With 11:26 in the 4th quarter of the NCAAF championship game, the almighty Alabama Crimson Tide seem to be headed to the woodshed versus Clemson. This has to qualify as one of the biggest whoopings by a seemingly invincible team ever. What else would qualify?
I’m not just looking for Cinderella upsets----after all Clemson is the #2 team----just plain old blowouts of otherwise what are or were thought to be among the greatest teams. The BIGGER the stage, the better, too (even the best Pro teams slip on a banana peel during the regular season)
Off the top of my head, Brazils 7-1 shellacking at the hands of Germany at the 2014 World Cup comes to mind.
The 1976 Stanley Cup— The infamous Broad Street Bullies Philadelphia Flyers off 2 straight Stanley Cups got their asses beat on the scoreboard AND on the ice 4 games to zero by the rough and tough but highly talented Montreal Canadiens----the Habs would go on to win 3 more Cups in a row while the Flyers would go 0-6 in their next 6 Cup Finals.
The Denver Broncos cruised into Super Bowl XLVIII as the highest-scoring football team in NFL history, scoring on their first possession in nine straight games (the streak was only broken in the AFC Championship game), and their QB Peyton Manning held the all-time record for passing yards and passing touchdowns that year. They were far and away the favorite going in.
They were destroyed 43-8 and their only score came when the game was essentially over. It was the biggest loss by a favored team ever in the Super Bowl.
I put the fault on the bookmakers – Seattle should have been favored in that game.
In my lifetime, the biggest beat-down against a great team was LA Raiders stomping the Washington Reskins in SB 18. The Skins were the defending SB champs and 14-2 during the regular season and had mostly cruised through the NFC playoffs. The Raiders went out and beat them 38-9.
Honorable mention goes to the Oregon Ducks of 2014/15 and LA Lakers of 2003/4.
That game was similar in many ways. The Redskins had a historically good offense (highest-scoring record in its day just as the Broncos were in 2013). The Raiders were a great rushing team with a stout offense, as the Seahawks were.
The difference is that the Broncos got smashed so much worse. They fell behind 12 seconds after the game started (a Super Bowl record) and never regained that lead; they didn’t score a single point until they were already down 36-0. They went into halftime down 22-0 (biggest shutout at halftime, also a Super Bowl record). They finished with a lower score and lost by a larger margin of victory. Statistically speaking, Super Bowl 18 wasn’t the biggest beat down of your lifetime unless you died 5 years ago.
Beat me to it. The 1954 Indians went 111-43, a record at the time for an AL team, and just came up totally empty in the World Series. Games 3 and 4 were in Cleveland and the Indians were never really in either game.
The 1969 Orioles did not look good in the World Series, and that was a great team. Most of the games were close, though.
Japan beat South Africa in the most recent Rugby Union World Cup, a shocking result to be sure, but this is explicitly not what the OP is about, as they only won by a few points. Similarly a 16-7 scoreline in American Football is also not what the OP wants, even if it was New England Patriots 7, East Cheam High School 16
2006 BCS championship game between Florida and Ohio State. Florida (ranked #2) barely got in with a lot of people claiming that there were better choices. Florida was a 7 point underdog and won 41-14.
This might fail some of the OP’s criteria, but six years ago there was a game where China’s first-string national soccer team played a game against Thailand (many if not most of the Thai players were second-stringers, some in their teens.) China was heavily favored, and had homefield advantage (game was held in China).
China lost 5-1. It should have been even worse; the ref awarded China a very questionable penalty and it should have been by all rights 5-0. The game sparked near rioting, masses of fans blocked the team bus to prevent it from leaving, demanding that the roster be disbanded, and the Chinese coach was fired.