#ROADBLOCKS THE GAME HOW TO#

There aren’t that many people whose fandom snuck out with Bob Irsay in the middle of the night in 1984 the Steelers essentially victimized two entirely different groups of people. The only thing the 1975 Baltimore Colts had in common with the 2005 Indianapolis Colts were a logo and a color scheme. That streak includes three different head coaches, three different starting quarterbacks, and two cities. Losing to the same franchise five times in a 31-year period is more trivia than an actual, factual streak. The only other franchise to lose five straight playoff games to the same opponent was the Colts, who lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1975, 1976, 1995, 19. That ties an NFL record, and frankly, Green Bay has done it in a more impressive fashion.

Both of them are setting some pretty impressive futility marks as they keep smashing their heads into their rivals.įor the Packers, this was their fifth straight loss to the 49ers, stretching back to the 2012 Divisional Round. The Packers and Bills aren’t just your average roadblocked teams. More wild-card teams mean we get more chances to have these matchups it increases the odds that a lesser team keeps doing enough to make the playoffs and get wiped out by a dynasty and it means more chances to face a team while they’re really good, before their stars age out. In fact, of the 51 times a team has beaten another for the third, fourth or even fifth consecutive postseason matchup, 20 of them have happened in the past decade, and only nine pre-date the 1990 expansion to 12-team playoffs. Some of those stretch longer than others – you have to go all the way back to 1981 to find the first Bengals-Bills playoff matchup – but still, it’s four instances of three playoff wins in a row. Last year, we had the Cowboys beating the Buccaneers, the 49ers beating the Cowboys, the Bengals beating the Bills and the Eagles beating the Giants, all for the third consecutive playoff matchup. Four games in one postseason is the all-time record, but 2023 merely ties with … 2022. And in a world of parity, with salary caps and player movement, it should be less common for one team to crash and burn into another one season after season, right? In a world where nearly half the league makes the playoffs, we shouldn’t be getting the same matchups year after year. This sounds like a “George Halas beats up on Steve Owen” stat, or something buried in the legend of Vince Lombardi. And, in addition, it’s the kind of stat that feels like it should be a relic of a time long past, when there were only eight teams in the league and only four of them were any good. They’re roadblock games.Īnd having this many roadblock games in one year feels strange, doesn’t it? If there are only 39 instances of this ever, having four of them all happening in the same season seems like it would be a historical oddity.

#ROADBLOCKS THE GAME HOW TO#

They’re more tests of skill that it feels like Buffalo or Green Bay is going to have to figure out how to overcome – the bullies you beat in Act III the annoying subboss who pops back up again in the penultimate level. For the Bills and Packers, the day the 49ers or Chiefs come to town was the most important day of their season. The amount of importance and meaning to the games becomes lopsided. But when one team starts winning over and over and over again, it becomes something else. A rivalry implies a certain level of equality – a matchup between two peers, back-and-forth, with both sides winning their fair share of battles. It’s hard to even call these rivalries at this point. And, of course, the Bills once again crashed into their almost yearly attempt at conquering the Chiefs, only to fall short in heartbreaking fashion yet again.The Packers then got a taste of their own medicine in the Divisional Round, falling to the 49ers for a record-tying fifth straight time.The Packers marched into Dallas and beat the Cowboys for the third time in just over a decade, having won after 2014, 2016 and now 2023.In the Wild-Card Round, the Buccaneers beat the Eagles for the third straight time, a streak which stretches back to the 2002 NFC Championship.There have been 39 instances in NFL history of one team having at least a three-game postseason win streak over an opponent – not necessarily in consecutive years, but three wins in consecutive matchups. If this year’s postseason feels somewhat familiar, there’s a reason for that.

Roadblocks the game