The Steelers and Falcons both lost all of their games in the preseason. Does that mean anything at all? Or are these just teams coasting through the practice games -- playing backups and whatnot.
Certainly, backups play a huge role in the preseason games. The formula most teams seem to follow for these games is to use starts for a series or two in the first game, about a quarter in the second game, a little more than a half in the third, and not more than a series in the fourth.
So in the roughly 16 quarters of the preseason, the starters tend to be playing about 25 percent of the time.
But the practice games do give a measure of how good a team's second- and third-string guys are. Note that Seattle, with great depth, has won all of its preseason games the last two years.
Anyway, without attaching too much significance to it, I'll point out that 24 teams have gone winless in the preseason since the move to 32 teams in 2002. Of those 24, only 5 made the playoffs. (Two teams kind of got ripped off, winning double-digit games but not making it to the Dance.) Six teams went .500, and 11 of the 24 finished with losing records.
Of the 24 winless preseason teams, none made it to a conference championship game. The Colts in 2005 came closest, opening the year 13-0.
| WINLESS IN THE PRESEASON (2002-) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | W | L |
| 2002 | Buffalo | 8 | 8 |
| 2002 | St. Louis | 7 | 9 |
| 2003 | Atlanta | 5 | 11 |
| 2003 | Houston | 5 | 11 |
| 2004 | San Francisco | 2 | 14 |
| 2005 | Indianapolis | 14 | 2 |
| 2005 | Kansas City | 10 | 6 |
| 2006 | Pittsburgh | 8 | 8 |
| 2006 | Washington | 5 | 11 |
| 2007 | Arizona | 8 | 8 |
| 2007 | Kansas City | 4 | 12 |
| 2008 | New England | 11 | 5 |
| 2008 | Cleveland | 4 | 12 |
| 2009 | Kansas City | 4 | 12 |
| 2009 | Arizona | 10 | 6 |
| 2009 | Carolina | 8 | 8 |
| 2010 | Chicago | 11 | 5 |
| 2010 | Indianapolis | 10 | 6 |
| 2011 | Atlanta | 10 | 6 |
| 2011 | Oakland | 8 | 8 |
| 2011 | Kansas City | 7 | 9 |
| 2012 | NY Jets | 8 | 8 |
| 2012 | Miami | 7 | 9 |
| 2012 | Buffalo | 6 | 10 |
| 2013 | Pittsburgh | ||
| 2013 | Atlanta | ||
--Ian Allan