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Andrew Luck (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Indianapolis Colts, with a new coach and starting quarterback, turned the page on the 2012 calendar to October with a 1-2 record. While the 1-2 mark in the first month of the 2012 season may not have been exactly what the team was looking for, it was still good enough to keep the franchise at the top of the list for win-loss records in September since 2000.

Since 2000, the Colts have a 29-12 record in September (a .707 winning percentage) making them the only NFL franchise to win 70 percent of their games in the season’s first month since the turn of the century. It’s important to note that from 2000 to 2007, at the height of Peyton Manning’s career at the helm of the Colts, the team went 22-4 in the month of September. Since then (from 2008 to 2012) the Colts are a very average 7-8.

Following are the win-loss records for each franchise in the month of September from the 2000 season through the 2012 season.

Team, win-loss record & pct in September games (2000-2012)
Indianapolis 29-12 .707

Denver 29-16 .644
Baltimore 27-15 .643
New York Giants 27-16 .628
Green Bay 27-19 .600

New England 25-17 .595
Philadelphia 26-18 .591
Seattle 25-18 .581
Dallas 24-18 .571
Atlanta 25-19 .568
New York Jets 23-20 .535
Tampa Bay 23-20 .535
Minnesota 22-22 .500
San Diego 22-22 .500
Washington 21-21 .500

Jacksonville 21-22 .488
New Orleans 21-22 .488
Oakland 20-23 .465
Chicago 19-23 .452
Tennessee 19-23 .452
Buffalo 19-24 .442
Cincinnati 19-24 .442
Carolina 18-24 .429
San Francisco 18-25 .419
Houston 15-21 .417
Kansas City 18-26 .409

Arizona 17-26 .395
Miami 17-26 .395
Detroit 16-26 .381
St. Louis 17-28 .378
Cleveland 14-31 .311

In looking at the September records of each team since 2009 (the last four years), we see that the best September record since ’09 belongs to the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens have won 10 of their 13 September games since 2009. At the other end of the list are the Carolina Panthers and Cleveland Browns; both teams were only 2-11 in September games since 2009.

Following are the September records for each of the teams since 2009.

Team, win-loss record & pct in September games (2009-2012)

10-3: Baltimore

9-4: Atlanta, Green Bay, Houston, New York Jets

8-4: Chicago

8-5: Arizona, Cincinnati, New England, New York Giants, Philadelphia, San Diego

7-5: Dallas, Pittsburgh

7-6: Denver, Minnesota, New Orleans, San Francisco

6-6: Indianapolis

6-7: Buffalo, Seattle, Washington

5-8: Detroit, Oakland, Tampa Bay, Tennessee

4-9: Jacksonville, Kansas City

3-10: Miami, St. Louis

2-11: Carolina, Cleveland

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