As the San Francisco 49ers prepare for tomorrow's game against the Cleveland Browns, one topic we haven't discussed much is the fact that the 49ers are coming off the bye week. I have seen some scattered discussion around the Internet about whether teams do well or poorly coming out of the bye. I think the issue has been raised in part because teams are 3-9 coming off bye weeks this season.
I took a look back at the last two seasons and came up with these numbers: In 2010, teams were 20-12 coming out of their bye week. In 2009, teams were 16-16 coming out of their bye week. Dating back to the 2000 season, the 49ers are 4-7 coming out of the bye. Last year's win over St. Louis snapped a six game post-bye losing streak. Of course, it should also be noted that the 49ers played all six games on the road. Three of those 49ers four post-bye victories were home games.
What does that all mean? Without doing any sort of serious statistical analysis, my gut says it doesn't mean much. I could be very wrong, but that's just my thought. As for this particular 49ers team, I am cautiously optimistic that the bye week gives a strong 49ers coaching staff even more of an advantage for this matchup. I suppose the coaching staff could over-think things, but for the most part I feel good about what the bye week could mean.
Anybody think there is reason to be pessimistic coming out of a bye week in general? If you have done more research on the subject, feel free to link to whatever might be pertinent.