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Reggie Wayne, Indianapolis Colts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As the calendar turns to October, the 2013 NFL season is now four weeks old. September was good to five teams in particular – the Patriots, Broncos, Chiefs, Saints and Seahawks – as each of them went 4-0 in the first month of the season.

The Indianapolis Colts turned the page on the 2013 calendar to October with a 3-1 record. That 3-1 mark was 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 32-13 record in September (a .711 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 2013) the Colts are 10-9 in September.

Following are the win-loss records for each franchise in the month of September from the 2000 season through the 2013 season.

Team, win-loss record & pct. in September games (2000-2013)
Indianapolis 32-13 .711

Denver 33-16 .673
Baltimore 29-17 .630
New England 29-17 .630
Seattle 29-18 .617

New York Giants 27-20 .574
Green Bay 28-21 .571
Dallas 26-20 .565
Philadelphia 27-21 .563
Atlanta 26-22 .542
New York Jets 25-22 .532
New Orleans 25-22 .532
San Diego 24-24 .500

Tampa Bay 23-24 .489
Pittsburgh 22-23 .489
Minnesota 23-25 .479
Washington 22-24 .478
Chicago 22-24 .478
Tennessee 22-24 .478
Kansas City 22-26 .458
Jacksonville 21-26 .447
Oakland 21-26 .447
Buffalo 21-26 .447
Cincinnati 21-26 .447
San Francisco 20-27 .426
Miami 20-27 .426
Houston 17-23 .425
Carolina 19-26 .422
Detroit 19-27 .413
Arizona 19-28 .404

St. Louis 18-31 .367
Cleveland 16-33 .327

In looking at the September records of each team since 2009 (the last five years), we see that the best September record since ’09 belongs to the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots. The Ravens and Pats have each won 12 of their 17 September games since 2009. At the other end of the list are the Carolina Panthers who are only 3-13 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 (2009-2013)

12-5: Baltimore, New England

11-5: Chicago
11-6: Denver, Houston, New Orleans, New York Jets

10-6: Green Bay
10-7 Arizona, Atlanta, Cincinnati, San Diego, Seattle

9-7: Dallas, Indianapolis
9-8: Philadelphia, San Francisco

8-9: Buffalo, Detroit, Kansas City, Minnesota, New York Giants, Tennessee

7-9: Pittsburgh
7-10: Washington

6-11: Miami, Oakland

5-12: Tampa Bay

4-13: Cleveland, Jacksonville, St. Louis

3-13: Carolina

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