You’d wince too at 0-2.
It seems KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles isn’t much of a fan of playoff percentages.
Many major sports sites already are running team chances/percentages of making the NFL playoffs, and further advancing in the postseason.
Yesterday, speaking in his day-after presser, Bowles seemed to think those articles and numberscrunching are exercises in guesswork.
> “I feel like \[the playoffs\] won’t be determined until the end of the season,” Bowles said. “I think if you lose the first two games of the year, that doesn’t determine the other 15 games.
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> “That’s probably a question that could be answered later than now. Right now, we’re 0-2 – we’re not 0-9 or 0-11. That doesn’t bother me as much from that standpoint. We’ve just got to get better and win a ballgame.”
The numbers are not pretty for teams that jump out to an awful record. Since the 14-team playoff field was established in 2021, team starting 0-2 only advanced to the playoffs 16 percent of the time
Sure, factors like weakness of division opponents are ignored. Still, only 16 percent ought to get people’s attention — and not in a good way.
The Bucs need to play 9-6 football the next 15 games to make the playoffs, based on history.
You don’t want to know what happens to teams that start out 0-3. Joe is saving that tidbit for tomorrow.