LombardiChick
Win or lose, I love this team.
Hat tip to our Packer brethren on ESPN:
Pitt Researchers Find 2010 Packers One of the Unluckiest Pro Football Teams in the Past 30 Years
Analysis of NFL regular-season records since 1978 reveals that the 2010 Green Bay Packers lost their games by the narrowest margins in history, which, by the statistical theory that close games are decided by luck more than skill, makes them the second-most hapless team after the 1999 Oakland Raiders
Feb 2, 2011
PITTSBURGH—As contenders in Super Bowl XLV, the Green Bay Packers are clearly skilled—but are they lucky enough to triumph on Feb. 6?
Maybe not.
University of Pittsburgh engineers crunched the regular-season records of every National Football League team since 1978—when the 16-game schedule began—and found that chance has smiled on the 2010 Packers less often than on any other team except the 1999 Oakland Raiders. All six regular-season losses by the sixth-seeded Packers were by fewer than four points, a consistently narrow margin that may denote the handiwork of misfortune more than a shortage of talent, the researchers say.
Andrew Schaefer, an associate professor of industrial engineering in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, and Pitt industrial engineering sophomore Dylan Davis based their analysis on existing statistical research that suggests that the outcome of a close game—defined as a loss by fewer than 10 points—is most often decided by luck, that unknown or unpredictable factor that tips the game toward one team or the other.
“By this one particular definition of ‘luck’, the 2010 Packers appear to be the number six seed team through bad luck alone—no other team has lost so many games by such a very narrow margin,” Schaefer said. “Whether one blames bad luck or not, they definitely appear to be one of the strongest 10-6 teams in NFL history.”
Pitt Researchers Find 2010 Packers One of the Unluckiest Pro Football Teams in the Past 30 Years
Analysis of NFL regular-season records since 1978 reveals that the 2010 Green Bay Packers lost their games by the narrowest margins in history, which, by the statistical theory that close games are decided by luck more than skill, makes them the second-most hapless team after the 1999 Oakland Raiders
Feb 2, 2011
PITTSBURGH—As contenders in Super Bowl XLV, the Green Bay Packers are clearly skilled—but are they lucky enough to triumph on Feb. 6?
Maybe not.
University of Pittsburgh engineers crunched the regular-season records of every National Football League team since 1978—when the 16-game schedule began—and found that chance has smiled on the 2010 Packers less often than on any other team except the 1999 Oakland Raiders. All six regular-season losses by the sixth-seeded Packers were by fewer than four points, a consistently narrow margin that may denote the handiwork of misfortune more than a shortage of talent, the researchers say.
Andrew Schaefer, an associate professor of industrial engineering in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, and Pitt industrial engineering sophomore Dylan Davis based their analysis on existing statistical research that suggests that the outcome of a close game—defined as a loss by fewer than 10 points—is most often decided by luck, that unknown or unpredictable factor that tips the game toward one team or the other.
“By this one particular definition of ‘luck’, the 2010 Packers appear to be the number six seed team through bad luck alone—no other team has lost so many games by such a very narrow margin,” Schaefer said. “Whether one blames bad luck or not, they definitely appear to be one of the strongest 10-6 teams in NFL history.”
