The Most Mind-Blowing NFL Midseason Turnarounds

in my last video I mentioned how back in 2009 the Patriots stomped the Titans 59-nothing it's the worst regular season loss in NFL history this also sent the lowly Titans to their bye week with a 0-6 record during this week off the coaching staff addressed the quarterback position and decided to bench carry Collins in favor of Vince Young this is the exact decision that they made the previous year just in Reverse seemingly headed for the number one overall pick all of a sudden something magical happened everything began to click they beat the Jags Niners bills and Texans and after those four straight wins the Titans found themselves down four to the Cardinals who pinned them at their own one-yard line with just over two minutes to play incredibly Vince Young led them all the way down the field and set up a fourth and goal to win [Applause] game on the line Vince Young works [Music] wildly enough after a few more wins and with two weeks left to go in the regular season Tennessee had a legitimate shot to make the playoffs it would have made for the wildest mid-season turnaround of all time Unfortunately they lost to San Diego in week 16. even though they failed to make the postseason finishing with an 8-8 record after a 0-6 start is quite the story they were two completely different teams almost as if they were the mon stars from Space Jam but hey if they were the mon stars and they took those Powers who did they take them from foreign the Denver Broncos started 6-0 in 2009 their defense was dominant their offense was clicking and overall it looked like new head coach Josh McDaniels was about to take the league by storm then in Poetic fashion with the Titans the Broncos took their week 7 by then came back looking like they barely knew how to play football they lost eight of their last 10 and somehow the team that started 6-0 finished with the same record as the team that started zero and six perfectly balanced as all things should be what's crazy is 2009 was such a wild year that these teams are merely footnotes in one of the NFL's craziest Seasons now before we continue to look at some of the other wild mid-season turnarounds this video is sponsored by Factor so as the type of guy who constantly is busy working and getting things done cooking from scratch which always leaves a huge mess becomes a chore with Factor they deliver fresh never Frozen ready-made meals right to your doorstep and the best part is that they cut out the stressful meal planning and extensive prepping so meals come together in minutes no prep No Mess Factor even offers meals for those looking to follow keto low calorie vegan and vegetarian lifestyle with many preferences to choose from Factor has more than 27 plus meal options each week and meal plans range from 4 to 18 meals per week so you can add more or reduce the number depending on your specific needs it's conveniently customizable factor is also great for fitness-minded folks like myself they make it possible for you to achieve your daily goals through nutritious and purposeful eating so go ahead and use my link or go to go.factor75.com and use code POG kto 60 for 60 off your first box 2009 was quite an odd year five teams started 5-0 the Saints and Colts went on to go at least 13-0 and they both made the Super Bowl while the Broncos and Giants both missed the playoffs due to mid-season collapses the fifth team the Minnesota Vikings were led to the NFC championship by Brett Favre who was coming off a previous season with the Jets where they collapsed due to farf's injuries and missed the playoffs after starting 8-3 coincidentally the following year the Jets regular season performance was the exact opposite of 2008. they started four and six with rookie Mark Sanchez and to call his performance to that point poor would be an understatement but in spite of him their defense started playing lights out and they went on to win seven of eight including two playoff games and like the Vikings they found themselves in their respective Conference Championship unfortunately both went on to lose going back to look at that 2009 Titans team they're possibly the greatest almost turn around in NFL history you could also put the 2021 Dolphins right there with them that Dolphins team started 1-7 then miraculously won eight of nine just falling short of the playoffs funny enough the only team to beat them during that stretch was the Titans to try and put into perspective how crazy it would be to start zero and six and make the playoffs let's look at some percentages teams that start zero and two are already in big trouble they only make the playoffs 13 percent of the time starting zero and three gives you a three percent chance of making the postseason only six teams have accomplished this feat since 1979. now falling to zero and four there's only been one in the history of the NFL to make the playoffs foreign to the 1992 season the Chargers had been an afterthought a woeful 4 and 12 campaign in 1991 capped off nine straight years without making the playoffs in this stretch of time they really only had one year even close to making the postseason and it turned out to be possibly the biggest mid-season collapse in NFL history they started 8-1 and they lost six straight enter in 1992 expectations weren't very high with first year head coach Bobby Ross and even then things got off to a disastrous start their starting quarterback John Freese suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason Bob Gagliano got the startup quarterback to begin the regular season but he was quickly benched unproven backup Stan Humphries took over from there and he looked terrible through four games the Chargers got rolled over losing by an average margin of 16.5 points but almost as if by Magic the team seemingly changed overnight Humphrey started balling out and the offense as a whole clicked the defense went from a bottom half unit statistically to a stout top 5 Juggernaut somehow after starting zero and four the Chargers rallied to an 11-5 finish the only team to beat them on this 12-game stretch was the Chiefs who the Chargers got the best of in the Wild Card 17-nothing unfortunately they went on to lose the following week after this remarkable season the Chargers built a reputation for these kinds of turnarounds in 1995 they started four and seven then rattled off five straight wins to make the playoffs in 2008 they started off four and eight then won four straight to make the postseason and they beat the Colts in the wild card in 2013 they went from five and seven to nine and seven and they went on to win again in the wild card and finally in 2017 they repeated their 1992 pattern beginning 0-4 then finishing nine and seven Unfortunately they did miss the playoffs but it's pretty wild considering that they had been the only team who pulled this off in the past and they nearly did it again despite this reputation for mid-season turnarounds the Chargers have yet to win a Super Bowl and they don't have to look too far to find that type of success back in the 1990s when San Diego had those two amazing turnarounds the Denver Broncos had won two Super Bowls in that same decade you can't take away the success the wrong Broncos have achieved over their history but something odd took place in Denver from 2006 to 2016. in those 10 seasons they had four collapses 2006 Denver was seven and two and they missed the playoffs 2008 they were eight and five and they lost three straight to miss the postseason like I said in 2009 they started 6-0 and then became only one of three teams ever to start 6-0 and miss the postseason funny enough they're one example of a mid-season rally was in 2011 with Tim Tebow and even then they collapsed at the end of the regular season and barely made the wild card then finally in 2016 they started 4-0 and were 8-4 at one point and missed the playoffs again in the same season 2016 saw two teams who started off on the wrong foot then reached their respective Conference Championship games but an even better example of collective turnarounds was two years later when the Colts Texans and Eagles all made the playoffs after Poor starts although it wasn't as impressive as his Super Bowl run the previous year Nick Foles once again stepped in and this time the team was six and seven and he won three straight to save their season for a longtime Eagles fans this may have hit them with a little bit of deja vu because back in 2006 a similar situation occurred the Eagles were in disarray after two years of turmoil they cut ties with Terrell Owens and with a less explosive offense the Eagles held a 5-5 record when Donovan McNabb tore his ACL his backup was former Niner starter Jeff Garcia Garcia had been a surprising star in San Francisco a few seasons back but after a disappointing ending there and a rough stint in Cleveland and Detroit he was all but forgotten about in the process of taking over a struggling Eagle Squad they got crushed in his first game by Indianapolis 45-21 and just as the fans were starting to look towards next season the Eagles went on to win five straight including two fourth quarter comebacks and game-winning drives led by Garcia the Eagles shockingly went on to make the playoffs with their backup quarterback and not only that but they went on to defeat the Giants in the Wild Card Garcia steps up throws touchdown Stallworth of course there are greater examples of turnarounds led by a backup in 1970 Virgil Carter stepped in for a struggling Bengals team who was one in six at one point and he went on to win seven straight to lead them to their first ever playoff appearance as a franchise and then in 2001 the Patriots were coming off of a 5-11 season and weren't expected to be great and it looked like all hope was gone after their former Pro Bowl quarterback Drew Bledsoe got hurt in week two unproven backup Tom Brady stepped in and he struggled at first the team at one point possessed stage one in three and three and four record respectively then with a massive Improvement of their defense and Brady surprising everybody the Patriots won 11 of 12 including nine straight as they went on to win the Super Bowl and forever the landscape of the NFL was changed this created one of the greatest what-ifs of all time what if Drew Bledsoe never got hurt this same question can also be asked about RG3 who helped lead the Redskins to seven straight wins after starting 3-6 in 2012 only to have it all seemingly end due to a knee injury up by 14 in the playoffs speaking of injuries Alex Smith overcame one of the most horrific leg injuries we have ever seen he missed over a year and nearly lost his leg due to an infection from surgery somehow he came back and took over a struggling Washington football team and after a 2-7 start they won five of seven and made the playoffs of course this does have a little bit of an asterisk by it because they finished seven and nine and somehow made it in but I had to give Alex Smith some credit here he did the same type of thing back in 2015 with the Chiefs where they started one in five and Incredibly won 11 games in a row with Smith at the helm now all the turnarounds and collapses that I've mentioned in this video have been crazy at the very least to the fan experienced them but to me the most absurd has to be what the Jaguars pulled off back in 1996 so first things first let me share a brief rundown of how things have gone for expansion franchises in the last 50 years in year one every single one of them struggled and for the most part that Trend continued into year two long story short it's a brutal situation to try and piece together a professional football team from The Unwanted scraps of other franchises and at first the Jags were no different than any other expansion team in 1996 they looked slightly improved at first but things started to fall apart by week 12. on November 17th they were pummeled by the Steelers 28-3 to send them to a 4 and 7 record now it may not be the 28-3 comeback we've become accustomed to nowadays but following that game the second year expansion Jags put together a comeback season of a live lifetime former backup and fifth round pick Mark Brunell lit defenses up throughout the back stretch of the regular season and they miraculously won five straight games to end the regular season and make the playoffs in the wild card they headed to Buffalo where the bills were heavy favorites and down seven in the fourth Mark Brunell first led the game time drive then later on led the game winning drive to beat the bills 30-27 what the Jags had pulled off to this point was already a story for the ages a second year expansion team who was more likely to achieve the number one overall pick than make the playoffs and somehow they went on to upset the four-time AFC Champion bills in the wild card and it was probably all going to end there since they had to face an even tougher opponent the following week the John Elway LED Broncos Denver possessed a 13-3 record and hadn't lost a single game at home that season and in those home games they won by an average of over two touchdowns and yet despite this daunting task Jacksonville once again stunned the NFL with Mark Brunell outperforming Hall of Famer John Elway and the second year Jags Advanced to the AFC Championship [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Jimmy Smith [Music]

Channel: KTO

Views: 495,316

Keywords: the most, mindblowing, midseason, turnarounds, nfl, history, of all time, san diego chargers, denver broncos, miami dolphins

Id: 0QqlO8agTBo

Length: 15min 35sec (935 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 14 2022