DENVER (KDVR) — The Denver Broncos played in a particularly strange game on Sunday in London.
They walked away with the 13-11 win against the New York Jets, and held the Jets to a total of 82 yards, which included -10 net passing yards, the lowest total ever recorded against the Broncos in history, and the second lowest in the NFL since 1990, according to AP.
This was also a franchise-worst net passing yards mark for the Jets.
Somehow, the Broncos still found themselves losing until the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
Stats that would indicate a blowout without the knowledge of the final score actually amounted to a narrow victory. The Jets almost walked away with a win. How does their historically bad near victory rank compared to other net negative games?
Here are the three worst net passing yard games in NFL history, according to Pro Football Reference:
No. 3: Atlanta Falcons vs. San Francisco 49ers, 1976
In this game, the Falcons’ quarterbacks, plural, threw for -39 passing yards.
In sports, substitutions happen all the time. It’s simple, really — when someone is struggling to perform, you get someone else in there to pick up the pace. This works in theory, except for when the substitute ends up doing worse than the starter.
A sub can often perform worse than the starter, but in 99.9% of cases, the players don’t combine for a historically bad performance.
Kim McQuilken and Scott Hunter were the victims of one of those days. The quarterbacks were only able to go 8-29 for 46 yards. Not great, but even worse when you include two interceptions and eight sacks for -85 yards.
The Falcons were also the beneficiary of a closer score than imagined, 0-15, during that duo’s nightmarish day.
No. 2: Cincinnati Bengals vs. Houston Oilers, 1971
This one goes so far back that one of the teams doesn’t officially exist in the NFL anymore.
A Halloween game — ghouls, trolls and witches weren’t even the scariest thing that day — it was the Bengals’ -52 passing yards.
This was another game where two quarterbacks couldn’t bail each other out, and their combined stinker of a game made for another NFL worst.
Ken Anderson and Dave Lewis threw 6-20 and were only able to squeeze out a measly 16 yards. On top of that, they were sacked nine times for a loss of 68 yards.
Surely when they went home after the game, they lived in fear that trick-or-treaters were secretly the Oilers defense coming for sack number 10 at each knock of the door.
Yet again, the score did little to show the disparity in yardage, with the Oilers only winning 10-6.
No. 1: Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders, 1967
Not the name Broncos fans wanted to see — sorry.
The Broncos have the worst net passing yard game of all time, which very well may be considered the worst performance of all time.
There is not a single stat you can pull up from this game that would make anything better.
Would you look at that? Another double quarterback catastrophe.
In this particular season, the Raiders’ defense was known as the “11 Angry Men,” and they were just as intimidating as they sound. The team nailed quarterbacks 67 times that season, and a decent percentage of those were in this game.
Steve Tensi and Scotty Glacken were lucky if they got a pass off, and even luckier if they completed it. They landed only two passes, going 2-16, and made it to 17 yards.
They were sacked seven times for a total loss of 70 yards.
This resulted in an NFL-worst -53 net passing yards.
The other games kept the score close, but this was a completely discouraging shutout loss, 0-51 for the Broncos.
Fast forward over half a century, and the Broncos got to be on the right side of one of these lopsided games against the Jets. The team had a total of nine sacks, seven tackles for a loss, 15 quarterback hits and did not give up a touchdown.
The Jets threw for -10 net yards, and the Broncos’ stalwart defense prevented a loss that shouldn’t have been close.
Now 4-2 on the season and joint top of the AFC West with the Los Angeles Chargers, the team is returning stateside and will need to shake off the jetlag before they face the New York Giants in Week 7.
Anthony Sutton is a business strategist and writer with a passion for management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. With years of experience in the corporate world, he shares insights on business growth, strategy, and innovation through management-opleiding.org.
