Among eventual champions, "rock bottom" loss rare but not unprecedented

The Giants looked disgraceful at Indy last night. They were flat, uninspired, and gave up two of the easiest touchdowns you'll see in the NFL: A 1st quarter 7-yard Donald Brown TD run where no Giants' defender got within 5 yards of Brown - the kind of play where, if you were playing Madden and were purposely positioning all your defenders as far away from the play as possible, one of them still would have wandered closer to Brown than the Giants came during this play...then in the 2nd quarter, they let the Colts' most sure-handed yet slowest receiver, TE Dallas Clark, get behind everyone down the middle of the field for an easy 50 yard TD. The Giants allowed 410 yards in all, and lost 38-14.

So where is the positive spin on this blowout loss? In trying to put it into perspective, I thought about how some teams that would go on to win titles, have faced this kind of embarrassment before. The best example is probably the 1994 49ers. They lost in Week 5 to Philadelphia, 40-8, during which Steve Young was benched. Those Eagles weren't world beaters either - they would finish 7-9 in '94. The 49ers went on to win 10 of the final 11 regular season games, and rout the Chargers in the Super Bowl.

Other, less dramatic examples of eventual champions looking awful:

1974 Steelers: Shut out at home by Oakland, 17-0, in Week 3. Went on to stomp those same Raiders in the playoffs, on their way to a Super Bowl IX victory over Minnesota.

1979 Steelers: Lost 34-10 at Cincinnati in Week 7. The Bengals had come into that game 0-6, and would finish 4-12. Pitsburgh used the loss as a wake up call, went 12-4, and beat the Rams in Super Bowl XIV.

1992 Cowboys: Beaten 31-7 at Philadelphia in Week 5, following their bye. Finished 13-3 and blew out Buffalo in Super Bowl XXVII.

2006 Colts: Dropped a Week 14 matchup at (eventual) 8-8 Jacksonville, 44-17. It was their 2nd loss in a row, and they'd go on to lose at 6-10 Houston two weeks later. Won Super Bowl XLI over Chicago.

2007 Giants: Several ugly losses, including an 0-2 start in which they gave up a combined 80 points to Dallas and Green Bay, a 41-17 loss in Week 12 to Minnesota (eventually 8-8) at home, and, even when it appeared they had things figured out late in the year, a Week 15 home loss against Washington, 22-10. So several terrible defensive performances, by the unit that would go on to shut down the most prolific offense ever, in the greatest Super Bowl ever.

I'm not saying an embarassing loss means a team is going to win a championship...but it doesn't necessarily disqualify a team from one either.

(Photo courtesy of Kissing Suzy Kolber.)