So, you are a hopeful Bengals or Chargers fan still holding out hope for your Super Bowl 58 futures bet to come around and pay off in February, despite their 0-2 starts.
History says you can forget about it. No Super Bowl, not even any playoffs. Such is the nature of teams that lose their first two games of the season – less than a 10 per cent chance of making it.
Since 2007, 131 teams have gone 0-2. Only 13 have rallied to make the playoffs but Cincinnati did it in 2022 and will try to do it again after stumbling in 2023. That’s 118-13 for all you math fans at home. Eleven teams were 0-2 in 2020 and seven in 2021, none made the playoffs. In 2022, the Bengals made while five failed.
The hopeless group for 2023 includes nine teams, :
Cincinnati, Carolina, Houston, Denver, Minnesota, New England, Arizona, Chicago, LA Chargers.
With the league expanding the playoffs to 14 teams in 2020, the chances improved with two additional Wild Card positions up for grabs. But it doesn’t seem to make a difference.
Does a 2-0 start get your team to the playoffs?
The trend of 2-0 being a lock to make the playoffs has waned in recent years. Overall, that same 2007 to 2021 timeframe produced 66 teams that made it and 48 that didn’t. In 2019, seven of nine 2-0 teams made it, while the Dallas Cowboys and LA Rams each choked. In 2020, only the Raiders and Cardinals failed to make the playoffs after a 2-0 start, while the other nine teams all played in January. In 2021, five of seven teams made it while it was 4-2 in 2022.
Is it the usual suspects who start 0-2 or 2-0?
The Giants started 0-2 for the fifth straight season in 2021, so they are the biggest repeat offenders, but they are 2-0 in 2022! Their AFC cousins – NY Jets – narrowly avoided four years in a row in 2022 with a miracle win at Cleveland. On the 2-0 side, the Eagles, Vikings, Chiefs, Buccaneers, Giants and Bills started fast in 2022 while 2023 saw nine teams go 2-0, including Super Bowl favorites like the 49ers, Cowboys and Eagles.
