No fan base is happy after a loss, but there are different levels of disappointment. Determining who are the worst feeling fanbases is a combination of what their expectations were for the team and how they had performed recently. It is not just about a team’s record, as a fanbase that expected their team to lose would not feel as down as a fanbase that thought their team had an easy win and lost. Injuries can also be a factor, if your team had a crushing injury that could propel that team on the list. Also how you lose is very important, getting blown out or losing by a hail mary are both crushing losses, much more than losing by 10. Ultimately, the worst thing is the feeling that your team’s season just ended, losses or injuries that lean a fanbase into thinking that way, are the teams at the top of the list.
Honorable Mention
Titans: 22-36 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Titans have now lost three in a row, including their last two by blowouts. This last game was particularly bad, dropping against a team they usually dominated. Entering the game the Titans had won 10 of the last 11 meetings between the teams, this time was a completely different story. Trevor Lawrence shredded the Titans for 368 yards and four total touchdowns. The Titans are suddenly letting up 35.5 points per game the last two weeks, after letting up only 15.9 points per game the previous nine. Usually getting blown out twice in a row, with the strength of your team looking like a weakness would easily land you in the top three. But this is a unique case as they are still two games ahead in their division and nearly have a playoff spot wrapped up. Titans fans should feel worried but there is time to turn things around for them.
Honorable Mention
Buccaneers: 7-35 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. The Buccaneers have often avoided this list thanks to being in arguably the worst division in the NFL, but this loss was so bad it needed to at least make the honorable mention. After last week, Tom Brady gave fans hope that he can do anything, and now after this week, the Buccaneers are back to sweating on if they will even win the division. Incredibly, even with falling to 6-7, the Buccaneers are still leading their division but when you’re making Mr. Irrelevant Brock Purdy look like prime Tom Brady in his first career start while getting ran over on both sides of the ball, you deserve an honorable mention.
#3 Cardinals
13-27 loss to the New England Patriots. Any last potential hope Cardinals fans had before the week is now dead and gone. After losing to the Patriots, they have now lost their last three games to fall to a 4-9 record and three and a half games out of the seven seed. Considering there are only four games left, while mathematically there is a chance, insert dumb and dumber meme here, realistically even if they run the table they are not making the playoffs. But after the team’s Monday night performance against the Patriots where they got out played in all three phases of the game. Especially in the second half where they had zero points, two turnovers, two more turnovers on downs, only eeking out 114 yards and averaging a measly 3.35 yards per play. To make things all the worse for Cardinal fans is Kyler Murray went down, with what is confirmed to be a torn ACL, on the third snap of the game, ending his year. Losing your franchise quarterback to a major injury is always a bad feeling, but considering Murray relies on his athleticism more than most, it could be extra hard to bounce back in the future. That is if you even believe he can be a great quarterback for years to come, Murray struggled for large parts of the season this year, as of last week he was only having an “Adequate tier” season according to the JTA. But considering Kyler Murray has a 5-year 230 million dollar extension that hasn’t even kicked in yet, it seems the Cardinals are stuck with him for better or worse. Not only has the season basically come to a close for Cardinals fans but with so many questions about their quarterback they have to be one of the worst feeling fan bases this week.
#2 Giants
22-48 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Giants were on the “Best Feeling Fanbases” list not too long ago, but oh boy have times changed. Over the last month the Giants have gone 0-3-1 with this last loss by far being the worst one. The Eagles just blasted them right out of the gate, Giants’ QB Daniel Jones took two sacks on the opening drive of the game and the Eagles scored touchdowns on all three of their first drives to go up 21-0. The halftime score was 24-7, but even the Giants’ score wasn’t indicative of a strong drive as it was set up with a block punt. The beatdown continued in the second half as the Giants let up another 24 points, the 48 that they let up for the game was the third most in any game this year. That is devastating for a team that prides itself on defense and started the year 6-1 thanks a large part to the defense letting up only 18.6 points per game. What makes this loss sting even more than most blowout losses, which is saying something. Is the fact that this was a perfect litmus test to see if the Giants are actually a playoff caliber team who could make noise in the playoffs, and they completely and utterly failed the test. With four weeks left, the Giants are currently in the seven seed but with a hard finish to the year including the Commanders, Vikings, and Eagles again, there is no guarantee that spot is theirs. With how the team played last Sunday, the fan bases cannot be feeling that optimistic.
#1 Raiders
17-16 loss to the LA Rams. Holy crap where do you even start with this monumental collapse? To understand how unlikely it is that everything went so horribly horribly wrong you need to understand the situation leading up to the game. Firstly, the Raiders were playing very well, they were 3-0 over their last three games and coming off their most impressive victory, controlling the game to a 27-20 win over the LA Chargers. On the other hand, their next opponent the LA Rams were on an absolute freefall, losing their last six games and were getting crushed by injuries. Their best defensive player, Aaron Darnold, best offensive player, Cooper Kupp, and starting quarterback, Matt Stafford were all hurt, unable to play the game. To make their quarterback situation even more tenuous, they had just signed Baker Mayfield off of waivers less than 48 hours ago, which even though he was a former number one overall pick wasn’t thought of as a huge upgrade as they were the only team to submit a claim to try to get him. It seemed like a classic case where a hot team was playing a cold team at the most fortuitous time and it would probably be a blowout. The experts, it seems, all agreed with this notion as it is reported by NFL pick watch, that 94% of experts all picked the Raiders over the Rams. But the NFL gods have a funny sense of humor sometimes, and after the Raiders went up 16-3 with the Rams barely mustering up over 100 yards in the first three quarters, all hell broke loose and all logic of what you expected to happen, did not happen. First the Rams completed a painfully slow 17 play drive where they completed two third and two fourth downs, one of each because of a defensive offside which prolonged the drive, to score with 3:19 left. After a three and out, where the Raiders took the time down to two minutes, they blasted a 64 yard punt to pin the Rams down at the two yard line. With 1:46 left, a quarterback who had been on the team for less than 48 hours, and no timeouts the Rams somehow drove down for a game winning touchdown, again helped by two more defensive penalties. In a brutal turn of events the Raiders went from handily winning, to losing a heartbreaker with 8 seconds left. It was the longest game winning drive with less than two minutes left in over 45 years, and it was done by a QB who had been on the team for less than 48 hours and he had no timeouts. To add extra salt in the deep wound that all Raiders fans share, is the knowledge that this is the fourth time the team has blown a 13 point lead this year. If they had won those games they would be 9-4, in the race for the number one seed, but instead they are 5-8 and the longest of shots to make the playoffs. This loss was an absolutely huge blow to their playoff chances and it came in a demoralizing way, an easy choice for the worst feeling fan base of week 14.