Fourth Quarter Wins

The key factor in the 2003-04 Patriots’ streak was their ability to win all the close games. Consider them the anti-Packers, as the Patriots seemingly were winning every other game on a last-second field goal by Adam Vinatieri or ending it with a big defensive stand.

Here is the breakdown of wins each team gained by a fourth quarter comeback (4QC) and/or game-winning drive (GWD). Also included is the scoring margin, total and average, the team had after the third quarter of their games (3Q Mg.)

Fourth Quarter Wins
Team Games Season(s) 4QC GWD %4QC %GWD 3Q Mg. Avg.
Pittsburgh Steelers ugg saleuggs saleugg sale boots 15 2004 6 7 40.0 46.7 75 5.00
New England Patriots 21 2003-04 4 8 19.0 38.1 147 7.00
San Francisco 49ers 18 1989-90 3 6 16.7 33.3 177 9.83
Chicago Bears 18 1933-34 4 5 22.2 27.8 155 8.61
Oakland Raiders 17 1976-77 3 4 17.6 23.5 183 10.76
New England Patriots 18 2007 4 4 22.2 22.2 255 14.17
Denver Broncos 18 1997-98 3 4 16.7 22.2 206 11.44
Miami Dolphins 18 1972-73 4 4 22.2 22.2 202 11.22
Chicago Bears 18 1941-42 2 2 11.1 11.1 302 16.78
Green Bay Packers 15 2010-11 0 1 0.0 6.7 193 12.87
The Packers, as we already knew, are the only team to not need a single fourth quarter comeback by their offense during the win streak. They only needed one game-winning drive, which came against Chicago in Week 17 last season. That gives them the lowest percentage of wins via a comeback or game-winning drive.

The 2004 Steelers meanwhile won almost half of their games with a game-winning drive in Ben Roethlisberger’s rookie season. It’s not surprising to see the two teams at the bottom in scoring differential (full game and third quarter margin) pull out the two highest percentages of fourth quarter wins. They had the only three overtime wins (two for New England, one for Pittsburgh).

Eighty percent of the teams did require at least three comebacks and four game-winning drives. No team was more surprising than the 1933-34 Bears, who made four comebacksuggs boots for saleuggs boots on saleugg for cheap and five game-winning drives in a low-scoring era where games rarely were decided in that fashion.

In Week 9 of Captain Comeback, we looked at Green Bay’s clutch defense and their ability to stop the opponent from tying or taking the lead in the fourth quarter. During their win streak, the Packers have faced 9 differentuggs outletugg boots for cheapuggs boots for cheap games where the opponent trailed by 1-8 points in the fourth quarter. On those 16 drives, the defense allowed 0 points and forced seven takeaways (six interceptions and one fumble).

We were able to look at the data for the last five teams on the list and their defense in similar situations (score margin of 0-8 points in the fourth quarter/overtime) during their streaks.more