I'm going to come clean up front here: I was initially going to title this "Things the Titans have never done", but I started doing the research, and found out that, while technically the Titans have never done these things, their franchise has, and actually did it quite well in the early 90s. More later, but I was disappointed I couldn't use that title.
We are all well aware that the Colts have won 12 games each of the past 5 seasons, and that streak is still alive and well, even though it looked pretty bleak in Week 9. We also know this is an NFL record, that has a good chance of standing on its own for a very long time, especially in the parity-loving present day NFL. It will take another QB/Coach combination like Manning and Dungy to get it done. But I've got something better to take to your favorite Colts hater:
As long as the Colts win this coming weekend (I'm going to go out on a limb and say they will), they will have won 7 games in a row. If/When this happens, it will be the 5th consecutive year the Colts have had a winning streak of at least 7 games. To give you an idea of how rare this happens, here's a list of teams since 2004, when this Colts streak began, that have had 1 seven game winning streak in a season (table sortable by clicking on header):
| Year | Team | Streak |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Chargers | 10 |
| 2006 | Bears | 7 |
| 2007 | Patriots | 16 |
| 2007 | Cowboys | 7 |
| 2005 | Seahawks | 11 |
| 2005 | Bears | 8 |
| 2004 | Steelers | 14 |
| 2004 | Chargers | 8 |
| 2004 | Eagles | 7 |
| 2008 | Titans | 10 |
| 2008 | Giants | 7 |
It's only happened 11 times by other teams in that time span. Only the '05 and '06 Bears did it in consecutive seasons. As another point of reference, the 49ers won at least 10 games in 16 straight seasons (can we get there?). They only had a 7 game winning streak 6 times during this stretch, none consecutively. The Cowboys of the mid-90s? Only once. This is an amazing stat.
I've got one more for you: We learned earlier this week that four Colts have gone over the 50 reception mark on the season. I wanted to find out how many teams have done this over the past ~20 years. Here's what I found (table sortable by clicking on header):
| Year | Team | Week Achieved | # Catches (4th) | Wins | Losses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Dolphins | 14 | 55 | 6 | 10 |
| 2005 | Giants | 17 | 54 | 11 | 5 |
| 2005 | Chargers | 16 | 51 | 9 | 7 |
| 2004 | Colts | 16 | 51 | 12 | 4 |
| 2003 | Chiefs | 17 | 50 | 13 | 3 |
| 2002 | Packers | 16 | 54 | 12 | 4 |
| 2002 | Raiders | 17 | 51 | 11 | 5 |
| 2002 | Seahawks | 17 | 50 | 7 | 9 |
| 2001 | Bills | 17 | 53 | 3 | 13 |
| 2001 | Giants | 17 | 51 | 7 | 9 |
| 2000 | Jets | 17 | 54 | 9 | 7 |
| 2000 | Rams | 14 | 53 | 10 | 6 |
| 1999 | Giants | 16 | 58 | 7 | 9 |
| 1995 | Dolphins | 17 | 51 | 9 | 7 |
| 1994 | Patriots | 16 | 58 | 10 | 6 |
| 1992 | Oilers | 16 | 57 | 10 | 6 |
| 1991 | Oilers | 15 | 55 | 11 | 5 |
| 1990 | Oilers | 14 | 66 | 9 | 7 |
It's happened 18 times since 1990 (including by the Colts in 2004), but only 3 times has it happened this early in the season. I also wanted to find out which was the last team to have 5 players with 50+ receptions (Rhodes is at 35 now), and it is the 1994 Patriots. I'd love for our Pats fans, or anyone else, to name any of the 5 players, without looking them up. I only remembered 2 of them, so this is pretty obscure. Don't spoil it for everyone else.
The other thing I was looking for was the last time a team had 4 players go over 60 receptions in a season, as I think this could very well happen for the Colts this season. This happened to be the 1990 Oilers, as you can see in the table. The Oilers had a pretty good stretch from '90 to '92 spreading the ball around. That's the run and shoot for you. That record of 66 looks really good, and will be a long shot to get to, but it may happen this year for the Colts. We'll see.
While the division title did not happen this season, this team has accomplished things that not many other teams can say they have. So go out there and win some money on me!