PRESSURE’S ON FIRST-WEEK LOSERS
NUMBERS SUGGEST TEAMS STARTING 0-2 DON’T MAKE POST-SEASON
Once again this year the NFL is selling hope hard for slow-starting teams. “Since realignment in 2002, 116 of the 192 playoff teams (60.4 per cent) began the year either 1-1 or 0-2, including eight (of 12 playoff ) teams last season and six (of eight) division champions,” stated a news release previewing Week 2.
The intended take-away? As the item’s all-caps lead-in words state: “NO NEED TO PANIC.”
Well, yes, but the pressure is on for those at 0-1 heading into Week 2.
If you check out the teams starting 0-2 over the past 10 years, you’ll find that nearly all of them failed to reach the post-season. In fact, NFL records from 200817 show that only 7.5 per cent of playoff teams (9-of-120) lost their first two games. And if you go back only nine seasons, the playoff likelihood for 0-2 teams drops to 5.6 per cent (6-of-108).
This week, 14 teams will be looking to avoid that 0-2 neardeath hole. They are: Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Chargers, New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, Oakland Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans.
Five Week 2 games feature nothing but 0-1 teams: Chargers at Bills, Texans at Titans, Lions at 49ers, Giants at Cowboys and Seahawks at Bears. A sixth game pits 0-1 New Orleans vs. 0-0-1 Cleveland, which tied Pittsburgh last Sunday.
Players and coaches on these teams this week spoke about their potentially ominous predicaments, and the importance of avoiding the dreaded 0-2 start.
Texans edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney said one key is to come out storming in Week 2. Houston’s foe is Tennessee, an AFC South rival. “(Tempers are) going to be high,” Clowney said. “You know we’re not trying to lose a division game. I’m expecting us to come out rolling and try to get after those guys early.”
The Giants play at similarly winless Dallas on Sunday night. New York safety Landon Collins, whose team lost its first five games en route to finishing 3-13, didn’t sugar-coat what a loss at AT&T Stadium would mean.
“It’s a big hole, especially in this conference,” Collins said. “So we need this game. We need this win. It’s definitely big to us.”
Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr., in labelling Sunday night’s game “very” important, said that barring a tie, someone has to lose to fall to 0-2. “There’s no feeling like winning. Just the overall feeling of everybody in the locker-room knowing we did what we had to do. We know the importance of this game. We know you don’t want to get 0-2 and start the season off that way. We plan to come out and win.”
Giants receiver Sterling Shepard said it’s vital not to dwell on the disappointment of the Week 1 loss. “You just got to flush it down the toilet and get right back to work,” he said. “I think that’s the main thing. having guys who have a short memory. You take a loss, you learn from it. Come in, and you prepare for next week.”
New Lions head coach Matt Patricia is already feeling the heat in Detroit, after a lopsided defeat at home in his coaching debut to the New York Jets on Monday night. As horribly as his team played in all phases in its 48-17 defeat, Patricia by Wednesday was done talking about it, waving off question after question pertaining to the debacle.
“You can’t let one week lead into another week,” he said by way of explanation. “You have to learn, and unfortunately, on a very short week we have to learn quickly.” In other words, it’s on to San Francisco.
The Bills might have the steepest mountain to climb among the winless teams. The Bills got smoked 47-3 in Baltimore in a game when almost nothing went right for Buffalo on either offence or defence. Now the club is asking rookie quarterback Josh Allen to win his first NFL start in the Bills’ home opener against the Chargers.
“The hardest part (is) just how we lost the game, and coming home (thinking), ‘Damn, we just got our butts kicked,’ ” said running back LeSean McCoy, a Bills captain. “I was trying to remind guys that we lost like that last year, put it together (and) became a playoff team. No matter how you look at it, it may be embarrassing how we lost, but it’s just one loss. We’re not 0-5 or 0-6. we’re 0-1, and the way you respond to a loss like that is win.
“It’s the NFL. These teams are good. We didn’t come to play (in Baltimore), simple as that. They did, we lost. Now it’s how you respond.
“Guys have pride, that’s the biggest thing,’’ added McCoy. “Also, one thing about this league, when a team does well, when a team wins, you forget about everything else in the past. It doesn’t matter if you win a game by one point, or a field goal. It’s a win and we’re moving on.’’
For the coaches, the message to their players is to focus on the immediate task facing them and not worry about losing that first game. “If we were 1-0 at this point, we’d want the same thing from our team. We’d expect the same thing from ourselves as coaches,’’ said Cowboys John Garrett. “Our focus is preparing for the challenge that we face Sunday night against the Giants. Regardless of what’s happened up to this point, you really just try to get everybody to stay locked in and prepare the right way, so we can go play our best football.”
Two NFL teams are tied for the longest active streak of 0-2 starts, namely the Saints and Colts. Both are in danger of beginning their fifth consecutive season at 0-2.
“It’s certainly something that you pay attention to, and you look at from a coaching perspective,” Saints head coach Sean Payton said. “Last year, we started off with two tough opponents. We did not play particularly well in the second game, and fortunately, we started winning some games. This obviously is a competitive league.
“Regardless, it still comes down to both mental and physical preparation and (being) ready to play well early. (All) teams right now are in a race to improve. Often times, that can happen a lot in the early part of a season.”
The Saints face the Cleveland Browns, who ended their 17-game losing streak stretching back to 2016 with their tie against Pittsburgh last week. “Obviously, victories are hard in this league,” said Browns’ coach Hue Jackson.
Yes they are. Especially if you open the season 0-2.
THE BILLS HAVE THE STEEPEST MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB.