These lists are often rather ridiculous. Often, they are written or organized by someone who's memory does not stretch past six weeks or so, and so they have an obvious, and perhaps somewhat understandable, bias towards very recent history.
This one was different. They did get the most brutal and devastating postseason losses for each franchise right, with perhaps two exceptions. One in particular seems so obviously to have been missed, that it makes me feel like it tarnishes the entire list.
First, let me start with the one that I am uncertain about. That would be for the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans. The loss that they list is Super Bowl XXXIV, when the Titans stormed back from a 16-0 deficit to tie the game. But the Rams scored a touchdown very late, and Tennessee had a quick drive that took them within striking distance of the tying touchdown. On the game's final play, the Titans were obviously looking for a touchdown to tie the game and force overtime, and fell one yard shy. Brutal.
But as brutal as seven seasons earlier, when the then Houston Oilers, a team loaded with talent on both offense and defense, raced out to a 28-3 halftime lead against the Bills in Buffalo, then added a defensive touchdown early in the third quarter to expand it to 35-3, only to collapse and lose? At the time, it was the greatest comeback in NFL history, as no team had overcome a 32-point deficit and come back to win the game before. It easily stood alone. Now earlier this season, the Vikings actually overcame a 33-0 deficit against the Colts to win. But that was a regular season game. The Bills-Oilers game was a playoff game, an elimination game, and it also happened before the two-point conversion, which means that the 32-point comeback by Buffalo felt more impressive in many respects than did the Vikings comeback this season.
Here's the thing: the owner of the Oilers - a team which had historically underachieved in recent seasons leading up to that playoff collapse, gave the the team an ultimatum. Either they get to the Super Bowl, and win, the next season, or he would completely disband the team (and remember, they were very, very talented). When the team failed to produce a championship - indeed, failed to produce even a postseason victory - Bud Adams, the owner, held true to his word, and dismantled that team. He also opted out of town, trying to put the bad taste of the Houston Oilers franchise to the past, with a fresh start in Tennessee. So I think a legitimate argument could be made that the historical Wildcard comeback, which the Oilers were on the wrong end of, was the most brutal playoff loss. It literally led to the end of the Houston Oilers as an NFL franchise altogether.
Yet, the one that to me was obvious, a no-brainer, was not that. After all, the Titans could have finally won a Super Bowl, and were prevented from forcing overtime (or possibly going for two to win it?) by that one, single yard. So maybe that was more devastating. That is arguable.
On the other hand, the most devastating loss listed for the Colts was for the 2005-06 loss. The Colts went 14-2 that season, but lost to the Steelers in a strange manner in the divisional round. True, there were some plays that were costly and brutal to watch, perhaps particularly that screwed up field goal attempt by Mike Vanderjagt. Yes, devastating.
More devastating than the loss by the Colts to Joe Namath and the Jets in Super Bowl III, which still stands as the greatest upset in NFL history, and one of the biggest and most famous upsets in North American sport history? I don't think so. Listen, I was not even born, yet that game was part of the lore, even the mythology, of football during my childhood. It is one of the few games from that era which has not been forgotten, and which most fans - and even many not so big football fans - have heard about. It feels like it was one of the biggest moments not just in sports in the sixties, but in sports, period. It literally helped to make the Super Bowl what it is today.
The 1968 Baltimore Colts looked like they were going to be probably designated as the greatest and most dominant team in league history. They had the number two ranked offense that season, averaging just under 29 points per game, back in 1969. On defense, they allowed just over 10 points per game, on average. They started off 5-0, before losing to the Cleveland Browns by 10. They then finished the rest of the regular season with eight straight wins, soundly beat the Vikings by 10 in the divisional round, and avenged their only loss of the season to the Browns by crushing them, 34-0, in the Championship Game. They were prohibitive favorites over the New York Jets of the upstart AFL, a league then generally regarded as inferior.
Of course, Joe Namath provoked the Colts, antagonized them, claiming that five AFL quarterbacks were better than Earl Morrall of the Colts. Namath also made the famous guarantee that the Jets would stun the sports world and beat the mighty Colts in Miami in Super Bowl III. It angered the Colts, but perhaps it also got in their heads. The defense was not quite as dominant as they were believed, as the Jets running game, and some timely passes by Namath, seemed to catch them off guard. But the real shock was the Colts offense, which missed one opportunity after another, and committed five turnovers in that game. By halftime, the Jets owned a 7-0 lead, and then added two field goals in the third quarter, and one more in the fourth, to basically put the game out of reach. Morrall was ineffective and was replaced by legendary Johnny Unitas, who led the Colts to their one and only touchdown for the game's final score of 16-7. But that was it. No miracle comeback, and nothing of the dominance that the Colts had displayed all season prior to that game. Like the 2007 New England Patriots, the 1968 Baltimore Colts were a historically dominant team who are nevertheless not only best remembered, but indeed have been immortalized, for their worst performance at the season.
That seems, to me, an obvious choice for the most brutal playoff loss by the Colts organization. Hell, nobody even remembers the 2005 Colts. Yes, they were good, but they were far from the only number one seed to get upset and find themselves ousted from the postseason earlier than expected. That did not stand out to me at all, truth be told. Not like Super Bowl III, which made the Super Bowl, and arguably, the NFL itself, into what it is. And the Colts were the team on the wrong end of things on that fateful day. Brutal.
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