The last time the NFL has two scoreless games at halftime, the playoff field wasn’t even at 12 teams yet. Four of the league’s current franchises didn’t even exist.
The Houston Texans and New York Jets had a scoreless first half on Sunday, as did the Minnesota Vikings and Las Vegas Raiders. This was the first time two teams were scoreless in a first half since October 30, 1988 — 35 years ago (per CBS Sports Research).
The Jets and Texans made even more history with their scoreless half. Both teams combined had 11 punts and a kneeldown in the first half — the only game in the last 30 years that had all punts in the first half (excluding kneeldowns). What made the final outcome even more bizarre was the Jets ended up scoring 30 points in the second half in a 30-6 victory. New York snapped a streak of 18 straight games without scoring three touchdowns, the longest streak by any team since the Seattle Seahawks from 1992-1993.
The Vikings and Raiders were scoreless through three quarters, continuing their scoring futility. In the first half of their game, the Raiders punted on all four possessions (excluding kneeldowns), while the Vikings punted three times and missed a field goal — a 49-yard miss by Greg Joseph.
The NFL has seen a decrease in scoring in 2023, yet these first half of these games took it to the extreme.
