Coin Toss???
 

I just heard on espn 2, that the Saints havent won a coin toss all year. We are 0 and 11 on coin tosses..... Thats bad juju!

Yep and lost 2 coin tosses yesterday.

Good Ju Ju yesterday...thanks Mike..lol

As long as keep winning I care.

Its almost statitically impossible to go 0-11 on a coin flip.

That is absolutely amazing to me.

Thats what they were saying. Its unheard of. Should we look for a coin caller in the draft? :)

Losing the OT coin toss (the only one of real importance) and still winning the game was epic. Take that cant-win-on-a-FG-in-overtime-during-playoffs-rule Vikings!

Keep Brees (or whoever makes the coin flip call) away from the blackjack table!

It's a coaching problem. Mickey Looms and Sean Payton need to put their heads together and get on this right away before it's too late.

I heard that stat yesterday and couldn't believe it either. I think they ought to try letting somebody besides Drew call it. He can still be QB but let's bench him from coin-toss duty, LOL, let Chase get some valuable 1st string experience at the coin-toss-calling position, LOL. Or maybe let Sproles try his hand, since he has sorta been the good luck charm for kickstarting the offense so far this year.

Tails never fails...

But yeah I was also surprised when they said during the broadcast that the Saints were 0-10 on the coin toss, and then 0-11 after the OT coin toss.

I doubt that they keep stats about such things, but that got me started on wondering how long the biggest losing streak on the coin toss has been or whether the Saints are the unofficial record keepers at present time?

Statistically speaking, I guess the probability of going 0-10 is the same as going 10-0 or 5-5, because it is always the same on each individual toss (50%) - although, I have to confess that I'm not entirely sure about that one since statistics and probabilities aren't really my thing.

What would be even more interesting is if they always chose the same exact side on their turns and never chose right.

We love the ball in the second half cause were usually up by then.

Another curse we need to break...

To recap...

...they have now lost all 11 tosses this season. The odds of that are 1 in 2,048.

... the Saints’ current coin flip futility is even more rare than a perfect season.

It is something we must work on during the bye.

It's actually better this way ... getting the ball first after the halftime adjustments is probably more valuable.

Good point.

You know it's bad when we make the New York Times paper. I wonder if Drew makes the Pro- Bowl if they will let him call the toss. I wouldn't. 0-11 and counting.

They said that at the beginning of the game. Then when we lost the over time, we hit the big 11.

I believe it is a defensive problem - I bet we could solve it if we got another LB!!

Doh

Losing the coin toss ONLY bothers me if the opposing team defers and kicks off.

I want the ball at the start of the second half. Every time.
We no longer have the dynamite 15-play scripted offense to start games with.

If our defense HOLDS, it is a confidence-builder and confidence-breaker for the opponent. The MOST they will score is 7 on an 8 possible. That gives us a gauge of our defensive play and sets a needed pace that our offense now knows it will have to outscore to win.

If the opposing team turns over the ball in the first drive that also is a morale-breaker. Advantage us.

A Saint touchdown on an opening drive is not groundbreaking. And it gives the defense a false sense of security. I don't like playing from behind. At all, but what I've noticed is that until we are up by 17 there can be no good feeling.

I don't know, maybe we should toss a coin BEFORE the coin toss, to decide what we will do - Receive or Kick.

Best two-out-of-three!!!!

LOL

Alaska

That's the dicey thing about coin toss statistics. The mathematical calculations give that string of results a 1:2048 probability, but the results of the previous 11 tosses have no effect on the next toss. So the chances of us losing the next coin toss are not 1:4096, they are 1:2.

I can solve that. Just call thing each coin flip (be it HEADS or TAILS). Then you've got to win at least a few of them.

You my friend, are STUPID! I am dying over here!!!!!!

BTW, that was meant as a compliment...:)

We haven't only lost every flip on the road (when we call it), but also at home (when the other team calls it). You can't blame it on someone on our team every time.

I say we go to Rock Paper Scissors! :D

Fire the special teams coach.....he's awful.

Maybe we should get #58 to do it. Add another thing to the Shanle koolaid drinkers list of reasons to keep him.

Actually that is not true, since the probability is always 50% it makes no difference which side is picked, because it is in a sense as probable that they get 100 tails in a row as it is they get 100 heads in a row or any mix in between.

The coin toss is pure chance (because of the odds and there being no continuity from one toss to another) unless f.e. the gravings they have on the two sides of the coin make it unbalanced so that it affects its trajectory and makes it more probable that it lands a certain side up or that the mechanics of the toss itself somehow makes one outcome more probable than the other. But all those factors being equal - any string of outcomes is as probable as another string of outcomes.

Yes, each individual coin toss has to be considered independently, and each should equate to 1:2. However, the chance that we lose 11 straight (or win 11 straight for that matter) is (1 / 2^11). Since 2 to the 11th power is 2048, there was only a 1:2048 chance that a team could lose 11 times in a row.

The fact is that ANY known 1:2 chance over a consecutive 11 series is 1:2048. So the chance that we see in a coin toss result:

T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T is 1:2048
H:H:H:H:H:H:H:H:H:H:H is 1:2048
H:T:H:T:T:H:T:H:T:T:T is 1:2048

or 11 saints consecutive coin toss wins or losses:

W:W:W:W:W:W:W:W:W:W:W is 1:2048
L:L:L:L:L:L:L:L:L:L:L is 1:2048 (this is the series that we've experienced)
W:L:W:W:L:W:L:W:L:W:L is 1:2048

If we lose next week, then one could say that there was a 1:4096 chance that we lose 12 straight, but the probability of that one coin toss is still 1:2.

Maybe we should start asking the league to spin the coin instead of tossing it? According to Penn & Teller, a spun coin will land on tails closer to 60% of the time because of the extra metal on the head-side of the coin. Then they just have to let us choose the outcome every time and we should re-gain our edge over time!

Edit: Actually we WILL regain our edge over time, as every other team will eventually lose 11 straight as we did (over millions of years, of course)

But I think that they use a special "NFL coin," so it won't probably behave in the same way as a "normal coin" would. If I remember correctly it has the NFL emblem on the other side and something football related on the other one as well... or it could be that they have many different alternative variations.

My brain just cramped. But I think I now know why I haven't won the lottery. Thanks fellas. lol

Good Point. Maybe we'd have better luck at rock/paper/scissors?

LMAO!!!

the fact that 52% of teams winning the coin toss win the game is what is known as a coincidence. That margin is too small to consider relevant.

last year we lead the league in first quarter scoring- might be bc we had an extra possession each game

here's another stat for you: Teams that lose 100% of their coin tosses win exactly 70% of their games ( small sample size: 2011 NO Saints

I don't mind losing the toss especially at home. Let the defense come out get the crowd into it make a stop and we get great field position to score then we get the ball first to start the 2nd half. It has worked great at home so far.

Saints Can't make head or tails out 0-11
 

New Orleans Saints can't make heads or tails of 0-11 streak - New Orleans Saints Football NFL News - NOLA.com

When the Atlanta Falcons completed a furious fourth-quarter rally to tie the score against the New Orleans Saints and send their Nov. 13 game to overtime, fate, if not momentum, seemingly was on New Orleans' side. The Saints, after all, had lost 10 consecutive coin tosses. Surely this time, with the inimitable Drew Brees making the all-important call, would be different. The odds were in their favor. They were due.

Couldn't give a toss, to coin another phrase.

But we can play ball