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With the third NFL Sunday of the year on the way, eight teams are 2-0 and eight are 0-2. The Buccaneers and Dolphins, both 1-0, still yet to play a second game, while the 49ers are 0-3 after a Thursday night loss to the 2-1 Rams.
Since 2007, a 2-0 start has meant a trip to the playoffs 57.8 percent of the time. An 0-2 beginning to the season has ended with a spot in the postseason just 10.7 percent of the time.
The Miami Dolphins managed to rebound from an 0-2 — and eventually 1-4 — start to earn a wild card berth last year. Before that, the Texans and Seahawks bounced back from 0-2 records to get to the playoffs in 2015.
Basically, the season is far from over.
Teams at the top of the standings are in good shape, but have a long way to go, and teams at the bottom have time to turn it around. But we can still expect the majority of the 2-0 teams to keep the good times rolling and almost every 0-2 team to continue marching toward a top draft pick.
Which 2-0 teams will take a wrong turn?
Last year, the Minnesota Vikings climbed all the 5-0 before the season turned into a disaster. It’ll take more than just two wins for teams in 2017 to have a level of comfort that is warranted.
After two weeks, these are the eight undefeated teams — not including the Dolphins and Buccaneers:
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Kansas City Chiefs
Oakland Raiders
Pittsburgh Steelers
The most difficult paths probably belong to the three teams in the AFC West: The Broncos, Chiefs, and Raiders. Just having to play each other represents four difficult games on each team’s schedule. Only one can win the division crown while the other two will have to hope for a wild card berth.
But those also look like three of the least fluky teams in the league. It’s certainly possible one or two of the AFC West trio don’t end up in the postseason, but there are much likelier candidates for a collapse.
Panthers
The Panthers’ win over the 49ers wasn’t very impressive in Week 1 and the team struggled to get past the Bills in Week 2. Against a pair of awful offenses, Carolina allowed just a field goal in each win, but expecting the same result in the next few weeks with the Saints, Patriots, and Lions coming up is probably wishful thinking.
So it will be on the Panthers’ offense to look much better than it has so far.
Cam Newton hasn’t looked right so far, although a game against the New Orleans defense is a good way to return to form. If he doesn’t though, things could turn south for Carolina in a hurry.
Ravens
Baltimore has looked great so far. The Ravens boast the NFL’s second-best point differential, just one point behind the Raiders. The offense looks good, the defense has played lights out and the Ravens have plenty of reason to be optimistic.
But it was against the Bengals and Browns — a pair of offensively challenged teams, to say the least.
In each of the two wins, the Ravens forced five turnovers. That’s simply not going to continue and Baltimore is going to have to find wins against teams that aren’t prone to self-destruct.
Lions
Detroit has scored a ton of points to start the season. Then again, the Cardinals collapsed in the second half and the Giants are a thumbs-down failure so far.
It’s still reasonable to question the Lions’ defense, and their struggles to run the ball probably aren’t quashed, even if Ameer Abdullah found 86 yards against New York.
The Lions have proven plenty capable of ruining a good shot at the NFC North title, and a 2-0 start is far from something to feel comfortable about.
Which 0-2 teams can turn things around?
Teams that start the year 2-0 and then don’t make the playoffs is more common than the opposite. There are only 12 spots in the playoffs and good teams can get left out.
None of the eight 0-2 teams have come close to looking good enough. Those teams are:
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Indianapolis Colts
Los Angeles Chargers
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
New York Jets
For some of those teams — like the Jets and Bears — expectations weren’t too high for the 2017 season. None of them are complete shockers, but it’s a been disappointing start for a few.
With a 41-39 loss Thursday, San Francisco dropped to 0-3 and could be included in the list as well. However, the last 0-3 team to reverse course and make the playoffs were the 1998 Bills, so it’s probably safe to write off the rebuilding 49ers.
But there’s still time for the others to turn a rough start into a good season, even if it still doesn’t end in a trip to the playoffs.
Saints
The offense is good and the defense is terrible. Where have I heard this story before? Oh, just about every season Sean Payton has been coach of the team with a few random exception years.
Still, the Saints are consistently competitive and starting the season against the Sam Bradford-led Vikings and the Patriots was tough. Games against the Panthers and Dolphins may allow for a rebound.
Browns
The Browns? Yeah, the Browns.
They’ve been the laughingstock of the NFL for basically forever, but there’s reason to believe in the way Sashi Brown and Hue Jackson are rebuilding the franchise. This Cleveland team is filled with young players and sometimes those are squads that can randomly get hot and start rattling off wins.
Games against the Ravens and Steelers were a tough way to start, but the Browns play the Colts, Bengals and Jets in the next three weeks — three others teams that are all sitting in the 0-2 pile.
Chargers
Two weeks in a row, Younghoe Koo lined up for a field goal at the end of regulation. Both times it was no good. His try against the Broncos would’ve tied the game, but was blocked. A shot to beat the Dolphins just went wide right.
The Chargers are a remarkably unlucky team and there’s a chance things turn around just because the law of averages dictates it probably should eventually, right?
With many more winnable games in the back half of the team’s schedule, the Chargers could salvage 2017 and finish with a decent record, but catching and passing any of the three teams at the top of the AFC West will be a challenge.