# NFL Matchup That Has Never Been Good On Paper **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 24, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-matchup-that-has-never-been-good-on-paper/558214 "2010-10-24T20:13:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-matchup-that-has-never-been-good-on-paper/558214/1 "2010-10-24T20:13:04Z")
So I guess MNF tomorrow is Dallas-Giants. (Shows how interested I am that I have to guess). I can remember when that would have been a high-stakes divisional game. Today, I doubt many outside the respective markets are expecting much of the game, with the Cowboys at 1-4. Time and parity have made it so I can’t name a **team** who’s never been reasonably good within my memory. I was wondering if there were, though, a particular **combination or matchup** of teams that has never within your/my memory been one that anyone would **prospectively** say, “Hey, I’m definitely setting aside time to watch that one.” I use “prospective” to reduce the variables, so if there was a matchup that looked lopsided but turned out to be a barnburner, I don’t want to count that – I’m talking one that would interest, at the outset, only the respective team fans and the hardcore I’ll-watch-anything zealots. I can’t think of one but then I’m having a hard time remembering/comparing who was good when. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-matchup-that-has-never-been-good-on-paper/558214/2 "2010-10-24T20:16:06Z")
Why is this a new thread? Is there’s a question or discussion here that wouldn’t be better served in the Weekly NFL thread? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-matchup-that-has-never-been-good-on-paper/558214/3 "2010-10-24T20:20:46Z")
Back in around 1977 in a **Barney Miller** episode, someone was saying he was going to see the New York Jets play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Jack Soo said, “why?” The Bucs have fielded a few good teams since then, as have the Jets, but not at once. Houston Texans vs. Buffalo Bills is one possibility, though the Texans were OK last year. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-matchup-that-has-never-been-good-on-paper/558214/4 "2010-10-25T01:33:49Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > Why is this a new thread? Is there’s a question or discussion here that wouldn’t be better served in the Weekly NFL thread? (A) this hurts you how? (B) I’ve never had the impression the weekly NFL thread was a mandatory destination for all posts related to the NFL during the season. Instead, I and probably most view it as a place to discuss events and games specific to each week. My question isn’t )(it was merely inspired by one game this week, which is NOT responsive to my OP). I could have asked it any time of the year. Why would I pollute a thread discussing current events with a question that is intrinsically historical? I have the Lions in mind. IIRC, their handful of playoff seasons in recent memory were mid/late '90s. Anyone they played who was bad during those seasons? Were the Saints out of the cellar yet? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-matchup-that-has-never-been-good-on-paper/558214/5 "2010-10-25T02:09:50Z")
How good is “reasonably good”? If 9 wins is good enough, then the Lions-Bucs just barely miss this (and they were in the same division for a long time too); the bucs had their first winning season in almost 2 decades in ‘97, which was the Lions’ second-last winning season thus far. New Orleans doesn’t work; the early Barry Sanders years overlapped with the Bobby Hebert/Jim Mora period of respectability. Aha. Lions/Bengals. Neither team has made the playoffs in the same year except for 1982, when the Lions got in with a 4-5 record, and 1970. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-matchup-that-has-never-been-good-on-paper/558214/6 "2010-10-25T03:25:52Z")
It does depend on what you mean. I don’t think there was any team that wasn’t good at some point in its history. If you mean, did they match up, that’s different. The Chicago/St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals have a dismal won-lost record over their history and were never a good team at the same time as the Lions.