A little football talk here. I watch the Denver Broncos, as it is hard not to be involved with them. This entire city’s attitude and self-esteem are heavily influenced by Bronco success and failure. So be it. It is fun.
When they are winning.
They have now, over the course of two seasons, won sixteen games in a row by one score. Last year the head coach, Sean Payton, noted a much smaller streak at that time, and said that they could easily be 7-7 instead of 9-3. He knew about luck and statistics.
Yesterday in his post-game press conference, where they won by means of the incredible interception by Devon Key (seen above), they did it again. He said after the game that at 16 consecutive once-score wins, a league record, it is now part of the team’s makeup, and that it is his players that are making it happen. No more good luck.
And I thought … the streak is over now. They’ll be lucky to pull out another one-score victory for the rest of this season. They had better get better at scoring to have a better buffer at game’s end. They are at 7-2 now. Think … 7-10?
It just doesn’t work like that. Sixteen straight wins of any kind means be a very high caliber team. But no NFL team has had un undefeated season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, 54 years ago (17-0). In the NFL there are very good players on even the worst teams, so truly, any team can beat any other. Other factors, and coaching is a large part of it, determine who develops into a winner, and who a loser.
And, of course, some of those games are rigged. Last year when the Broncos pulled off an amazing fourth quarter comeback to beat the Giants 33-30, I thought … man, that score tells me something.
(I asked AI one time if the best college team could defeat the worst NFL team, and AI said “Oh, shit no.” All right – that’s not the answer I got, but is the gist of it.)
