12-11-2020, 01:35 PM
(12-11-2020, 12:53 PM)Sled21 Wrote: But the reason people talk about losses by 3 points, etc., is that they show that the team is close and not just getting blown out constantly. Although I know that's not the popular narrative around here.
Did you even read the initial post?
Losing by less than a score doesn't mean you're any closer than any of the other majority of teams that are losing in the same fashion. No team gets blown out constantly.
Even the Jets, who have an historically bad team this year, have 4 one score losses.
Let's take a look at the 2017 Browns, one of the worst teams of all time, one of only two teams to go 0-16. Here are some of their losses:
21-18 to the Steelers
31-28 to the Colts
17-14 to the Jets
12-9 to the Titans
27-21 to the Packers
28-24 to the the Steelers
They had 6 losses of the less than a score, at an average point difference of 3.75 points. They only had 3 losses that came by more than 14. As one of only two teams ever to go winless even they weren't getting blown constantly.
Let's look at slightly better, normal "bad team" and one of our fellow basement dwellers in 2019 with the Lions, who won only 3 games:
34-30 to the Chiefs (Superbowl Champs)
23 -22 to the Packers (13-3 team)
31-24 to the Raiders
20-13 to the Bears
35-27 to the Cowboys
19-16 to the Redskins
24-20 to the Bears
23-20 to the Packers (13-3 team)
Tie with Arizona 27-27
9 of their games they didn't win (8 if you don't include the tie) came by less than a score. 8 of their 12 losses came by an average of 4.5 points.
When people say it shows we're close it's no different than most losing teams. Trust me, I can pull up any number of teams to keep drilling this point home. (Ex: The 4-12 Giants last year had 6 losses come by less than a score)
I really don't how this can be made more clear. Losing close happens more often than losing by greater than 8 points. It's the nature of the game. So we're really nowhere closer than most bad teams. The only difference is people choose to go through our record and go out of their way to look for positives. Except they don't do that for other teams, and this isn't a really postive. It's commonplace.
