Each NFL's Team Most Disappointing Loss This Year

The year is almost done for most NFL teams. Some players are making off season plans. Some fans have already stopped following their team although I debate if they are really fans.

But Iet's take the time to look back at which game was that pivotal game for each team. Which loss was it that made you, as a sports fan of your team, stay up late that night and cringe as you watched the highlights on ESPN.  

Most of these losses are going to be painful to dwell on again. You may agree with me or you may say that I'm dead wrong. 

Whatever the case, let's look at every NFL team and the game they wish they had a mulligan.

Arizona

This game was tough to choose because the Cardinals have had so many bad losses this year. But the standout loss was in week eight to the Baltimore Ravens.  When you have a 24-3 lead in the first half only to lose it in the second half, you have to be sick to your stomach to be the Cardinals fan watching it all unfold.

Now, consider you are a player for the Cardinals, and you have a front row seat to watch this monumental breakdown. 

This game could come back to haunt them because they could be one game out of the playoff hunt with a victory. 

Did this loss make the Cardinals a better team?  Well, considering the response the team has had since this loss, I would say yes.

However, that doesn't make it less painful.

Atlanta

This was a tough one to pick, but in the end, the most inexplicable loss of the season has to come down to this one against the Tampa Bay Bucs during week three.

Do you think the Falcons could have imagined the Bucs would be so bad? And to only score 13 points on a team that Jacksonville would end up putting 41 points on with a rookie quarterback has to sting even more.

I can only shake my head at this one, but I have to give honorable mention to that loss against New Orleans. The fourth and 1 call will be one of the worst coaching calls of 2011.

Baltimore

Maybe it's the curse of the four win teams, but here is a loss that still leaves me scratching my head every single time I see it down on paper. 

It was a Monday night Week seven loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. It wasn't just the fact that they loss to the Jaguars but couple that with the fact they only scored 7 points. 

The week before they put up 29 points on the league's best defense in the Houston Texans.

But seven points to the Jaguars? 

Buffalo

I'll admit it. I bought into the Bills after week three. When they beat the Patriots, I have to say that I figured the Bills would be in the divisional title mix right now. 

By the time of this loss, the Bills were still in the mix but their loss to the Miami Dolphins in week 11 put a fork in the Bills. They had lost all sense of urgency during this game, and we witnessed Superman's cape come off and Clark Kent's suit back on. 

Sure, the loss the week before was worse quantitatively speaking,  but it was the Dallas Cowboys at home. Still, the Bills should have beaten Miami.

Oh well. Maybe next year Buffalo. Thanks for wasting our time. 

Carolina

OK. I have two for the Carolina Panthers. 

1. Week eight. You can not lose to the Minnesota Vikings.  You just can't. Not this year. 

2. Week Fourteen. I left this game at 23-7 at halftime. I had errands to run and a stomach to get filled. After I came home, I couldn't believe they let this one slip away especially at home. This game was going to bring hope for next year because Cam was finally going to beat a good team.

Granted, there is plenty of hope for Cam Newton and these Panthers, but this win would have really looked good on their resume.

Hmm. The more I write on this one, I take it back. Week eight's loss was worse.  

Ignore number two. 

Chicago

I don't care if you lose Jay Cutler. You are suppose to win this game.

The Kansas City Chiefs? Tyler Palko? You only scored three points?

Yeah, yeah. Listen, I will probably have a bunch of Bears fans give me ample excuses on why they lost this game. Frankly, I don't care. 

The good teams find a way to win these games. Just ask the Houston Texans with no starting quarterback, wide receiver or their best defensive player.

This will cost the Bears the playoffs.

Cincinnati

If you look at all of the losses of the Cincinnati Bengals you see something interesting.

They lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers (10-3), Baltimore Ravens (10-3), Houston Texans (10-3) and San Francisco 49ers (10-3) and Denver Broncos (8-5), who could easily be (10-3).

From the standpoint of a Bengals fan, you could see the silver lining and say that the Bengals beat the teams they should have beat.

From my standpoint, the Bengals can't beat a good team.

I'll focus on the Houston Texans game. They should have won this game. All you have to do is fall on the football, and Houston doesn't get the win.  

Sadly, the Bengals had a lapse in defense at the end of this game which will probably kill their playoff hopes.

Cleveland

You can't lose to St. Louis at home. 

Next slide.

Dallas

Cowboys fans will vehemently disagree with me on this one. I'm picking the loss to the Detroit Lions as their worse loss. 

The average Cowboys fan may say the loss to the Cardinals was more devastating because of the playoff implications. 

Here's my logic for picking the Lions game.

The loss to the Lions will factor in because of the tiebreaker being head to head. I fully expect the Giants to win the division so the best the Cowboys can hope for is the wild card.

The Cardinals probably won't make the wildcard hunt. The Lions are already there, and they already have the better record than the Cowboys. Now add in the head-to-head battle, and the Cowboys are looking at the playoffs from the outside.

For the record, all Cowboy losses have been bad this year.

Denver

Ha. I finally did it!

OK, you didn't get a hint on the game by looking at the picture, but that was purely a selfish move by me. I just wanted one reason to use this picture in a post.

Wait do the Broncos have a bad loss? They do have some ugly ones against Detroit and Green Bay.

But you have to go way back for the one I picked.  Week one's home loss to the Raiders looks bad if the Broncos lose the division. I can't say that will happen but if it does, there's your reason. 

You must win divisional games at home.

Detroit

I want to pick the Thanksgiving Day game against the Packers so bad because that was ugly all-around.

The "Suh"nami effect will be long lasting on that game.

Again, you can disagree with me again,  but that loss week seven to Atlanta is gonna sting if they don't make the playoffs. It's the head-to-head battles that make or break you for wildcard consideration.

The schedule favors the Falcons because they don't have to play Green Bay in the final weeks.  

I can't say the same thing for Detroit.  

Green Bay

They don't have a loss, but call this a hunch.

Remember week 13 versus the Giants.

That is all. 

Houston

Let me set the stage.

It was week five. Matt Schaub threw for 416 yards. Arian Foster ran for 68 yards and 116 yards receiving. And they lost.

That's right folks. Houston hasn't lost much, but this home loss to the Oakland Raiders is inexplicable.

We thought Oakland was better than they were at this point in the season but now looking back, how could have been so crazy. 

The other two losses were understandable. They were against Baltimore and New Orleans both on the road and both teams are 10-3.  

Wait. 

So are the Texans.

The Raiders? Wow.  

Indianapolis

Um. You have no memorable wins because you have no wins.

And I have 13 games to choose from here. Frankly that's too many.

It was Sunday night during week three against Pittsburgh. America watched Curtis Painter sail that touchdown pass over his wide receiver's head.  They would have won that game. 

Due to the respect I have for Colts fans, I'll say no more. 

Jacksonville

Week 11. You don't lose to Cleveland. 

Period.

Next slide.

Kansas City

It was week nine. The Chiefs had just rattled off four straight wins. 

This was a home game where Kansas City normally plays tough. And the Chiefs still had Matt Cassel at quarterback.

Miami was 0-7. They were still in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes. 

They left Kansas City with a 31-3 win. 

The Chiefs still haven't recovered.

Miami

It was a rough Thanksgiving for the Dolphins. In a game that they really had won, the Dolphins let the Cowboys come back and win on a last second field goal.

They had just one three straight games in what seem to be an attempt to save coach Tony Sparano's job. It went horribly wrong this day.

Sparano is no longer the coach, and the Dolphins don't really have any answers right now.

Minnesota

You are up 20-0 at halftime against a very good Detroit team. 

You are playing one of your biggest rivals. 

You lose 26-23.

This was an easy one.

New England

How often do you spot New England 21 points and win?   

Not very often.

But Buffalo did it back in week three. This game was a shock because, in my opinion, this is when I first realized that the New England secondary was very vulnerable.

Now I realize they stink.

Bill Belichick still hasn't taken a full swallow after this game.

New Orleans

This was the reason I wrote this article. I can't explain it. This was the biggest upset of the year in my opinion. 

Week nine the New Orleans Saints strolled into St. Louis and came out bloodied with a 31-21 loss to the St. Louis Rams.

I feel like the penalty should be no home games in the playoffs because of this loss.

I don't know anything after this game.

I'll call Tim Tebow, and maybe he can explain it to me. 

New York Giants

This is the the most fortunate team in the league. Maybe, I should switch this one up for the Giants. 

They have had a handful of fortunate wins this year (ie, Arizona, New England, Buffalo, and Dallas)

But for the sake of consistency, I would like to say the worse loss for the Giants was week five. The Seattle Seahawks flew cross country and beat the Giants by putting up 36 skittles -- I mean points- on them.

Again, when it comes to playoff implications, these games can hurt you in the long run.

The amazing thing about this game was it's one of the few Eli didn't bring the Giants back on.

New York Jets

Oops. I did it again. There's Tim Tebow again.

Wait. Don't stop reading. This is legit. The worse loss the Jets had this year was to the Tebow-led Denver Broncos in week 11. 

You know why this loss was so bad? The Jets were so sure they would beat the Broncos. They didn't respect the Broncos and probably still don't but if the Jets aren't careful, the Broncos could be in the playoffs and the Jets can be on the couch.

Imagine that Jets locker room after this game. 

Oakland

You won't win many games throwing three interceptions.

So how on earth can you survive a game when you throw six of them?

You can't.

They didn't.

The Raiders worse loss was at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs in week seven. This divisional loss hurts especially if they end up tying the Broncos which is possible.

But not only did they throw six interceptions, but they scored zero points.

PS. Did I mention they were home?

Philadelphia

There were two losses that to me defined the season for the Philadelphia Eagles.

That loss to San Francisco back in week four was bad because they had the lead most of the game. Sure, the 49ers were much better than we knew at the time, but I think at this point we realized the Eagles weren't very good.

The final straw loss was the Arizona Cardinals. They had a backup quarterback leading the charge, and the Cardinals don't win on the road.  In the end, we saw the true colors of the Eagles. 

They are a pretty bad team and need some serious work. 

PS. They overpaid for Asomugha.

Pittsburgh

No need to ask. You know which game it was. I know which game it was. 

Week one. Baltimore beat the Steelers so bad that it shook the league.

35-7.

Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is still fuming from this game. You can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice.  They were not able to get revenge second time around, but I will say this fans. If there is a third game, I would NOT bet against the Steelers.

San Diego

Where do we begin with the Chargers?

They have so many losses they probably regret, so I'll just pick the worse in my opinion.

I'm going with the loss to the Chiefs in week eight. They still had a shot at the division and technically they still do but it's not going to happen.

As you clearly see, I don't have a lot of respect for the Chiefs.

San Francisco

Another 10 win team with few losses to choose from. After observing the demeanor that Coach Harbaugh has exuded, I'd imagine that week two loss to the Cowboys is one he'd like to have back.

The 49ers had a big lead only to let it slip away in the fourth quarter and eventually lose in overtime.

The loss to the Cardinals was unfortunate because the 49ers absolutely want to stay away from playing the Saints in the dome. 

Seattle

Week seven.

You don't lose to Cleveland.

This loss could prevent them from being in the playoffs. 

PS. The Seahawks are a pretty good team. Marshawn Lynch may be the best running back in the league.

St. Louis

I'm definitely flipping the script on this one. 

Any time you beat the New Orleans Saints and limit Drew Brees to 21 points and 269 yards passing, you deserve to be honored especially with only two wins.

And the St. Louis Rams fans don't need me kicking them when they are down.

But they did beat Cleveland.

Tampa Bay

I just don't understand this team. They had so much promise in the off-season. They almost made the playoffs last year. 

Look at them now.

It's really sad, but I think the loss that was demoralizing the most was the 48-3 roasting that the 49ers gave them week five.

They have only won once since then, and it doesn't look like that streak will end until 2012.

Tennessee

Tennessee kind of creeps on you. You didn't realize that they are in the wild card race until you look at the AFC playoff picture. They are the number seven seed at the time of this post.

Had they not lost the first game of the year against the Jacksonville Jaguars, they would be in the playoffs right now by virtue of beating the Broncos earlier in the year.

That 16-14 loss may come back and haunt them.

PS. Chris Johnson is no longer on my milk carton.  

Washington

Head Coach Mike Shanahan had never been shut out. 

In week eight, that all changed. That 23-0 loss to the Bills was bad all the way around, but it really exposed the fact that the Redskins should make an offer to the Indianapolis Colts to inquire about their quarterback situation. 

The Redskins clearly don't have the quarterback that will lead them out of the gutter of the NFC East.