NFL Conference Championship Game losers… What happened the following season?
Jets fans still waiting to clap for an AFC title... Image by NYCMarines via Flickr
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a biweekly blog published every Wednesday and Sunday with a bonus “SIX STATS…” published every Friday.
Quick… name the teams that lost in the two conference championship games after the 2010 regular season.
Did you remember?
If you answered the Chicago Bears and the New York Jets, good memory! But the interesting thing about the Bears and Jets is that neither team made the playoffs this year, the fifth time since 1966 that the losers of the conference championship games failed to make the playoffs the following year. The other years: 1985, 1989, 1991 and 2005.
Here’s a few more stats from the teams that lost conference championship games since 1966 (45 seasons, 90 teams):
* Fifty-eight of the 90 conference championship game losers made the playoffs the following year, 32 did not. Of the 32 teams, the Jets have now missed the playoffs three times after losing the conference championship game the prior year. Nine teams have done this twice: Cleveland, L.A. Rams, Chicago, Carolina, Minnestoa, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Miami and Denver.
* Nineteen teams have lost the conference championship game in consecutive seasons. The Jets did it in 2009 and 2010. The last NFC team to lose consecutive NFC title games? The Philadelphia Eagles. They lost NFC title games in 2001, 2002 and 2003. The other teams to lose three straight conference title games are the Los Angeles Rams (1974, 1975, 1976), Dallas (1980, 1981, 1982), Oakland (1968, 1969, 1970) and Oakland (1973, 1974, 1975).
* Eight teams lost a conference title game in a season and then won the Super Bowl the following year: San Francisco (1983), Chicago (1984), Washington (1986), San Francisco (1993), Dallas (1994), Green Bay (1995), Oakland (1975) and Pittsburgh (2004). Four teams lost a conference title game and then lost in the Super Bowl the following season: L.A. Rams (1978), Philadelphia (2003), Pittsburgh (1994) and New England (2006).
* Only once in NFL history did both the teams that lost the conference title game in a season then face off against each other in the Super Bowl the following year: That happened in 1994 when Dallas and Pittsburgh lost conference title games and then played each other in the Super Bowl the following season.
* Six of the last seven teams that lost in the NFC Conference Championship Game failed to make the playoffs the next season.
Can NFL teams win by scoring less than 10 points in a game?
The Colts have won 8 games since 1987 when they scored under 10 points... Image via Wikipedia
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a biweekly blog published every Wednesday and Sunday with a bonus “SIX STATS…” posting every Friday.
Since the beginning of the 1987 NFL season (the last 25 NFL seasons) there have been 73 occasions when a team has won a game by scoring less than 10 points. In this season, it has happened only once: the Cleveland Browns defeated the Seattle Seahawks 6-3 on October 23.
Following are the number of games each NFL team has won since 1987 when they scored less than 10 points.
8 games: Indianapolis
5 games: Buffalo, Cleveland
4 games: New England, Oakland, Pittsburgh
3 games: Detroit, Green Bay, Jacksonville, New York Giants, New York Jets, Washington
2 games: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Tennessee
1 game: Arizona, Baltimore, Carolina, Kansas City, Miami, Minnesota, Philadelphia
0 games: Cincinnati, Houston, San Diego, St. Louis
Note: Of the four teams with o, the Chargers did win a game in 1986 with less than 10 points; the Rams won a 1979 playoff game with less than 10 points; and Cincinnati and Houston have never won a game when they scored less than 10 points.
BONUS: The New York Giants were 6-2 at the halfway point of the NFL season, giving them eight straight years they have been above .500 at the halfway point… the longest current streak in the NFL. Following are the teams that have the longest active streaks of seasons above .500 at the halfway point.
8 seasons: New York Giants
6 seasons: New England
5 seasons: Pittsburgh
4 seasons: Atlanta
3 seasons: New Orleans
2 seasons: Baltimore, Chicago, Green Bay, New York Jets
Bears challenge NFL record for ‘return’ TDs
Chicago's Devin Hester... Image via Wikipedia
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a biweekly blog published every Wednesday and Sunday with a bonus “SIX STATS…” posting every Friday.
Last Sunday the Chicago Bears offense watched as the defense and special teams put up three TDs on the scoreboard in their 37-13 win over the Lions. (Devin Hester returned a punt for TD; Major Wright and Charles Tillman each returned interceptions for a touchdown.) The three return touchdowns upped the Bears total for the season to seven, tops in the NFL. It also put them on pace to challenge for the all-time record of return TDs in a season, 13, set by the 1998 Seattle Seahawks.
Following are the number of return TDs for each NFL team this season:
7: Chicago
5: Green Bay
4: Baltimore, Cincinnati, Detroit, New York Jets
3: Arizona, Buffalo, Denver, Houston, New Orleans, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tennessee
2: Indianpolis, Kansas City
1: Atlanta, Dallas, Minnesota, New England, New York Giants, Oakland, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Washington
0: Carolina, Cleveland, Jacksonville, Miami
The 1998 Seahawks, who went 8-8 that season, scored eight TDs via interceptions, two by punt return, two by fumble recovery return and one by kickoff return. Last year’s Arizona Cardinals team had 12 return TDs putting them second all-time in this category.
Following are the teams that scored the most TDs via interception, fumble recovery, punt return, kickoff return, blocked kick or missed field goal return in an NFL season.
Team, Season… Return TDs
Seattle-1998… 13
Arizona-2010… 12
St. Louis-1999, Kansas City-1999, Kansas City-1992… 11
Buffalo-2004, New Orleans-1998, Denver-1997, San Diego-1997, Kansas City-1986, Denver-1976… 10
Will the Patriots make a little history Sunday night? They hope not!
Image via Wikipedia
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a biweekly blog published every Wednesday and Sunday with a bonus “SIX STATS…” published every Friday.
The New England Patriots on Sunday night against the New York Jets will try to prevent something that hasn’t happened to them since 2002… losing three consecutive games in a season.
The last time New England lost three straight games in a season was 2002 when they lost consecutive games to San Diego, Miami, Green Bay and Denver. They then defeated Buffalo on November 3 to end the streak. Since then, they have lost two straight on four occasions, but have not lost a third straight since October 2002.
Fourteen NFL teams have already lost three consecutive games this season with Cleveland and Tampa Bay going into play this Sunday with two-game losing streaks and a chance to lose three straight in 2011.
Following is a list of the last time each of the 32 NFL teams lost three consecutive games in a season.
2002: New England
2007: Atlanta
2008: Green Bay
2009: Baltimore, Chicago, New Orleans, New York Giants, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay
2010: Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, San Francisco, Tennessee
2011:: Arizona, Carolina, Denver, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Miami, Minnesota, New York Jets, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, St. Louis, Washington
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