Opening the NFL season with an 0-2 record is not just depressing.
Statistics mavens will tell you that teams with that start have seriously jeopardised their chances of reaching the play-offs even with four months of the season still to play.
Since the current post-season format was adopted in 2002, only nine per cent of 0-2 teams rebounded into the play-offs.
So let the heavy lifting begin for the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints – a pair of teams with Super Bowl aspirations whose winless starts have their faithful fan bases muttering and their quarterbacks verbally scrambling.
Drew Brees of New Orleans and Andrew Luck of Indianapolis each uttered the same words to describe the mood in their camps this week: “A sense of urgency.”
The Saints have been the more surprising disappointment. Always dynamic on offence, the Saints promised a sturdier defence this season. Instead, they gave up yards in bunches, as well as late leads, in losing narrowly to Atlanta Falcons in overtime and lowly Cleveland Browns on a last-second field goal.
As Cleveland drove the length of the field in the final minutes, coach Sean Peyton was seen berating his frazzled defensive coordinator Rob Ryan on the sidelines.
“It’s hard when you lose the way we’ve lost the last two – where one play could have made the difference,” Brees said. “In some cases, it takes losing them and feeling the sting to win.”
The Saints are still fine on offence, ranking third in total yards. But the defence is 31st of 32 teams.
It appears to be an identical dilemma at Indianapolis, where the Colts are eighth in the league in offence but 28th on defence.
The Colts have had the much harder task of stopping two of the best offences in the NFL the first two weeks – the Denver Broncos and the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Colts also had chances to win, especially against Philadelphia.
But mistakes by Luck, their third-year quarterback, cost them.
That made it two weeks in a row that Luck referred to his decision-making as “stupid”.
Colts coach Chuck Pagano tried to calm the stormy seas: “I’m not worried. Nobody is ready to hit the panic button.”
Said Luck: “Two games don’t define a season, but they do count. We realise we have to right the ship.”
That should be this week for both teams. The Colts get to play the woeful Jacksonville Jaguars, another 0-2 team, and New Orleans plays their first home game against the Minnesota Vikings, who are without their best player, suspended running back Adrian Peterson.
Just in case, though, they should know that no 0-3 team has made the play-offs under the current format.
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