The Perfect Season

0-16. The dream nightmare season. In this day and age of professional football, is it even possible?

Before last year, no one thought it was possible for a team to go either 16-0 or 0-16. Undefeated wasn't possible because it was thought to be too difficult to maintain that level of focus and intensity all the way through the year (especially in the last weeks of the season, when you've already won the division and secured the top spot in the playoffs). And winless wasn't possible because even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then.

Then came 2007, when the Patriots pulled off 16-0 and Miami went 1-15 (and it took an overtime win versus Baltimore in Week 15 to get the "1"). So its now at least possible, however unlikely, to run the table and have an undefeated regular season. But the winless 0-16 season still remains unreached. I mean, if a team as bad as the 2007 Dolphins can't go winless, who can? And that got me thinking- what kind of team does it take to not win a game all season?

Gut reaction would tell you that the team with the best chance to go winless is the team with the least amount of talent. I think that applies in most cases (like Little League baseball or church league basketball, or even college football), but I do not think it applies to the NFL. No, teams with little to no great talent still find a way to win at least one game (see: 2007 Miami Dolphins). Those teams can get a win because a)they continue to play hard throughout the season (to compensate for their lack of great talent) despite being winless and b)their opponents can phone it in against them, especially late in the year. We saw this for year in Cincinnati; it was called the 90's (and then some). Some of those teams were absolutely miserable (first team to lose 100 games in the decade!), and yet, they always found a way to win at least TWO games in a year.

So having the worst team isn't the answer. Year after year, the worst teams in the NFL still manage to find a win somewhere along the line. So what is the answer to the winless-season riddle? Its a team with Pro Bowl talent that's given up for the year and quit on its coach. Its a team like the 2008 Cincinnati Bengals.

They have high-talent players (like Chad and T.J.), but they lost all hope when Carson got injured. With no capable backful, they just don't seem to care anymore. There's nothing Marvin Lewis can to do because they players clearly aren't listening to him anymore. They're frustated because they think they should be better, but instead of trying harder, they just pack it in and head for the locker room to bitch and complain. And that's the receipe for a winless season. Now, do I actully think they'll go 0-16? Not really, but I think they have the better shot at it than any other team before them. The game I'm looking forward to? Week 17, Paul Brown Stadium, when Cincinnati (who should be 0-15 at that point) collides with Kansas City (who should be 1-14). What a great game that'll be. I bet I could find some really cheap tickets to that one.

Who Dey? Everyone.

[Edit @ 12:15- Paul Daugherty wrote about this in his column today. He make the argument that an 0-16 season would be worth it if it pushes the organization into functioning like a modern-day NFL franchise going forward. While I completely agree with Doc, that's a big "if," especially in this town. Because if there's one man that could ignore the NFL's first 0-16 season and keep the status quo, its Mike Brown.]