Welcome back to The Athletic’s NFL Panic Index, a periodic check-in to determine whether a team’s struggles are just a temporary setback (Panic Level 1) or reason for a full-fledged freak-out (Panic Level 5).
Today, we’re focusing on the NFL’s seven 0-2 teams. No team that lost its first two games made the playoffs in 2019 or 2020. And since 1990, less than 12 percent of the 258 teams with an 0-2 start made the postseason.
The math might look different in 2021, thanks to a 17-game regular season that could give teams more time to catch up after a slow start, and an expanded playoff field that includes an additional wild-card team in each conference.
That could help ease the sting of 0-2, but that doesn’t mean these teams don’t each have reasons for concern.
Panic Level: 1
Can you panic if there was no hope to begin with? The Lions were beating the Packers at halftime of the Week 2 “Monday Night Football” game at Lambeau Field, a week after nearly pulling off a wild comeback against San Francisco, and that was more than most of Detroit’s fans expected. (In the end, Green Bay won 35-17.)
The Lions aren’t bad, per se. But they aren’t good, either, and they won’t win many games this year. Still, they have looked competent, decently coached (though we’ll side with the Manning brothers, who criticized the fourth-and-1 pass call from Anthony Lynn late in the first half) and are interesting. And for now, that’s all we can really ask.
