Because the big crash was followed the very next day with the largest intraday swing (upward) in market history. Considering it was day 2 of the crash, I thought it was a dead cat bounce. So I was trying to buy puts.

If you look at the charts for those first two weeks, each huge dip is immediately followed by an equal rally (fed injecting QE). It destroyed the put positions I was able to get (they were long term though) and heavily contributed to today's soaring inflation.