Thomas Bugg Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 For sports fans, there are not too many things worse than going through a season where in the first half or even the first 75% of the season your team looks like a dynasty in the making, only to have one or two or a plethora of missteps happen and before you know it said team can't get out of its own way. As much as it sucks, you'd rather have an NFL team go 3-13 or an NBA team win only 17 games (sans the tanking part, because I'm sorry but who the fuck doesn't go all out and try to be at your absolute best in every game, that's just stupid to me), because at least then there's the chance of nabbing a quality draft pick, or a less-lauded player that can be developed. Mid to late season collapses are deflating, they're demoralizing, and in a lot of cases the personnel involved is left looking for new employment (ex. Mike Shanahan, the only head coach to win Super Bowl titles for the Denver Broncos). The one that stands out to me and hits a personal chord is how the 1994 Philadelphia Eagles went from sugar to shit in a hot second. The Eagles lost the first game of the season in a dogfight against the Giants, which I suppose can be excused due to the rivalry. Then they proceed to go on a 7-1 run that included a Monday Night Football beatdown of the Bears that wasn't as close as the final score indicated, a hard-fought win over the Packers where Reggie White returned to the Vet, the Eagles going into Candlestick Park and treating the 49ers like they weren't even a shadow of the team that would go on to win the Super Bowl, a Houston Oilers asswhoopin' on Sunday Night Football, and a rude homecoming for Buddy Ryan when the Eagles beat Arizona. I mean, they were actually getting an offense together that could match a defense that never really regressed, even with the losses of Reggie, Seth Joyner, Andre Waters, Wes Hopkins and Clyde Simmons. And Randall was looking sharp in the passing game with his deep threats Calvin Williams and Arkansas Fred. I mean, they couldn't be stopped! And then, it all fell the fuck apart. Byron Evans suffering a horrible injury that ended his career....Kotite running his fucking mouth to the press....that fumbled kick return that ruined my Christmas....losing seven fucking games! What happened in the aftermath? Lurie fired Kotite's sorry ass, the few Eagles that were left over from the Buddy Ryan regime except for Randall and few others all left, and a sour memory for all of us in Eagles Nation. But at least those players were supporting each other on the field, which is more than I can say for the 2011 Boston Red Sox. I mean, they HAD the wild card spot in the bag if they could've just played a little over .500 ball for the remaining 24 games of the season. Then there was this interesting little tidbit that mused that the 2011 Sawks are similar in statue and momentum to the 1927 Yanks (http://www.webcitation.org/628dBsVqL). They had it all going for them. And they fucked it up royally. In about the worst way possible. 8-16 in the last 24 games of the season. And in the last game of the season, you couldn't script a bigger catastrophe (or if you're a fan of the Rays, a more epic fairy tale). The Sox have the last place Orioles down 3-2 in the bottom of the 9th, with All-Star Jonathan Papelbon on the mound, two outs, the Sox are going to the playoffs.....and then this happened.... And so now Red Sox Nation has their collective sphincters tighter than a straw, with the indignity of having to root for the Yankees against Tampa Bay as the game went into extras. This is a post about collapses, so you can pretty much guess what happened.... And with that, the Sox season came to an ugly end. Or so everyone thought. The media had a field day when it came out that members of the starting rotation, including Lester, Lackey and Bennett, were eatin' yardbird, having cold ones and playing video games in the clubhouse on games that they didn't play in while the rest of the team was out on the field. To this day the details of it are debatable at best, but if there's any truth to that then it speaks to one of the reasons why the Sox were sitting at home in October and not playing for the right to be in the World Series. Lack of discipline, lack of hunger and focus, and setting a bad example for the young guys on the team- I'd venture to say that this is the worst team to ever finish with a winning record. I'm sure there are collapses that are just as bad as the ones that I illustrated, or worse, so let's have 'em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 There's the Mets one from a couple years ago, the Phillies in '64 and the Dodgers in '51, to name just a few. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Bugg Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 the Phillies in '64 I'm REALLY glad I wasn't around back then. In addition to the 60's being a fucked up time, the Phold probably would've been enough to send me off the deep end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raziel Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 There was nothing more epic around the NYC Metro Area than that Mets implosion. They were world beaters for 75% of the season, then suddenly stopped playing baseball in September and blew like, a 12 game lead. Sports radio, specifically WFAN (who are filled with Mets fans except for Francesca and also had the Mets radio contract at the time) were in full meltdown. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenalysis Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 the Barves have mastered the art of collapse over the last decade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Bugg Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 the Barves have mastered the art of collapse over the last decade. I would correct your spelling, but this team doesn't deserve it. The Atlanta BARVES were tied for the lead in the NL East with the Nationals, and it should've been a dogfight to the end. And then at the end of August they had the Nationals by the throat, leading them by 6 games. 6 wins the entire month of September, are you fucking kidding me?!? And this is not the first time they had a collapse in the past three years as they did it back in 2011, the same year as the aforementioned Red Sox collapse. No wonder the GM lost his job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I have been a Braves fan since they were in Milwaukee. When I was a little kid, I wanted to grow up to be Eddie Mathews or Joe Adcock. I suffered through the awful years on TBS when Dale Murphy was the lone bright spot on an awful team. Then Murph left and we had Dave Justice and the best rotation that MLB has ever seen. The Braves became one of the greatest teams of all time and still managed to underperform... Now we have a great team again, with a clueless manager and a late-season collapse of epic proportions. Here I was looking forward to seeing my guys in the WS this year, but noooo.... My dream WS match-up of Braves/Mariners will have to wait. Roger Angell was right, baseball is a game designed to break your heart. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 95 season. The Angels collapse and the Mariners "refuse to lose". My 2nd favorite sports memory of all time (behind the Hawks SB win) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lacelle Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 I feel like you could name this the Toronto Maple Leafs thread & it would mean the same thing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yo-Yo's Roomie Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Newcastle United in the 95-96 season throwing away a 12-point lead to finish second to Manchester United. Featuring the famous Kevin Keegan on-air breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yenzdq5g6o 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 I've always been a Braves supporter though after losing them from TBS I've gone from watching 100+ games a year or whatever it was to a lot less than that. I end up watching more Red Sox and Yankees games because of the friends and family and because I get YES and NESN. Anyway, I totally get why people would label them as underachievers but they did win the one World Series in '95 (Thank you Glavine and Justice!) and they ran into a lot of back luck and really great teams. The Twins series in '91 is an all-timer and the Braves couldn't get their bullpen sorted out. Actually, this would become a thing for Atlanta in years to come. The '92 Jays were an all-star team. The '97 Marlins in the NLCS were an all-star team and there were some very questionable calls in that series. 1996 hurt the most because after destroying the Yanks in the first two games at the stadium you don't expect to go home and have that shit happen. Following the 90's the Braves were never the same team. Yes, they put up a lot of ridiculous regular season records over the years but they weren't a team that everyone expected to go and dominate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serious Darius Bagfelt Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Watching the 1987 Toronto Blue Jays lose the last 7 games of the season, 4 of them to the Tigers who they finished 2 games behind, was painful. Especially the final game of the season where the Jays couldnt get a single run and barely got any hits off of Frank Tanana who probably didnt throw one pitch over 85 mph that day 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 My CFL team, the Edmonton Eskimos, was actually on the good end of one of these. In 2005. BC started the season 11-0 that year (record start is 12-0), and a couple of guys on their team (and a chunk of the media) started talking shit about them possibly being "the best CFL team ever". Keep in mind this is a league where the Eskimos once won 5 championships in a row during the Warren Moon years, so as far as I'm concerned when you get to 5 championships in a row then we can start a discussion. Edmonton ended up beating them twice in the regular season, BC went 1-6 in the rest of the regulr season, then Edmonton beat them AGAIN in the west final playoff game, then went on to win the Grey Cup. Sporting Gods see and punish. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuetsar Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 The 78 Red Sox need a mention even though I was a year away from being born. . . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lucia Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 the Barves have mastered the art of collapse over the last decade. I would correct your spelling, but this team doesn't deserve it. The Atlanta BARVES were tied for the lead in the NL East with the Nationals, and it should've been a dogfight to the end. And then at the end of August they had the Nationals by the throat, leading them by 6 games. 6 wins the entire month of September, are you fucking kidding me?!? And this is not the first time they had a collapse in the past three years as they did it back in 2011, the same year as the aforementioned Red Sox collapse. No wonder the GM lost his job. This is so factually incorrect that I don't even think it's worth my time to correct you, but here we go anyway. -Atlanta's largest lead in the division all season has 3.5 games, which came on April 27th. -The last day they had a share of first place was July 20th, three days after the end of the All-Star Break. -Hell, the last day they were even within five games of the Nationals for the division lead was August 13th. -The 7-18 September was just the cap to an all-out mediocre season: from May to August, the team went 55-56. They didn't collapse as much as they had the bottom finally fall out on a disappointing year. Now, 2011? Yeah, THAT was a fucking collapse. 81-55 on September 1st and 8.5 games clear of the Cardinals to 8-18 and bupkis in the span of a month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 The Lions were all but handed the division twice last year... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Watching the 1987 Toronto Blue Jays lose the last 7 games of the season, 4 of them to the Tigers who they finished 2 games behind, was painful. Especially the final game of the season where the Jays couldnt get a single run and barely got any hits off of Frank Tanana who probably didnt throw one pitch over 85 mph that dayGood lord that last week was glorious. Frank forever earned a warm spot in my heart for that game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Mann Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 The Dolphins, be it late or early, every year of my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Bugg Posted October 3, 2014 Author Share Posted October 3, 2014 Because I never miss an opportunity to take a swipe at the Dallas Cowboys, I bring up the 2008 season. They were 8-4 following a 34-9 drubbing of the Seattle Seahawks on Thanksgiving, putting them in second place behind the Giants who were just running roughshod over the NFL at that point. Later that night a 48-20 royal asswhoopin' saved the Eagles season from going the way of the dodo, but were still looking at sitting at home in January. The Cowboys then proceed to lose in Pittsburgh in which they blew a 13-3 lead by giving up 17 unanswered points, the creme de la crappe being Romo giving up a pick six to Deshea Townsend (whatever happened to him!) that gave the Steelers the lead that they would keep. With the loss the Giants won the NFC East, so them giving New York a beatdown on Sunday Night Football the next week only kept them alive in the playoff hunt. And then, the two weeks that live in Cowboys infamy to this day. The last memory of Texas Stadium that anyone will ever have is Le'Ron McClain running the length of the field for the TD that beat Dallas in their last game at that venue. But they still had a shot to earn the last spot in the playoffs, if they could just beat those pesky Eagles, the same team they ran 41 points on early in the season. Yeah, didn't exactly turn out that way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyWhioux Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Remember how that LA Kings team that won the Stanley Cup last season was, at one point, down 3 games to 0 to San Jose and the Sharks were on the cusp of sweeping them out in the first round? Because I do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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