An NFL team squandered a huge lead in historic fashion on Saturday. Would you believe it? The quarterback was Matt Ryan… again.
Ryan held the dubious distinction of being on the wrong end of the biggest collapse in Super Bowl history. The league’s MVP that season led the Atlanta Falcons out to a 28-3 lead. However, that lead was famously evaporated by the legendary Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, who won Super Bowl LI in overtime.
After Saturday, Ryan earned another dubious honor. He and his Indianapolis Colts jumped out to a monster 33-0 lead over the Minnesota Vikings. They and Kirk Cousins were panned all first half. Then, Ryan and the Colts gave the game away. They ate a 39-36 loss to the Vikings in overtime as they completed the worst collapse in NFL history.
So Ryan now has the honor of the worst collapse in NFL regular season and Super Bowl history. As ESPN’s SportsCenter Twitter account pointed out, “Matt Ryan has now been on the losing end of both the largest comeback in Super Bowl history and the largest comeback in NFL history.”
Ryan was promptly roasted and thrown into the fire after the game ended.
First, the always vocal Shannon Sharpe of Fox Sports let his voice be heard. He tweeted, “Colts and coaching staff should be tarred and feathered. Up 33-0 and lose 39-36. Give Vikes credit for not quitting, but this is EMBARRASSING COLTS. Matt Ryan must think he had buzzard’s luck. Up 28-3 and lose SB. Up 33-0 and lose again and both in OT.”
Next, Ryan Clark chimed in as the ESPN analyst tweeted, “Forever on Matt Ryan’s Bio. Largest comeback in regular season history… Largest comeback in Super Bowl History. Just happen to be the QB on the losing team.”
And then ESPN Jets writer Rich Cimini went strong. Cimini tweeted, “The greatest comeback in the NFL history. The greatest choke job in NFL history. Matt Ryan had previous experience with the latter.”
Next, CFB voice Steven Godfrey tweeted, “Oh my God Matt Ryan what did you do to that witch?”
Then, PodKATT, formerly the managing editor of And The Valley Shook on SB Nation, called for the QB to retire!
Matt Ryan gotta retire now. No coming back from that.
— PodKATT (@valleyshook) December 17, 2022
Then, the Field Gulls blog, which covers the Seattle Seahawks, pointed out that it was even worse: Ryan also engineered the largest blown lead in NFC Championship Game history as well. That happened in 2012 against the San Francisco 49ers.
Finally, @lindseyyok tweeted, “Now I can finally ask the question ‘what was your favorite epic Matt Ryan collapse’ and there is more than one option.”
[SportsCenter on Twitter; photo from Jeffrey Becker/USA Today Sports]
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022