Time for some fun with numbers.
Both the New York Giants and New York Jets have opened the 2021 NFL regular season with back-to-back losses.
According to the Boston Globe, that means the Giants and Jets are tied for the lowest winning percentage since the start of the 2017 season, with both teams going 18-48 (.273).
And of course, starting the season 0-2 (again) means the Giants and Jets have little chance of qualifying for the playoffs this season. Per the Globe:
Since the institution of the 16-game schedule in 1978, only 38 of 343 teams (11.1 percent) that started 0-2 made the playoffs, per the databases at Pro Football Reference. In the last two seasons, 20 teams started 0-2, and none made the playoffs. The last teams to pull it off were the 2018 Texans and Seahawks, the 2017 Saints, and the 2016 Dolphins. The average finish of an 0-2 team is 6-10.
The Globe does note that starting 0-2 isn’t necessarily impossible to overcome, as the 1993 Dallas Cowboys, 2001 New England Patriots, and 2007 Giants all won the Super Bowl despite 0-2 starts.
The Globe also reports that seven teams since 2000 have gone on to win the Super Bowl after losing their regular-season opener: the 2001, 2003, and 2014 Patriots; the 2002 and 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers; and the 2007 and 2011 Giants.
Story by Mike Rosenstein, nj.com