season ago, and in something that seems like it happened in 1908, much less 2008, they won 12 games two seasons ago.
They have had no bright spots in a season full of darkness besides the fact that they have the No. 1 pick in next season's draft.
6. Washington Redskins
5 of 10
If it's possible, the Redskins actually got better but still ended up being a disappointment.
Washington won only four games a season ago but had playoff sleeper written all over them, as they didn't seem to have any glaring holes—that is, until Donovan McNabb laid an egg of a season.
They had a terrible defense, and the ball always seemed to get turned over at the worst possible time. There seems to be no hope in sight for the 'Skins
They had a season full of their coach being in the media for all the wrong reasons, as Mike Shanahan feuded with Albert Haynesworth and wrestled over starting McNabb or Rex Grossman.
And then there was that god-awful drop that Chris Cooley had in the end zone on Sunday that pretty much summed up the Redskins' season in one play.
This year will definitely be one to forget in Washington.
5. Houston Texans
6 of 10
For the past five seasons it seems as if the motto for the Houston Texans has been, "There's always next year."
Well, this year was the year. It started off with a bang: Running back Arian Foster burst onto the scene, as he absolutely mauled the Indianapolis Colts and the Texans gained a lead in the division coming out of the gates.
They went 4-2 in the first six weeks of the season, and the division seemed to be theirs to lose—but then they had to go into Indianapolis.
After losing to Indy, they went on to win only one more game, highlighted by the improbable Hail Mary game-winner by Jacksonville in Week 10.
They then had to be subjected to being the first team that the Mile High Jesus beat in his NFL career this week, something nobody would want.
Oh well—there's always next year.
4. San Francisco 49ers
7 of 10
The 49ers have been the NFC West sleeper pick for the past three years. How long can you be the sleeper pick and still be considered an under-the-radar team really? Won't you end up on the radar at some point?
Anyway, they looked to finally have the pieces to win the underwhelming division this season but were shut out yet again, finally being eliminated this weekend with a loss to the Rams.
They really didn't excel in anything all season long and pretty much had a disappointing season all the way through, save for a few exciting games by Troy Smith halfway in.
The season was punctuated this weekend after their head coach, Mike Singletary, was fired after their loss.
I guess wanting winners isn't enough; you actually need to go out and find winners, sign winners and train winners.
3. Minnesota Vikings
8 of 10
Brett Favre was supposed to be coming back for one last hurrah with a team that had a superior run game and defense to keep him protected if he struggled.
Well, he struggled, but the defense and run game couldn't do enough to make up for his struggles, as they did not have the stellar seasons that they did a year ago.
Their defensive line, Shock and AWWE, was not nearly as threatening as last season (probably because Jared Allen cut his mullet), and Adrian Peterson had a slightly down year.
Therefore, the Vikings struggled, fired their coach and look to be hoping and praying for a brighter future, despite how bleak it looks.
2. Cincinnati Bengals
9 of 10
The Bengals shocked the world (okay, maybe surprised a handful of people) by winning the AFC North in a down year a season ago.
During the offseason they did nothing but get better (on paper) and were looking to compete yet again for the division title.
Well, one lazy season from Chad Ochocinco, a season of Terrell Owens trying to hold in an angry outburst and a season of Carson Palmer playing like Jordan Palmer, and here we sit with the Bengals at four wins.
What's even worse, they can't even lose right.
Two weeks ago they had two wins and were a big part of the Andrew Luck sweepstakes, only to reel off back-to-back wins against the Browns and Chargers, giving the No. 1 pick to the Panthers.
It seems that a complete overhaul in the front office, coaching staff and players is in order for Cincinnati, at least to make their fans come back and stop the games from being blacked out next season.
1. Dallas Cowboys
10 of 10
The season began with people talking about the possibilities of a home field Super Bowl for the Dallas Cowboys.
Instead of debating how they would win the first couple games of the season, people were debating how the team could lock up the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
Well, unfortunately there's a pesky little 16-game season to play between the preseason and playoffs, and that was an unkind 16 games to the Cowboys.
The 'Boys started out slow, and then they played slow in the middle, and now they are ending slow.
Their second win didn't come until Week 10, and now they are sitting at 5-10 and are looking at a top 10 draft pick instead of a top seed playoff berth.
The most exciting part of this Cowboys season for me has been Jon Kitna's chase for 30,000, which would completely nullify it as a legitimate milestone for great quarterbacks.
Unfortunately, unless he returns next season to back up some frail quarterback, he will fall short, as he is 342 yards short of the mark and is unlikely to start this Sunday.
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