The worst single-season point differentials in NFL history

During the World War II-era NFL, multiple mergers occurred. This one came about to give the league an even 10 teams instead of 11. It did not go well for this one-season hybrid. After an opening-week shootout with the Cleveland Rams (YB's pick for 1944's game of the year), the Cardinals-Steelers (or, the Car-Pitts) lost every other game by double digits to cap off an 0-10 slate. (Both this team and the Brooklyn Tigers were 0-10 that year.) The Car-Pitts even fined multiple players for "indifferent play." The Steelers, who had merged with the Eagles in 1943, returned to their solo project in '45. 

After the NFL was a Cleveland-less operation from 1996-98, the Browns rebooted in their current stadium on the Lake Erie shore. The franchise's expansion effort, as expected, went poorly. The Browns finished 2-14, losing their first seven games. Browns 2.0's first win came in dramatic fashion, however, with rookie wideout Kevin Johnson hauling in a Hail Mary to beat the Saints. Despite perennial Pro Bowler Lomas Brown being part of Cleveland's offensive line, No. 1 overall pick Tim Couch was sacked 56 times. The Browns ranked last in offense and 29th in defense. It was a bad omen for their 21st-century prospects.

The pre-Al Davis Raiders ended their second season ranking last in AFL offense and defense, en route to a 2-12 record. Future two-time Super Bowl-winning Raiders coach Tom Flores took the snaps, and even though those came from all-time center great Jim Otto (then in his second season), the Raiders had yet to find their form. This team also featured future All-Pro cornerback and actor Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, who intercepted five passes in 1961 — when the Raiders were not yet a silver-and-black operation. It got worse for Oakland, which lost its first 13 games in 1962.

Until 2008, this was the only winless season in the Lions/Portsmouth Spartans history. Detroit finished 0-11 and scored just 38 points — 78 fewer than any other season in the franchise's 90-year history. Coach Bill Edwards, who led the Lions in 1941 as well, quit after three games. Detroit did not exceed seven points in a game and was shut out five times. Perhaps the craziest stat associated with this disaster: The '42 Lions threw one touchdown pass and 33 interceptions. For those pointing to 2008 as the worst season in Lions history, it wasn't this bad.

The '54 Redskins took a different route to a minus-225 differential, allowing 432 points (36.0 per game) in a 3-9 season that begin in disarray. An argument between owner George Preston Marshall and Hall of Fame coach Curly Lambeau resulted in Lambeau being fired before the season. Sammy Baugh retired after the 1952 season; Washington QBs Al Dorow and Jack Scarbath combined to throw 30 INTs. The Redskins' historically ineffective defense overshadowed that, allowing the Eagles to throw a record-tying seven touchdown passes in a game and yielding 62 points to the Browns. Washington rebounded for an 8-4 1955 slate.

Other than Anquan Boldin's rookie-year dominance, the '03 Cardinals did little well. Dave McGinnis' team finished last in scoring and points allowed, and Emmitt Smith's Arizona debut produced just 256 yards (2.8 per carry) in 10 games. Jeff Blake and Josh McCown took the snaps for the Cards, who saw their second-round wideout post 1,377 receiving yards (No. 2 all time for a rookie). Boldin posted 870 more yards than any other Cardinal pass catcher. No Cardinal recorded more than three sacks. However, one of the 4-12 team's wins knocked the Vikings out of the playoffs — on a McCown-to-Nate Poole game-winning Week 17 TD.

The 3-12 Falcons endured a bizarre start, dropping their opener 48-10 to the lowly Buccaneers but beating the eventual Super Bowl champion Redskins 21-20 a week later. Atlanta won one of its three games when scabs played for striking regulars but lost four of its final nine by over 30 points. 1987 marked the first year of Marion Campbell's second stint as head coach. It was also 14-year Falcon linebacker Jessie Tuggle's rookie season, with Pro Bowl running back Gerald Riggs on this team as well. So was future Cowboys Super Bowl starter Tony Casillas. It mattered little, as Atlanta finished last on offense and defense.

The Lions' 0-16 season got them Matthew Stafford at No. 1 overall, but the rocket-armed prospect obviously walked into a flawed Detroit setup. The first Stafford-Jim Schwartz team went 2-14 and gave up more than 30 points per game, as the '08 team did. After a last-second 38-37 victory over the Browns in Week 11, a Stafford mic'd-up masterpiece, the Lions lost their final six games. Daunte Culpepper started four of those due to Stafford twice injuring his shoulder. This team featured Megatron and Seahawks Super Bowl starter Cliff Avril; both helped the 2011 Lions to the playoffs.

We're back in Atlanta; this was the Falcons' inaugural season. They hired longtime Packers DBs coach Norb Hecker to lead their maiden voyage. Hecker's new charges were a bit off Willie Wood and Herb Adderley's level. Atlanta's first draft pick, linebacker Tommy Nobis, made the first of his five Pro Bowls and won NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors. His teammates, most of which coming from a 42-man expansion draft: less good. First-round rookie quarterback Randy Johnson piloted the NFL's last-place offense and despite Nobis, the Falcons' defense ranked 14th. Atlanta finished 3-11.

This may be the list's most talented team. Hall of Famer Aeneas Williams and All-Pro Simeon Rice played their final Arizona seasons in 2000. Ten-thousand-yard rusher Thomas Jones was here, and bulked-up wideout David Boston would be a 2001 All-Pro. DBs Kwamie Lassiter and Corey Chavous had 10-year careers, and Pat Tillman started 16 games. But two years after their Vince Tobin-coached playoff cameo, the Cardinals went 3-13. Tobin was fired midseason. In their fourth year of Jake Plummer's six-season tenure, the Cards ranked near the NFL's basement in offense and defense and lost their final seven games. 

Both Marc Bulger and Torry Holt played key roles here, and Steven Jackson continued what became a string of eight straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons. The Rams still went 2-14, continuing one of the worst stretches in modern NFL history. After a 3-13 2007 season and an 0-4 start, Scott Linehan was fired. Jim Haslett could not rescue the operation. Linehan had benched Bulger, who guided the Rams to the 2003 divisional round, but Haslett reinstated him. None of this ended up mattering, as Chris Long's first NFL team lost nine games by double digits. It somehow got worse from here.

Before the start of the 1986 season, the Buccaneers drafted Bo Jackson No. 1 overall. After owner Hugh Culverhouse did not endear himself to the Heisman winner, Jackson became a Kansas City Royal. After the '86 slate, the Bucs traded Steve Young. In between: not much better. Although Leeman Bennett guided the Falcons to two playoff berths, he led Tampa Bay to 2-14 seasons in each of his two years as head coach. Young started 14 games but threw only eight touchdown passes. He...improved in the Bay Area. Young was in his 11th 49ers season when the Bucs finally reemerged in the playoffs.

After a third AFC championship game loss to the Broncos in four seasons, the Browns' run as a perennial contender ended in 1990. They started 2-7 and fired Bud Carson, Marty Schottenheimer's successor who extended the team's playoff streak to five in 1989. The Browns beat the Broncos in a Monday night shootout but lost their next three — including a 42-0 defeat to the Bills, whom the Browns beat in the '89 playoffs. Michael Dean Perry's 11.5-sack Pro Bowl season wasn't enough to prevent the Browns from ranking last defensively. Cleveland hired Bill Belichick in 1991. 

These are the chapters Giants montages usually skip. Amid a run of 17 straight playoff-less seasons, the Giants allowed an NFL-record (for a 14- or 16-game season) 35.8 points per game in 1966. They allowed at least 47 points five times. New York beat Washington for its lone win in a 1-12-1 season but lost the rematch in historic fashion, with the Redskins' 72-41 victory setting several still-standing records — including most points in a regular-season game. This resulted in a quarterback change, with the Giants acquiring Fran Tarkenton in 1967, but longtime coach Allie Sherman kept his job through the 1968 season.

The Colts' 143 points this season are the second-fewest since the NFL adopted the 16-game schedule in 1978. Jeff George's second season produced only four games with double-digit points, and the Colts fired Ron Meyer midway through his seventh season. Indianapolis went 1-15, avoiding a winless season by beating the Jets 28-27 in interim coach Rick Venturi's debut. Eric Dickerson gained 536 yards in 10 games during his fifth and final Colts season. Piloting an injury-ridden team, George threw 10 TD passes in 16 games. The Colts went 9-7 in 1992 but did not make the playoffs in George's four years.

Eight years before the future Kansas City Chiefs began their journey as the "Dallas Texans," an NFL team used it — for one season. The former New York Yanks rebranded as the Dallas Texans in 1952, but mismanagement led to the NFL taking over in-season and using the franchise as a barnstorming team of sorts. The Texans finished 1-11. Their win was an unexpected Thanksgiving Day triumph over the Bears in front of barely 2,000 people in Akron. Despite safety Tom Keane's 10 INTs, Jimmy Phelan's team gave up 101 more points than anyone else (427) that season. All 11 losses were by double digits.

The Falcons' first three teams produced three of the 26 worst point differentials ever. Their '68 effort just missed our cut. Owner Rankin Smith undercut the 1967 team early, trading the No. 3 overall pick for a wide receiver (Bernie Casey) who refused to report to the Falcons. Atlanta finished 1-12-1 in its sophomore season and amazingly had no members of its 16-man '67 draft class on the team by 1968. Second-year QB Randy Johnson continued to struggle, and despite Tommy Nobis' lone All-Pro honor and Ken Reaves' seven INTs, Atlanta was also last on defense.

One of the ESPN+ "Peyton's Places" episodes includes a segment about the advent of the flak jacket. But years before Dan Pastorini became the first quarterback to wear the rib-protecting device, he took 67 combined sacks with the 1972-73 Oiler teams. Both went 1-13. The '73 squad, which did not have most of the other Oilers who would be part of their late-'70s playoff rosters, came within a game-winning touchdown (to beat the Colts 31-27) of going winless. Pastorini took 30 sacks in 10 games in 1973, and the Oilers defense was worse off. The unit, which housed Hall of Famer Elvin Bethea, ranked last.

The low point of the Matt Millen regime and, probably, Lions franchise history. Although the Lions came within two points of the Vikings in the Week 6 game best known for Dan Orlovsky running out of his own end zone , they became the NFL's first 0-16 team. The Lions fired Millen, architect of one of the worst stretches in NFL history, during this season. Detroit allowed an NFL-record 292 points at home and saw three quarterbacks — Orlovsky, Jon Kitna and Daunte Culpepper — lose at least four starts. They helped Calvin Johnson to a 1,300-yard season, but this Lions year is obviously not remembered for that.

The flimsiest roadblock on the 1972 Dolphins' perfection path, these Patriots allowed 66 more points than any other NFL team that season. The low point, indeed, in this 3-11 season came in Miami, when the Dolphins routed their AFC East rivals 52-0. Third-year head coach John Mazur resigned the next day. New England's prized quarterback prospect, Jim Plunkett, threw eight touchdown passes and 25 interceptions. The Pats earned only the No. 4 pick in the 1973 draft for this disaster, but the team won out in taking Hall of Fame guard John Hannah. 

Despite the 2000 Browns (3-13) winning one more game than their expansion effort, their offense was worse. Cleveland's 161 points in 2000 are the fourth-worst in a 16-game season and were a cool 379 behind the NFL-leading Rams that year. A broken thumb shut down Tim Couch after seven games, when the Browns were 2-5, and current Eagles coach Doug Pederson went 1-7 in his starts. Cleveland failed to score a touchdown in six games but was the rare team on this list to notch a three-score win, which the Couch-led team did against the almost equally bad Bengals. The Browns fired HC Chris Palmer after the season.

Were it not for the Lions' and Browns' 21st-century winless efforts, the Rams of this era would be better remembered. They produced three one- or two-win seasons between 2008-11. The Rams hired ex-Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo; his initial effort produced the worst record (1-15) in franchise history. Marc Bulger signed a five-year, $62.5 million deal in 2007 but ended up overseeing the franchise's bleakest period. He suffered multiple injuries in '09, and backups Kyle Boller and Keith Null went 0-8 combined. Somehow, Steven Jackson surpassed 1,400 rushing yards. Spagnuolo's defense: 31st. 

Prospects dimmed considerably for the Patriots in the early 1990s; this was the franchise's low point. After a Week 2 win, the Pats lost the rest of their games to finish 1-15 — the only one-win season in their 59-year history. Steve Grogan finished out a 16-year career in 1990; head coach Rod Rust was a one-and-done. The Patriots gave third-round rookie Tom Hodson and ex-Raider first-rounder Marc Wilson 12 combined starts commanding a last-ranked offense. Hall of Famer Andre Tippett languished on this 27th-ranked defense. TL;DR: This is not the team to pick if you want a win in Tecmo Super Bowl.

This remains the standard for modern-era defensive ineptitude. The 1981 Colts gave up 533 points — the most any team has in a 16-game season. Baltimore swept New England, winning in Week 1 and Week 16. In between: Mike McCormack's squad played less inspiring football. The 2-14 Colts surrendered at least 23 points to every team they faced, ceding 40-plus four times in a five-game span, and lost by at least 20 points a record-tying eight times. Though former MVP Bert Jones eclipsed 3,000 yards, the Colts took first-round QBs in both  1982 and '83 (Art Schlichter and John Elway). Schlichter started six NFL games.

They've seen their 0-14 record usurped, but the expansion Buccaneers remain No. 1 here. One of two 1976 expansion teams, along with the Seahawks, the Bucs did not notch their first win until Dec. 11, 1977. (Their '77 team scored fewer points per game — 7.4 compared to 8.9.) John McKay scheduled 10 weeks of two-a-day practices, a now-banned tactic, and his team endured numerous injuries. The Bucs were shut out five times, a record surpassed by the '77 team's six. They employed Hall of Famers in defensive end Lee Roy Selmon and exec Ron Wolf. McKay led the Bucs to the '79 NFC title game; there weren't many holdovers from this bunch.