Week 1 Loss = Season Over

[Brian Fein]

In a way, yes. 

Cleveland is assumed to be far worse than ATL and NO.

If you lose to Cleveland, the Dolphins are probably far worse of a team than we all expect, making the skill gap between ATL and MIA even larger.

If you can't beat the league's cupcake teams, you can't expect to beat the league's elite teams.

[Spider-Dan]

So if we can't beat ARI, we can't expect to beat SEA, right?
Or maybe you mean that if we can't beat NYJ, then we can't beat CIN?

This is stupid.  One loss is 0-1, no matter who it is.

[Cathal]

^^^ If you lose to a team perceived as bottom of the barrel how can you expect to beat the better teams in the league.

[Spider-Dan]

In 2012:

- SF could not beat STL in two tries
- SEA lost to ARI and DET
- BAL lost to PHI
- ATL lost to NO and CAR

One loss is one loss.

[Dolphster]

On paper, if you get beat by a bad team, then good teams should beat you.  Fortunately, football isn't played on paper.       Last year the Dolphins got beat by Arizona in Week 4.  Arizona went on to have a 5-11 record.  So in theory, Seattle (who went 11-5 and was a playoff team) should have soundly beaten Miami.  But they didn't.  Miami beat Seattle. 

[masterfins]

I can't believe this topic is being debated before the season has actually even started.  A new low for pessimism.

[Tenshot13]

I can't believe no one has brought up this point:

A team "gels" throughout a season. If they lose in week one to an inferior opponent, doesn't mean they would lose to that opponent say week 10.  A lot of teams improve as a season goes along.

[Brian Fein]

^^ Or in the case of the 2012 Arizona Cardinals, start out 4-0 including beating New England in their house, and then lose 11 of the next 12.

[Dave Gray]

I can't believe no one has brought up this point:

A team "gels" throughout a season. If they lose in week one to an inferior opponent, doesn't mean they would lose to that opponent say week 10.  A lot of teams improve as a season goes along.

Yes, and if we played Cleveland in week 10, maybe we'd beat them.  But the schedule has us playing them in week 1.  If we lose that game, mark my words -- no playoffs.  We'll start slow and it will be an insurmountable hole.

[Spider-Dan]

New England and Seattle both lost to Arizona in the first 2 weeks of the 2012 season.  Didn't seem to hurt them too much.

[MikeO]

actually out of the first 5 games the easiest opponent MIGHT be Indy Week 2.

Weaker defense and o-line than Cleveland. Reggie Wayne ended the season poorly last year and some think he is finished. And if he isn't a legit #1 WR anymore that offense will struggle.

Cleveland isn't a pushover by any means and a loss to them in Week 1 doesn't end the season, that's silly talk!

[Pappy13]

Of course it's mathematically possible to lose the first game and rattle off several wins afterward, but that's just not realistic.

Why not? Miami lost to Buffalo and Tennessee last year and then beat Seattle and Cincy. In the NFL every single game can be won or lost, it's just a matter of whether you play better than your opponent or not. Teams are all so close. Cleveland isn't that much worse than any of the other teams in the NFL and Atlanta isn't that much better. If Miami plays poorly at Cleveland, but plays great at home against Atlanta, there a very good chance they lose to Cleveland and beat Atlanta. It's VERY realistic, just not probable. If it were that easy to predict wins and losses, Vegas would have to shut down.

[Phishfan]

If it were that easy to predict wins and losses, Vegas would have to shut down.

Well there is this thing called the spread that they also deal with.

[Pappy13]

Well there is this thing called the spread that they also deal with.

And what is the spread on games typically? A couple points. That right there speaks to how close teams actually are. A FG seperates the favorite from the underdog in a lot of cases. Even when the game has a 10 point spread or more, the underdog wins those games straight up occasionally. It's not nearly as easy to predict the outcomes of games even straight up as people think. The point spread pretty much just ensures that Vegas can cover the betting.

[Tenshot13]

Dave, you are a pretty smart guy, but this has to be the craziest shit I have ever seen you post on here. We lose the first game if the season, and our year is over?  Come on man!  I am convinced you are trolling right now.  We are winning this first game, and big. 

He'll freezes over and we lose to the Browns.  One game out of 16.  Just because a team sucks doesn't mean they suck that day.  Game plans, players playing beyond expectations, etc.  teams can have a bad day.

Pretty sure your playing Devil's Advocate because JoeTex hasn't done his job in like 3 years.

(Post written on iPhone, please excuse typos)