NFL Team Rankings, Week 9: Comparing Scores Against Common Opponents

Which teams have had easy schedules, who has gotten lucky, and who might be better than you think? This is a relatively simplistic look going by just final scores (as opposed to individual plays and who may have benefitted by fumble recovery luck and such), but I compared each team to other teams who played the same opponent.

For example, the New York Jets lost to the New England Patriots by 7 points. While a 7 point loss is normally a below average result, in this case, it’s tied (with Pittsburgh and Indianapolis) for the best anyone has done so far against the Patriots. Thus, the Jets got a record of 4 wins, 0 losses, and 2 ties versus the other teams that have played New England.

Add that up across all opponents, and you get the following, sorted by relative point differential record against common opponent:

New England, unsurprisingly, sits up top. They have been one of the top 3 best results against every opponent they have faced. The Jets, at 4-3, still rank in the top 6 because they have faced a fairly tough schedule, and have been the best (or tied for the best) result against 4 of the 7 opponents.

Meanwhile, Detroit sits at the bottom. They have yet to have an above average performance compared to what other teams are doing against their opponents (the only win was a close one against 2-5 Chicago). However, if we throw out week 1, Tennessee and San Francisco, who improbably put up the best performance of any team against Tampa Bay and Minnesota, respectively, rate as the two worst teams.