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Confessions of a sports cynic

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  Published in Sports and Competition on Friday, September 19th 2025 at 6:33 GMT by Washington Examiner
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The NFL’s “Comeback Wins” – A New Metric of Resilience, and the Cynic Who’s Coming Around

In a recent piece for The Washington Examiner, sports writer James “The Sports Cynic” McCormack—who has long scoffed at the hype that surrounds every NFL franchise—turned a corner and confessed that he’s now a believer in one of the league’s most intriguing performance indicators: the number of comeback wins a team records in a season. The article, titled “Sports Cynic Confessions: NFL Season Comeback Wins”, takes the reader through a whirlwind of data, anecdotes, and an unexpected reevaluation of what makes a team truly great.

From Skepticism to Statistical Appreciation

McCormack begins with a candid admission: “I was a cynic. I told myself that the season’s narrative was built on headline‑grabbing wins and losses, not the gritty details that lay beneath.” He explains that the term “comeback win” is not a new invention—NFL.com has tracked them for decades—but the public discourse around the metric has only recently begun to take shape, thanks in part to the “comeback win” statistic being featured prominently in the “Team Stats” section on the league’s website.

He quotes a source from the NFL’s stats department, “A comeback win is defined as a team winning a game after trailing at any point in the game.” The piece notes that, as of the 2023 season, the league had logged a record 57 comeback wins—a number that, while still a minority of the 18,816 games played, signals a notable trend toward tighter, more competitive matchups.

The Numbers Behind the Narrative

To give context, McCormack brings in data from Pro Football Reference and Football Outsiders. The article highlights:

• Total games: 1,184 regular‑season games played in 2023.
• Comeback wins: 57, a 4.8% success rate for trailing teams.
• Teams with the most comebacks: The Baltimore Ravens (10), the Los Angeles Rams (8), and the Indianapolis Colts (7) all finished the season with at least one comeback victory.
• Top single‑game comeback: A 29‑point deficit overcame by the San Francisco 49ers against the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving.

McCormack links directly to the Nfl.com “Season Stats” page, which breaks down each team’s comeback record by quarter and by opponent, and to the Pro Football Reference “Comeback Wins” table, which allows fans to drill down into specific matchups. He uses this data to argue that a team’s ability to claw back is not merely a function of the offense; defensive resilience, coaching adjustments, and even the psychological stamina of the players play a vital role.

Anecdotes and Contextual Stories

Beyond raw statistics, the article weaves in a few memorable games that illustrate the drama of a comeback:

• The 2023 “Tampa Bay Miracle” – The Buccaneers rallied from a 20‑point deficit against the Cardinals in week 12, finishing the game 31–28. The piece quotes Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians on how “the game felt like a movie; every fourth down felt like a new chapter.”
• The “Kansas City Clutch” – In week 7, the Chiefs overturned a 14‑point swing in the fourth quarter against the 49ers, a win that secured their place in the playoffs. ESPN’s analysis of the game (linked in the article) is cited to underscore the significance of the win for the Chiefs’ postseason momentum.

McCormack notes that these moments have a profound effect on fans, shaping narratives that extend beyond the final score. “It’s not just about who won; it’s about who came back,” he says, “and how that comeback shapes a franchise’s identity.”

A New Lens on Team Evaluation

A central thesis of the article is that the comeback win statistic offers a more nuanced measure of a team’s true performance than a simple win‑loss record. McCormack argues that traditional metrics can obscure a team’s resilience. For example, a 10‑6 team with three comeback wins might be more resilient than a 12‑4 team that won all of its games without ever trailing.

The article also references a recent Football Outsiders post that links comeback wins to “Adjusted Line Score” metrics, suggesting that a team’s ability to win while trailing correlates strongly with advanced metrics like DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average). The link to the Football Outsiders article helps the reader dig deeper into the analytical side of the argument.

The Cynic’s Conversion

McCormack’s final paragraphs read almost like a confession: “I used to dismiss the hype around comeback wins as a marketing ploy. But when I saw the 2023 stats, when I saw the emotional arcs of the players and the tactical brilliance on the sidelines, I realized that the comeback win is a raw indicator of a team’s character.” He ends by challenging other sports journalists to adopt a similar approach, saying, “If you want to tell the real story of the NFL, focus on the comeback wins.”

Bottom Line

The Washington Examiner article is a compelling blend of data, anecdote, and reflective journalism. By tying the comeback win statistic to both quantitative analysis and the human stories that define the NFL, James McCormack turns a previously dismissed metric into a meaningful lens for evaluating team performance. For sports fans, analysts, and even casual viewers who yearn for deeper insight, the article invites a re‑examination of the simple yet profound narrative that “the game is never over until the last play is finished.”