Bet On The New Orleans Saints Missing The Playoffs

The New Orleans Saints won’t make the playoffs. You can bet on it.

That’s what the odds say, despite the Bayou team being a preseason contender in the NFC. No team that started the season 0-2 has made the playoffs since 2008, when both the Miami Dolphins (11-5) and the Minnesota Vikings (10-6) pulled it off.

In the past three seasons, 24 teams started 0-2 and none made it. Going back to 2008, 35 teams lost their first two games of the season and only the aforementioned Vikes and Fins played after Week 17.

This year, the Saints, Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders are in the 0-2 boat. All but the Saints are underdogs again in Week 3, making them good bets to fall further into the 0-3 hole.

“It doesn’t seem like such a deep hole, but nobody seems to be able to get out of it,” said Jack Randall of OddsShark.com. “When you think about it - assuming you need 10 wins to get in - you need to go 10-4 the rest of the way, a tall order for a team that opens with consecutive losses.”

New Orleans is actually the week’s biggest opening point spread, laying 9.5 points at home to fellow 0-2’er Kansas City. That’s a big number for a team that has failed as a favorite twice already in 2012.

Here are the teams that started 0-2 since 2008. (only the bolded names made the playoffs)

0-2 Starts

2011

Panthers 6-10
Colts 2-14
Chiefs 7-9
Dolphins 6-10
Vikings 3-13
Seahawks 7-9
Rams 2-14

2010
Browns, 5-11
Cowboys, 6-10
Lions, 6-10
Bills, 4-12
Vikings, 6-10
Panthers, 2-14
Rams, 7-9
49ers, 6-10
2009
Panthers, 8-8
Lions, 2-14
Titans, 8-8
Chiefs, 4-12
Rams, 1-15
Jaguars, 7-9
Bucs, 3-13
Browns, 5-11
Dolphins, 7-9
2008
Bengals, 4-11-1
Browns, 4-12
Lions, 0-16
Texans, 7-9
Jaguars, 5-11
Chiefs, 2-14
Dolphins, 11-5
Vikings, 10-6
Chargers, 8-8
Seahawks, 4-12
Rams, 2-14