When the Crowd Goes Marching Out

This past week was a crucial one for 0-2 teams. Nearly every year an 0-2 team makes it to the playoffs, but only three times since 1992 has an 0-3 team experienced post-season play.

Most 0-2 teams are not very good, but there always seem to be a couple of surprises- teams who could just as easily win their next five games as lose another. Teams that have played well before and have good enough rosters to make you believe they'll right the ship. This year it was the Philadelphia Eagles and the New Orleans Saints. Both were playoff teams last year, neither experienced any huge free agency departures, and both were often talked about as Super Bowl contenders in the off-season.

The Eagles emerged from their preseason hangover and blasted the Detroit Lions on Sunday by scoring the second most points in franchise history. That doesn't make them a shoe-in for the playoffs, but it does put them one game from an even record. For Saint's fans, there was no record, no magic, no rejuvenation that comes from winning your first game after a rough start. Instead, after falling to the Tennessee Titans on Monday night, the Saints are staring into the 0-3 abyss and there is no consolation that comes from losing a close game to a great team. The Saints lost to a mediocre team by a wide margin. Drew Brees was picked four times and the running game was nonexistent. When your fans are marching out of the stadium early, that's never a good sign. When they're marching out early and you're winless three weeks into the season, that's far worse.

(a brief note about the author JasonO: JasonO is Jason Opdyke, an avid football fan, a less-than-avid writer, and founder of and contributing developer to SearchQB.com, THE football search engine.)

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Silencer76AAA-er

798 days ago

Score -1

A couple things here:

Brees was picked four times, three by Keith Bulluck, and one by Vincent Fuller who ran it back for a score. He also lost a fumble.

Second, when only three teams have made the postseason after starting 0-3 since 1992, saying a team makes the playoffs almost every year when starting 0-2 is a bit farfetched. Since 2003, only Kansas City has turned the trick and that was last season. Since 1978, only 26 of 224 teams that started 0-2 have made the playoffs. Since 2000, 5 of 59 0-2 clubs have made the playoffs, and two of those did it in 02, based on the tie that the Steelers and Falcons had that year.

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JasonOWaterboy

798 days ago

Score 0

Thanks for your response. The picks stat was corrected prior to your comment being posted (see edit history). I have Bulluck on my fantasy team and was thinking of only his three picks at first. Also, I said "nearly every year", not "every year" about the playoffs. I was going off memory when I wrote that, but looking at your statistics in 29 years since 1978 26 teams have made the playoffs, in 7 years since 2000 5 teams made the playoffs. While I don't know how many of those years had more than one 0-2 team go to the playoffs, I think it more or less supports the point I was trying to make which was that 0-3 teams get to the post season far, far less than 0-2 teams.

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