With their Week 14 wins, the Colts and Saints have improved their records to 13-0, and I don’t think the historical significance of this is being emphasized enough. Since the NFL moved to a 14-game schedule in 1961, only four teams have started 13-0: the 1972 Dolphins, 1998 Broncos, 2005 Colts, and 2007 Patriots.
The NFL Has Two 13-0 Teams For First Time In History
↵The ‘07 Patriots are surely to blame for this relative oversight. In losing the Super Bowl, they lessened the value that we place on a spectacular regular-season record. Let me place the Colts’ and Saints’ records in further perspective, though: given the trend set from the years 1961 to 2008, there is a 6% chance that we’ll see a 13-0 team in a given year. There’s a 0.3% chance that we’ll see two teams do the same in a given year-- probably less if head-to-head semantics are calculated.
↵Of course, the pessimist in me believes that neither team will reach the Super Bowl. It’ll be Patriots-Eagles in a boring retread of Super Bowl XXXIX. Count it.
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