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Miami Dolphins: the best winless team ever
Since the merger, there have been 12 teams, including the 2007 Dolphins, that were winless through the first 11 weeks of the season.
According to the simple rating system, this year's Dolphins are easily the best of the bunch. Here they are chronologically:
Rating SOS
================================
sdg 1975 -10.3 2.6 0-11-0
tam 1976 -18.6 -0.9 0-11-0
tam 1977 -16.0 -3.4 0-11-0
nor 1980 -14.0 0.6 0-11-0
bal 1982 -9.1 4.6 0- 8-1
buf 1984 -10.5 4.0 0-11-0
ind 1986 -11.8 3.1 0-11-0
cin 1993 -13.8 -0.1 0- 9-0
ind 1997 -10.4 0.0 0-10-0
sdg 2000 -7.1 3.0 0-10-0
det 2001 -8.4 1.5 0-10-0
mia 2007 -5.4 3.7 0-10-0
By the simple rating system's calculations, they have had the 4th-hardest schedule in the league so far (behind only the Redskins, Bills, and Chargers), and have a point margin of "only" about -9.
In fact, not only are the Dolphins the best of the winless teams through 11 weeks, they're better than all but one of the 34 teams with one-win teams since the merger.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 6:52 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

It shows up in the Dolphins' in-game efficiencies too. I've got them 23rd out of 32, ahead of some teams with 3 and 4 wins.
They're moving the ball, just not getting the breaks or the points.
At the very least they're playing better than the Raiders and 49ers lately.
If I was a Bills fan, I wouldn't be too excited about playing the Dolphins next month.... Oh, wait, I am, and I'm not, respectively.
Using my regression model to predict win%, I have them as a team that should win about 4 games. They are certainly underachieving.
And don't forget they lost their last 3 in 06, so they've lost 13 in a row.
They probably won't go winless for the season. It's too hard to do that and their running game is extremely decent.
How is the "rating system" determined? What are the criteria?
Rocky
E R Rocky,
It is fully explained in the link on the words "simple rating system."
I was looking into the Pats schedule a week ago and happened upon Buffalo's for comparison. My immediate reaction was "Damn. The Bills are getting the shaft."