Strength of remaining schedule, following week 4
Read
this for a description of APR
How this was computed:
For each team, a list of teams was created, one for each opponent in all unplayed games (which means some division opponents are listed twice).
In this version, each team is replaced with its Week 4 Power Index value.
Each team's list of power index values are averaged together, giving something that hopefully represents the overall difficulty of the remaining schedule.
As usual, higher index values represent better teams, so a higher value here means a more difficult schedule.
Rank | Team | W-L | Strength of Schedule |
1 | St. Louis Rams | 0-4 | 2.8959 |
2 | Carolina Panthers | 0-3 | 2.7617 |
3 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 0-4 | 2.7390 |
4 | Houston Texans | 2-2 | 2.6898 |
5 | Tennessee Titans | 0-4 | 2.6456 |
6 | Miami Dolphins | 1-3 | 2.5771 |
7 | Baltimore Ravens | 3-1 | 2.5708 |
8 | Chicago Bears | 3-1 | 2.4990 |
9 | New England Patriots | 3-1 | 2.4864 |
10 | Buffalo Bills | 1-3 | 2.4365 |
11 | New York Giants | 4-0 | 2.4102 |
12 | Detroit Lions | 1-3 | 2.3797 |
13 | Atlanta Falcons | 2-1 | 2.3451 |
14 | San Francisco 49ers | 3-1 | 2.2481 |
15 | Indianapolis Colts | 4-0 | 2.2214 |
16 | New York Jets | 3-1 | 2.1956 |
17 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 2-2 | 2.1489 |
18 | Seattle Seahawks | 1-3 | 2.1433 |
19 | Cincinnati Bengals | 3-1 | 2.1232 |
20 | Oakland Raiders | 1-3 | 2.1072 |
21 | Green Bay Packers | 2-2 | 2.0912 |
22 | Washington Redskins | 2-2 | 2.0816 |
23 | Minnesota Vikings | 4-0 | 2.0599 |
24 | Kansas City Chiefs | 0-4 | 2.0486 |
25 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 2-2 | 2.0372 |
26 | Denver Broncos | 4-0 | 2.0276 |
27 | Cleveland Browns | 0-4 | 2.0178 |
28 | Dallas Cowboys | 2-2 | 1.9452 |
29 | Philadelphia Eagles | 2-1 | 1.8680 |
30 | Arizona Cardinals | 1-2 | 1.7541 |
31 | San Diego Chargers | 2-2 | 1.6990 |
32 | New Orleans Saints | 4-0 | 1.5663 |
Comments:
No love for the Rams. They've got the Vikings, Colts, Saints, Cardinals (twice) and 49ers coming up. The good news (such as it is) is they've got some bottom-10 teams to play, like the Seahawks, Lions, and Titans(!), and so have at least a moderate chance of avoiding a winless season.
With a 4-0 start, and a very easy remaining schedule, is it too soon to start talking about a bye week for the Saints? (Yeah, probably.)
The Cardinals also have an easy schedule; the 49ers have some work to do before they can claim the NFC West crown.
The Panthers and Buccaneers can't both go winless this season (assuming they don't both finish 0-14-2).
I'll take a look at this again after weeks 8 and 12.