After thoroughly dominating the rest of the divisions through the first five weeks of the season, NFC East teams experienced a major hiccup in this past week’s games. All four teams played non-divisional opponents, and three of the teams lost to opponents who are perceived to be much weaker.
The Redskins lost to the previously win-less Rams by a score of 19-17. The Cowboys lost to the Cardinals in overtime by a score of 30-24. And the Giants experienced their first loss of the season in a 35-14 blowout win by the Browns on Monday Night Football. The only win for the NFC East came from the Eagles, who struggled for most of the game before defeating the 49ers by a score of 40-26
On the season, the NFC East teams still have the best record and average scoring margin in non-divisional matchups. However, there are now three conferences that are not too far behind.
Here are the updating conference standings for non-divisional games heading into Week Seven (Rank, Team, Record, Average Margin):
1. NFC East: 11-4 (9.60)
2. NFC South: 11-5 (7.19)
3. AFC East: 9-5 (1.21)
4. AFC South: 7-4 (2.36)
5. AFC North: 4-7 (-1.64)
6. NFC North: 5-10 (-3.00)
7. AFC West: 4-8 (-5.75)
8. NFC West: 5-11 (-9.13)
The NFC South is proving to be the biggest threat to the NFC East for the best division so far, as they are just a half-game back in the standing and have elevated their average scoring margin up to nearly match that of the NFC East.
Some of the key non-divisional matchups for this week to look forward to are:
Cowboys vs. Rams
Giants vs. 49ers
Redskins vs. Browns
Buccaneers vs. Seahawks
Bills vs. Chargers
Dolphins vs. Ravens
Jets vs. Raiders
Patriots vs. Broncos
Titans vs. Chiefs
Texans vs. Lions
Colts vs. Packers
The NFC South has only one non-divisional matchup this week, while the NFC East teams have three. If Tampa Bay can defeat Seattle, then there is a good chance the NFC South could surpass the NFC East for the top spot.
The AFC East and AFC South, like the NFC East, also have three non-divisional matchups each. It will take a strong showing from one or both of these conferences to move up in the rankings for next week.
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about 1 month ago
Interesting. Brief, but interesting. Why don't you enter a poll, like "what is the best division?" or something?
Only a 3 star article.
about 1 month ago
Good idea for the poll. Keep in mind the standings are based on statistics and not on opinion though. If you look back, I have been doing weekly articles like this. The original purpose was because I wanted to track to see if the NFC East could go 40-0 in non-divisional matchups because they play a lot of weaker opponents. But now the NFC East teams are losing quite frequently, so that was messed up, but I still like the idea of ranking teams in this manner.
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