What does it mean to be the worst 2–0 team ever?

by Jason Pauley

I saw some chatter this week saying that the Giants might be one of the worst 2–0 teams ever. Their opponents are a combined 0–4, and the Giants have barely beaten both teams.

• Win over the Titans 21–20
• Win over Carolina 19–16

I don’t know, I think it’s a fair claim and I’m not really mad about it. We (Giants fan here) are 2–0 and this makes me happy for now, but being a historically bad 0–2 team is a cautionary tale for the rest of the season.

The Giants 4-point differential after a 2–0 start is the tied for the 4th worst since the merger.

The worst was the Eagles in 2012 who won their first two games by 1 point each. After those two games, some nerd probably said they were the worst 2–0 team ever, and people were like “whatever dude,…scoreboard”. Well, that Eagles team went 2–12 the rest of the season after that 2–0 start, proving that they probably were the worst 2–0 team ever, and that being the worst 2–0 team ever mattered.

I wanted to understand if all 2–0 starts are the same regardless of if it’s a bad 2–0 or a good 2–0. In other words, does it matter if your one of the worst 2–0 teams ever? I used point differential for this back-of-the-napkin analysis. There is greater context than just point differential (quality of opponent, injuries, bad luck, etc.). But all that context is hard to understand on a historical basis and I don’t have the time right now to do the work.

What happens to the worst 2–0 teams the rest of the year?

• 2–0 teams with a point differential of +4 or less (N=11) finish the rest of the season with a .455 win % (Equivalent of a 7.7 win and 9.3 loss 17-game season.
• All 2–0 teams combined regardless of point differential finish the rest of the season with a .567 win % (Equivalent of a 9.6 win and 7.4 loss season)
• There is a prorated difference of two wins over a 17-game season between all 2–0 teams and “the worst” 2–0 teams.

Here are all of the worst 2–0 teams. The bars are their point differential after 2–0, and next to their name you can see how they finished the season. Out of the 11 “worst” 2–0 teams only 5 finished the rest of the year with a winning record.

What do you think? Is being “one of the worst 2–0 teams” just talking head nonsense trying to be controversial and get clicks? Does it matter? Should I stop letting data and analysis suck the joy out of my life and just embrace my team being 2–0 and start looking at February flights to Glendale, AZ?