A Weird Thought About Losing Streaks

by Brian Shrout on Nov 18, 2009 9:00 AM MST

Like every other Broncos fan on the face of the planet, I was devastated last year when we went into the end of the season and blew a 3-game lead to lose not only the division championship, but any shot at the playoffs. I was thoroughly embarrassed, and took a lot of laughing comments from coworkers, including one who is a 49ers fan.

We've spent time looking at the reasons for that epic collapse. We've dealt with the off-season and a 6-0 record to start the year. And now that we've had a losing streak, people are going "Like OMG, the season's over." But is it?

Losing streaks are nothing new to the NFL, and to the Broncos in particluar. In the last 10 years, we've had exactly 1 season in which we did not have some sort of losing streak. Not all of those years turned out badly. Here's how we fared:

1999 - opened the season 0-4, went 6-6 the rest of the way to end 6-10.

2000 - had a 2 game losing streak, went 9-3 the rest of the way to end 11-5 and a playoff berth.

2001 - had a 2 game losing streak, went 5-5 the rest of the way to end 8-8.

2002 - had a 3 game losing streak, went 2-1 the rest of the way to end 9-7.

2003 - had a 3 game losing streak, went 5-2 the rest of the way to end 10-6 and a playoff berth.

2004 - had 2 2-game losing streaks, finished 10-6 and had a playoff berth.

2005 - did not lose more than 1 game at any time, finished 13-3 and played in the AFC Championship game.

2006 - had a 4 game losing streak, went 2-1 the rest of the way to finish 9-7.

2007 - had a 3 game losing streak, went 5-6 the rest of the way to finish 7-9.

2008 - had 2 3-game losing streaks. The first left us at 4-4, the second brought an 8-8 finish.

So, in 10 years, we've had a losing streak of some sort in 9 of the years. 4 times (in 3 seasons) we have had 3 game losing streaks. 2 times we've had 4 game losing streaks. Despite that we finished with a winning record in 6 of those years. We were at .500 two of the years. We finished with a losing record only twice. We made it to the playoffs 4 times, including a trip to the AFC Championship game.

We can clearly see that a losing streak is not necessarily the kiss of doom that many people would have us believe it is. So all I can say is:

Buck up people, cheer the Broncos on, and BELIEVE!

13-3 until we ain't (and it's still mathematically possible)

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR

Tweet Comment 5 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

yeah

because it’s not like we had a winning streak double the length of our losing steak right before it started or anything…

by bailey disciple on Nov 18, 2009 9:59 AM MST reply actions

Hey Shrout, I miss your posts sometimes when I am working on my own, but I do read them!

Good work going back and looking at the trends.

"Wait, let me explain something to you...I'm the Dude. So, that's what you call me. You know, that, or 'His Dudeness,' or 'Duder,' or 'El Duderino,' if you're not into the whole brevity thing."

by TJ Johnson on Nov 18, 2009 10:57 AM MST reply actions

They talk about a team "peaking" thoughout the season.

Some teams come out of the gate peaking, some peak during mid season, and then there are those that peak in the end when it is most important. Whether we can call our team a early peak team is debatable and probably not. Teams had no film on us to plan around and that gave us some advantage I suspect and now they do, and see the pwhat players are predictable in there playing habits. Our team has to break out of those bad habits of biting on plays and trying to make something happen. Get back to the basic princibles and sound tackling and we should be OK. We have to win the 4 stats to succeed or at least three of them. Field position, turnovers and 3rd down especially. Thanks B for the post.

by bfree2bronc on Nov 18, 2009 11:27 AM MST reply actions

Shaken faith

I just hope that the players don’t have badly shOwn faith. Maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t hAve a lot of confidence that the Broncos will win the tough games. I wish that we had faced the Chiefs after the Baltimore game to get a taste of victory again. If we take this one it will be a real boost, but how many of you are fully expecting a win?

by NDbronco on Nov 20, 2009 9:24 AM MST via mobile reply actions

If we come out and play mistake free

I think we have an even chance to win.

Mistake free = no turnovers, no mental lapses leading to stupid, drive ending penalties, each player taking care of his own responsibilities, etc. etc. When we do that, we are competitive with any team in the league.

"Never give up! Never surrender!" Captain Peter Quincy Taggert in "Galaxy Quest"
"The best defense is a good offense. Or is it the other way around." Wolverine
Pray for the best, prepare for the worst, and know you will come down somewhere between the two.
Livin' in La La Land and Lovin' It

by Brian Shrout on Nov 20, 2009 12:38 PM MST up reply actions