“We’ve said this for as long as I can remember: The teams that continue to improve are going to be the ones that have a chance at the end,” Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said.
Though there is at least one 0-1 team in all eight NFL divisions, some fared worse than others. Three of the four AFC South teams lost, with the Jacksonville Jaguars the lone outlier. The entire NFC South, meanwhile, is 0-1, including the Carolina Panthers, who have started 0-2 each of the last four seasons. When division rivals Atlanta and Carolina play Sunday, one is guaranteed to leave 0-2.
It is one of three Week 2 games featuring winless teams, ensuring that one team will stay that way, joining Cowboys-Commanders and Cleveland-Tampa Bay.
Sometimes, an 0-1 start feels worse than one game would indicate. Green Bay’s 17-point loss to division rival Minnesota was the Packers’ sixth consecutive defeat dating to last season, the franchise’s longest losing streak since 1990-91. It was also their third consecutive divisional loss after having held a double-digit lead. Green Bay had led Chicago by 10 in December and again by 18 in a January playoff game, only to lose.
When Green Bay lost its 12-point lead en route to a blowout Sunday, the collapse revived alarm bells about the team’s ability to close out games.
“It’s going to be a topic of conversation for you guys until we do it,” coach Matt LaFleur told reporters Sunday. “That’s the bottom line.”
Said quarterback Jordan Love: “All these games find ways to be close at the end. We’ve got to find ways to be at our best. We’ve talked about it time and time again, and I think we’ll keep talking about it until we figure it out and do something about it.”
Perhaps the team that is most unexpectedly trying to avoid an 0-2 hole is the Chargers, who were given the eighth-best odds to win the Super Bowl, only to be outplayed thoroughly at home by Arizona, a team that was expected to be near the bottom of the standings.
The loss aggravated criticism of quarterback Justin Herbert and the Chargers’ lack of protection for him. Since 2020, when Herbert entered the league, no other quarterback has been sacked more times (228). That total includes the three he took against the Cardinals, including one much-publicized play in which three Chargers blockers teamed up on one Cardinals defender, allowing two to rush free at Herbert.
“It feels like it does in any fight — feels like it does in a football fight where you don’t win,” coach Jim Harbaugh said. “Your mind says, ‘What are you going to do about it?’”
It’s the question facing all 16 of the NFL’s winless teams entering Week 2.
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