How hard is it to beat a team three times in a row?

Updated to include Ravens @ Steelers outcome.

There's a football cliché that's likely to be repeated a number of times in discussing the upcoming Ravens @ Steelers championship game: "it's hard to beat a team three times in a row".

Here's the breakdown of all playoff games featuring divisional matchups since the 1990-91 season (the first year there were 6 playoff teams from each conference):

Year	# Divisional Matchups	# 2-0 Teams	# 3-0 Teams
1990	3	0	0
1991	2	1	1
1992	3	1	0
1993	2	1	1
1994	3	2	1
1995	2	0	0
1997	4	2	2
1998	3	1	0
1999	1	1	1
2000	4	1	1
2001	1	0	0
2002	1	1	1
2004	2	2	1
2005	1	0	0
2006	2	0	0
2007	1	1	0
2008	2	1	1
Total	37	15	10

Observations:

• There were no divisional matchups for 1996 or 2003.

• The numbers for 2008 are, of course, for games played at this writing complete.

• Divisional matchups in the playoffs are moderately unusual. Unsurprisingly, the rate seems to have dropped off since the 2002 realignment has reduced the size of divisions to 4 teams each.

• Divisional matchups featuring one team that swept the other are rare.

• But once you have a divisional matchup where one team has swept the other, 10 of 15 times (66.7%) the 2-0 team has won.

Games that were the third win in a row:

Winning team in bold.

Year	Round	Visitor	Home
1991	Wildcard	Raiders 6	@ Chiefs 10
1993	Wildcard	Broncos 24	@ Raiders 42
1994	Divisional	Browns 9	@ Steelers 29
1997	Wildcard	Dolphins 3	@ Patriots 17
1997	Divisional	Buccaneers 7	@ Packers 21
1999	Championship	Titans 33	@ Jaguars 14
2000	Divisional	Eagles 10	@ Giants 20
2002	Wildcard	Browns 33	@ Steelers 36
2004	Wildcard	Rams 27	@ Seahawks 20
2008	Championship	Ravens 14	@ Steelers 23

Games that were the first loss after two wins:

Winning team in bold.

Year	Round	Visitor	Home
1992	Wildcard	Chiefs 0	@ Chargers 17
1994	Wildcard	Bears 35	@ Vikings 18
1998	Wildcard	Cardinals 20	@ Cowboys 7
2004	Wildcard	Vikings 31	@ Packers 17
2007	Divisional	Giants 21	@ Cowboys 17