Rowe Must Go
It is clear that former General Manager and head coach Tom Rowe wasn’t exactly the most well-liked guy. He would face torrents of criticism from the home fans and many of his own players weren’t too pleased that Rowe had taken over. What probably happened was that the team realized that Rowe might have stayed on as head coach if they continued their success. So the team in order to get rid of him must have just decided accidentally on purpose to fail.
This theory is both likely and unlikely.