With or without Jay Cutler, Bears' season is basically over

By Dan Cahill

Regardless of the extent of Jay Cutler’s injury, things look bleak for the Bears. | AP

With or without Jay Cutler, the Bears season is basically over. Or, so the numbers tell us.

Since 1990, NFL teams that started ...
2-0 made playoffs 63% of time
1-1 made playoffs 41% of time
0-2 made playoffs 12% of time
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 21, 2015

From USA Today:

Since the NFL expanded to a 12 team playoff format in 1990, only 23 teams of 204 to start 0-2 (11.2 percent) have overcome the winless start to make the postseason.

Makes sense, right? Bad teams start 0-2 and stay bad.

Here’s how the Bears have ended up after 0-2 starts since 1970: 1973 (3-11), 1981 (6-10), 1982 (3-6 in a strike year), 1993 (7-9), 1997 (4-12), 1998 (4-12) and 2000 (5-11).

But what if the Bears aren’t bad? What if they’re like the 2007 Giants, who lost their first two and went on to win the Super Bowl?

Well, since 2009, only two teams have started 0-2 and made the playoffs—the 2013 Panthers and 2014 Colts.

From USA Today:

To put it into third-grade mathematical terms, over the past six seasons you have a 4% chance of making the playoffs if you’re winless headed into Week 3.

So, the 0-2 Bears face the 0-2 defending NFC Champion Seahawks on the road this weekend. The Seahawks have opened as a 14-point favorite over the Bears.

One more stat to consider: In the history of the NFL, only five teams have started 0-3 and made the playoffs, and no team has done it since the Doug Flutie-led Bills in 1998.

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