An unprecedented weekend of matchups looms at the one-quarter mark of the NFL season. League historians scrambled Monday and found it will be the first time there have been four games between undefeated teams four weeks into a season.
Green Bay at Minnesota, Denver at Kansas City, San Francisco at Carolina, and Miami at Indianapolis all are divisional clashes between unbeaten teams that will start to shape the playoffs.
The flip side is three games between teams that finally will get their first win. The Giants and Jets fight the Battle of New York, currently the league’s Last City. Seattle and Tampa Bay meet in the “Has-It-Only-Been-20-Years-Since-We-Expanded?” Bowl. The Cardinals and Saints play, or is that pray?
And more: The Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills meet in yet another reprise of Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII.
It beats parity. It also means the league is looking at some haves and have-nots at the moment. The Cardinals and Jets have lost seven consecutive regular-season games, the Giants and Bucs five. The Raiders broke an eight-game losing streak. Meanwhile, the Packers have won nine of 10.
Playoff bound: The six 3-0 teams (through Sunday) ties the record of 1986, 1979, 1968 and 1966. The 3-0 teams have an 80 percent chance of making the playoffs. Over the last 10 seasons, 34 of 43 teams to start out 3-0 have advanced to the postseason. The big exception was 1993, when the Browns, Giants, Eagles and Saints all started out 3-0 and only the Giants made the playoffs.
The more teams that start out 3-0, the higher their chances of making it because it means more losing teams have more winning teams to catch. In 1992, 1991 and 1990, all five 3-0 teams each year advanced to the playoffs.
Is it all over for the 1-2 Bears, defending champion Cowboys, or this week’s Bears opponent, the Lions?
No. Last year’s Colts began 1-2 and reached the AFC title game.
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What about the Bears-Lions loser?
Last year’s Eagles began 1-3 and made the playoffs.
And the Lions are their own best example. After an 0-3 start last year, they made the playoffs, so they figure 1-2 is progress.
Stampede continues: Exactly what more do Jim Harbaugh and the Colts have to do before the horseshoes signify more than luck?
“A lot of people say we’re a fluke and we got lucky last year,” Harbaugh said. “But luck is when you win the lottery, not when you play 16-20 games as well as we have.”
Down 21-3 to the Cowboys, the Colts won 25-24 in Texas Stadium, a result that certainly impressed the high-flying Packers, who have lost six in a row there.
In Colts history, there have been three 21-point comebacks, one 20-point comeback and three 18-point comebacks. Harbaugh has quarterbacked three of the seven–two 21-pointers last year and now an 18-pointer.
The most impressive thing about the Dallas win was the Colts having 17 players listed on their injury report. Six starters were out including running back Marshall Faulk and defensive end Tony Bennett.
“We played without 25 percent of our (salary) cap,” director of football operations Bill Tobin said.
“We came down here with guys who haven’t played much and we won. I’m happier to be a part of this one than other days when I had better stats or bigger comebacks,” Harbaugh said.
One of the guys was second-year tight end Marcus Pollard, whose first big-league catch was a 48-yard touchdown. Pollard never played college football. He was a basketball player at Bradley, recommended to Tobin by former Bears scout Ken Geiger.