There have been three winless NFL teams since the merger in 1970 — the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2008 Detroit Lions and 2017 Cleveland Browns.
Yet the title for the most pathetic season in league history may just go to the 2023 Carolina Panthers, who despite their 2-15 record, became the first team in NFL history to go a full season without holding one fourth-quarter lead, via CBS Sports.
That’s 255 minutes of either being tied or playing from behind. Both of Carolina’s wins — Week 8 against Houston and Week 15 against Atlanta — came via Eddy Pineiro field goals as time expired.
Eddy Pineiro drills it for the first @Panthers win of the year! pic.twitter.com/AyTouPTeJ9
— NFL (@NFL) October 29, 2023
PANTHERS WIN! #ATLvsCAR pic.twitter.com/eipdMcMWfT
— NFL (@NFL) December 17, 2023
The Panthers had six other opportunities to take a fourth-quarter lead but failed to:
The ’76 Bucs held one fourth-quarter lead that season, a 9-7 advantage over the Buffalo Bills in Week 3. They eventually lost 14-9.
The Lions actually had four fourth-quarter leads during the 2008 season, all against division rivals. The closest they came to a win was against the Vikings in Week 6 when they led for 59:48 of the fourth quarter before losing on a Ryan Longwell field goal with 12 seconds left.
The other three fourth-quarter leads came against the Packers in Week 2 (led 25-24, lost 48-25), the Bears in Week 9 (led 23-20, lost 27-23) and the Vikings again in Week 14 (led 13-10, lost 20-16).
The ’17 Browns actually took a 21-7 lead into the fourth quarter against the Packers in Week 14 before Brett Hundley engineered a two-touchdown comeback that included hitting Davante Adams for the tying touchdown with just 17 seconds left in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime. Green Bay won 27-21 on Hundley’s third touchdown pass of the game with 5:05 left in OT.
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