Quote:
Originally Posted by CultBrennan59
I hope we lose to Tampa on Thursday, because teams that go 4-0 in the preseason don't tend to do good in the regular season.
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I think that's because a lot of times coaches that go 4-0 are focused on winning, and playing their starters well past the point the other team has, just to get a winning feeling. This 4-0 (if we win) would feel different to me, because we have often been playing our 2's against the other team's 1s, 3's against 2's, etc. I think winning in pre-season, not a Spurrier type win where you plan/play as if it was a regular season game against an opponent who's just evaluating talent, can show that pure depth of a team is in good shape. That's what I think this preseason is saying about the Redskins.
Your statement did make me wonder what the actual numbers were, so without further ado, and thanks to Google smarts, here is an interesting breakdown
from wiki answers
Quote:
Since 1978 there have been 33 or so Super Bowl winners. 60 teams have gone undefeated in the preseason, 61 have gone winless.
Of the 60 Undefeateds:
31 made the playoffs. (52%)
7 of those lost in the Wild Card Round. (12%)
12 lost in the Divisional Round. (20%)
6 (3 and 3) lost in either the NFC/AFC Championship. (10%)
3 lost in the Super Bowl. (5%)
2 won the Super Bowl. (3.33%)
Of the 61 Winless:
8 made the playoffs. (13%)
2 of those lost in the Wild Card Round. (3.33%)
2 more lost in the Divisional Round. (3.33%)
1 lost in the NFC Championship. (1.66%)
2 more lost in the Super Bowl. (3.33%)
1 won it all. (1.66%)
Of the teams that split one way or the other I would imagine there are not many conclusions to draw based purely on record. In those 33 years there would have been approximately 977 teams.
Of those 977 teams:
About 362 made the playoffs. (37%)
18 lost in the Wild Card (7.5%)
39 lost in the Divisional Round (16%)
66 lost in the NFC/AFC Championship (6.75%)
33 lost in the Super Bowl (3.44%)
33 won the Super Bowl (3.44%)
This shows a pretty stark difference in the percentages of getting to the playoffs for undefeated versus winless teams in the preseason. Sample size of 60 or so is pretty decent for considering how drastic the changes are (50% better chance of making the playoffs if undefeated versus split record/winless and 65% less chance if winless versus split record/undefeated).
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note that the 1982 Skins are the only team to go 0-4 in preseason and win the superbowl.