The last team to go through a regular season winless – the only one, really, to finish winless in the “modern” era of the NFL, which dates back to 1978 when the 16-game schedule was introduced – is the 2008 Detroit Lions.
They were 0-16, which is where this year’s Browns, who are 0-13 as they get ready to face the Buffalo Bills on Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium, appear to be headed.
Rod Marinelli, who was 3-13 and 7-9 in his first two years, was the head coach of the Lions. Going into 2008, Detroit had suffered through seven consecutive seasons dating back to 2001, so Marinelli seem suited for the job in that he couldn’t figure out how to win and neither could the Lions.
The Lions got off to a rocky start, being blown out three times in their first four games, losing 48-25 to the Green Bay Packers, 31-13 to the San Francisco 49ers and 34-7 to the Chicago Bears.
They played much better in the next four contests, falling by just two (12-10 to the Minnesota Vikings, seven (28-21 to the Houston Texans), eight (25-17 to the Washington Redskins) and four points (27-23 to the Bears).
Then they went backward, getting routed three times in the ensuing four-game stretch by the Jacksonville Jaguars (38-14), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (38-20) and Tennessee Titans (47-10).
The Lions played better again in three of their final four games, getting manhandled just once, 42-7 by the New Orleans Saints. Their winless season was assured when they fell 31-21 to the Packers in the finale. It was the second 31-21 loss in their final three games.
There were obviously many problems for the Lions that year, one of the biggest of which was the inability to score points. Under offensive coordinator Jim Colletto, who had the same job at Ohio State when John Cooper was the head coach, the Lions finished 27th in the 32-team league in scoring average at 16.8 points. That’s a bad sign in a league that is geared for clubs to light up the scoreboard.
The issue, as it is with just about every bad offense, was bad quarterback play by Dan Orlovsky, Jon Kitna and Daunte Culpepper, who combined to throw for only 18 touchdown passes and have a putrid 71.3 quarterback rating.
The defense was even worse, finishing dead-last in the NFL, giving up an average of 32.3 points a game.
So the Lions were basically being doubled up in scoring in every outing. That’s a recipe for disaster.
Not surprisingly, Marinelli was fired after the season and replaced by Jim Schwartz, who was a boyish-looking personnel man for the early 1990s Browns under head coach Bill Belichick.
Things didn’t improve much right away, as the 2009 Lions went just 2-14. One of their wins – and their final one of the year – was a 38-37 decision over the Browns on Nov. 22 at Ford Field to break a six-game losing streak. The Browns bolted to a 24-3 first-quarter lead on three touchdown passes by Brady Quinn, then collapsed the rest of the way as rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford rallied the Lions by throwing for five TDs, including the game-winner on a one-yarder as time expired.
The Lions improved to 2-8, while the Browns fell to 1-9. But Detroit had its franchise quarterback in Stafford, who threw for 422 yards in the game, while Cleveland continued to search for its guy.
The Lions did better in 2010, going 6-10 and then turned it completely around in ’11, finishing 10-6 and making the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. With Stafford leading the way by throwing for 5,038 yards and 41 TDs, the Lions finished fourth in the NFL in scoring with an average of 29.6 points per game.
The Lions made it back to the playoffs – as a wild card again – in 2014 and is primed to go again this season, perhaps as a division champion for the first time since 1991 as they stand 9-4 and have a two-game lead over both Green Bay and Minnesota (tied at 7-6) with just three games to play.
The reason is Stafford, who is being mentioned as an NFL Most Valuable Player award candidate. He has passed for 22 TDs with just seven interceptions. He threw for a TD and ran seven yards for another with just 3:17 left that turned out to be the game-winner as the Lions rallied past Chicago 20-17 last Sunday.
So the last time a team went through the misery the Browns are enduring this season, its fortunes began to turn when it got its quarterback. As such, then, things can’t get better for the Browns until they do the same thing. Yes, they have a lot of deficiencies, but their biggest is clearly at quarterback.
Still.
Just like 2009.
