We mentioned earlier Tuesday that teams enjoyed their bye in Week Seven. The larger question: Will they enjoy Week Eight after an extended break mandated by the new CBA?
Teams are 3-9 coming off byes this year, as pointed out by NFL.com. This stat is being used as ammunition that all the time off during the bye week isn’t productive. With the lockout already sapping practice time this year, the extended break is supposedly contributing to a lack of fundamentals.
Or perhaps it’s just random.
The 12 teams withbyes so far haven’t been good teams overall. They are 25-34 this year when they aren’t coming off a bye.
Looking deeper at the 12 games, not one team coming off a bye has suffered a significant upset. The Redskins lost to the Eagles and the Chargers lost to the Jets. Both of those games were toss ups. The Chiefs, on the other hand, pulled off an upset in Oakland this week coming off a bye.
The Falcons certainly aren’t worried about the trend: coach Mike Smith gave his team the entire bye week off.
We can reevaluate whether the reduced practice time has really made a difference in December when bye weeks end.
At this point, it just looks like statistical noise.