Stat of the Jay: Who are Best, Worst Coaches and Franchise When It Comes to 1-Point Games?

CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati Bengals’ 17-16 win in Cleveland on Sunday marked the fifth game of Zac Taylor’s career decided by 1 point or less – and his first victory.

Taylor had been 0-3-1 in such games, with one of them being his NFL coaching debut in Week 1, 2019, in a 21-20 loss at Seattle.

There also was the 23-23 tie at Philadelphia and a pair of one-point losses last year – 26-25 at Kansas City and 35-34 at Baltimore.

Only John Harbaugh (eight), Pete Carroll (seven) and Sean McVay (six) have coached more games decided by a point or less since 2019.

Of all the one-possession possibilities, a one-point game is one of the rarest.

Ties, obviously, are the rarest outcome, with there being just five since 2019.

The rarest winning margin since 2019 has been five points, with 74 instances of that. There have been 75 one-point games and 75 eight-point games.

Extending the focus all the way back to the 1970 merger, let’s look at who the best and worst coaches have been in games decided by a single point.

Excluding ties, there have been 560 games with a one-point margin.

Given Andy Reid’s longevity (421 games as a head coach) and the Kansas City Chief’s proclivity for close games, it should come as no surprise that he leads all coaches in one-point games with 21.

Mike Shanahan is second on the list with 17, followed by a five-way tie for third at 16 among Bud Grant, Don Shula, Bill Parcells, John Harbaugh and Tom Coughlin.

There are 104 coaches who have had at least five games decided by one point or fewer (including ties).

Two of them have never lost.

Lindy Infante was a perfect 5-0.

Mike Tomlin is 6-0-2 (.875 winning percentage).

Also in the top 10 are former Bengals coach Forrest Gregg, who was 7-2-1 (.750) and two current coaches in McVay (5-1, .833) and Matt LaFleur (4-1, .800).

At the other end of the list, Frank Gansz was 0-4-1 (.100), and former Bengals assistant coach Jim Haslett was 1-5 (.167).

Former Bengals head coach Sam Wyche is tied for the third worst winning percentage at .200, going 1-4.

Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, another former Bengals assistant, is a surprise name on the list of worst records. He was 2-6-1 (.278).

Former Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer was 1-4-1 (.250).

And Taylor, at 1-3-1 (.300), is tied for the 15th worst winning percentage.

Taking coaches out of equation and just looking at teams, here are the franchise numbers.

The Chiefs have the most games decided by a point or less since 1970 with 57.

The Eagles are second with 55.

Those are the two franchise Reid has coached.

The Raiders are third with 52, followed by the Chargers (49) and Broncos (48).

So all four of the current AFC West teams are in the top five in games played decided by a point or less.

The bottom four are the teams that have been around the shortest amount of time in the Texans (12), Panthers (18), Jaguars (19) and Ravens (29).

The Steelers also have 29.

Which franchises are the most and least successful?

The Seahawks are the best at 22-8-1 (.726), followed by the Colts (25-12-3, .667), Texans (7-4-1, .625), Steelers (16-9-4, .621) and Cowboys (23-16, 590).

The Panthers are the worst at 5-12-1 (.306), followed by the Giants (13-22-4, .385), Saints (15-23-4, .397), Chiefs (20-30-7, .407) and Falcons (17-25-5, .409).

The Bengals have the sixth worst winning percentage at .421 (14-20-4).

On Sunday, both the Bengals and Cincinnati Reds won by one.

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It’s the first time it has ever happened.

On Sept. 13, 1981, the Bengals beat the Jets 31-30. The Reds lost to the Dodgers 4-2.

On Sept. 11, 2016, the Bengals beat the Jets 23-22 in the season opener. The Reds beat the Pirates 8-0.

On Sept. 30, 2018, the Bengals beat the Falcons 37-36. The Reds lost to the Pirates 6-5 in their season finale.

Since 1970, there have been 42 teams who won their season opener by a single point.

Only half of them went on to make the playoffs.