0-4 teams to make NFL playoffs: Revisiting 1992 Chargers' historic turnaround image
Hell hath no fury like a winless start to an NFL season.
Not every team's calendar is awash with victories. Still, one would expect most teams to secure at least one across a four-game set. There is too much talent, there is too much chance. To start a year 0-4 is not only a dereliction of a team's duty to win as much as it can. It's also rotten luck, a sentiment that can grow all the more difficult to shake off with each passing negative result.
Few sides have been able to turn four-game losing runs into relative success in the regular season. Even fewer have done so after dropping each of their first four games to start the year.
Is it possible to snatch a postseason berth from the jaws of futility? The Sporting News takes a look back at the (brief) history of teams dropping each of their first four contests and battling back to make the NFL playoffs.
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0-4 teams to make NFL playoffs
Of all the teams to start the season with four-straight losses just one — the 1992 San Diego Chargers — have rallied to punch a ticket to the postseason.
Revisiting 1992 Chargers' historic turn around
The Bolts limped through their opening four games in 1992, amassing just 29 points to fall to 0-4. There were hardly expectations that they would turn things around in the proceeding 12 fixtures. The Chargers went 4-12 in each of their prior two seasons. With a ropey defense and comatose attack, it seemed likelier that San Diego would finish at the bottom of its conference than at the top.
The Chargers did have a new coach, though. First-year head coach Bobby Ross enjoyed a glittering reputation in the collegiate game, having spearheaded resurgences at Maryland and Georgia Tech before landing the San Diego gig. The Chargers front office hope he could recreate that success at the NFL level.
By Game 5, Ross' labor started to bear fruit. Quarterback Stan Humphries, acquired from Washington after starter John Friesz suffered a knee injury in preseason, began to find his footing after a lackluster start to the year. San Diego secured its first win of the year in Week 5, downing the Seahawks, 17-6, behind a two-touchdown day from Humphries.
The next week, the Chargers did it again, battering the Colts, 34-14. The wins continued to pile up as the regular season wore on. All told, San Diego vanquished 11 of its next 12 foes to surge to the top of its division. A victory in Week 17 sent San Diego to the postseason for the first time in a decade.
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The Bolts even went on to win a game in the postseason, striking down the Chiefs before being dismantled by the Dan Marino-led Dolphins in the divisional round.
The turnaround proved exceedingly important to helping Ross build a strong culture in San Diego. Two years later, the Chargers were in the Super Bowl, being led there by the nucleus that emerged during Ross' first year — Humphries, Tony Martin, Shawn Jefferson all made major contributions during that 1992 season.
Overcoming an 0-4 start is a challenge. But it can be done — assuming a team starts its winning run sooner than later. San Diego proved the feat could be accomplished in 1992. Perhaps another team will emerge to join it in immortality more than three decades later.