silvermike Posted December 19, 2011 Posted December 19, 2011 Okay, doing some quick research, I found that we would not be the first team in NFL history to turn 5-2 into 5-11. Meet the 2001 San Diego Chargers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_San_Diego_Chargers_season Many familiar faces here: This is the team that came from Ralph firing John Butler, who immediately booked it to California. That meant bringing along an old scout named Buddy Nix to be director of player personnel, and signing Doug Flutie, Marcellus Wiley, Sam Rogers, and John Holocek. None really impressed out there, but it meant that the last 5-2 collapse was by a team known as "Buffalo West." San Diego won their first three, dropped two, won two, and dropped nine, so a slightly different pattern. They did pull off a win over the Denver Broncos, a recent Super Bowl champion and perhaps the equivalent of our win over the Patriots. Maybe that's stretching it. The Chargers last win came at Ralph Wilson Stadium, beating us 27-24 in Flutie's revenge game: he scored on a 13 yard run with just over a minute to play. He started every game for that team, who turned the keys over to Drew Brees the next year. If we've got a Drew Brees, that's encouraging. San Diego did fire their coach after that season, bringing Marty Schottenheimer to replace Mike Riley. Riley was in his third year, coming off a 1-15 season. It's hard to find other teams that really compare. The '91 Rams ended the season with 10 losses after a 3-3 start. I'm not sure how impressed anyone was with their 3-3 start. San Diego comes back in 1997 with a 4-4 start turned 4-12 finish. The '89 Bears turned a 5-3 and 6-4 start to a 6-10 finish. Then we get the '93 Dolphins. They turned a 9-2 start into a 9-7, nonplayoff finish. The '95 Raiders did a similar job, turning 8-2 into 8-8 and nothing in January. In any case, there's some company, but we're not in happy company.
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