Following their 27-24 loss on Sunday, the Indianapolis Colts are now among the teams facing an uphill climb to make the playoffs because they dropped their first two games of the season.
While not impossible for the Colts to reach the postseason after starting 0-2, the odds to do so aren’t in their favor historically speaking. There’s still a chance, but it won’t be an easy climb.
According to Nat Newell of The Indianapolis Star, 11.6% of teams since 1990 that started 0-2 wound up making the playoffs. That was under the former 12-team playoff format. With the 14-team format being the current iteration, Newell expanded the search retroactively.
He found that there is a slight increase to 16.7% of playoff teams that started 0-2. That’s a bit more encouraging but still a pretty low hit rate. The company the Colts share isn’t all that impressive either.
These are currently the teams who have started 0-2:
- Indianapolis Colts
- New York Jets
- New York Giants
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Minnesota Vikings
- Atlanta Falcons
- Detroit Lions/Green Bay Packers (pending MNF)
None of those teams really stand out as playoff contenders other than the Packers, who should move to 1-1 following Monday night’s game.
Maybe that’s good for the Colts as Newell pointed out that, on average, one 0-2 team winds up making the playoffs per season. That said, it’s best to avoid associating with the teams listed above.
It’s not a great look for the Colts to start 0-2. While the game against the Los Angeles Rams was a bit more encouraging given their resilience, the Colts are still haven’t shown they can compete with legit contenders for an entire game. It comes during spurts and is typically never long enough to pull out a win.
Fortunately, the Colts play in arguably the weakest division throughout the entire league. All they have to do is be better than the Titans, Texans and Jaguars. From the small two-week sample we have, that’s certainly possible.
Much of this, of course, depends on the health of quarterback Carson Wentz. The 28-year-old was running for his life in Week 2 and wound up suffering an ankle injury that kept him from returning for the final two drives of the game.
The schedule softens up a bit over the next month or so, giving the Colts a chance to gain some ground back.
However, starting the season 0-2 has now put the playoff odds for Indy on notice.
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