Sagarin Ratings

[Slagathor]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/nfl07.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Good stuff on where we stand as well as the strength of our division.

It's kind of a chicken and the egg thing. Is our division really bad or is it really bad because we're in it.

 

[psychoPat]

Surprised to find 4-win Philly at number 9 ... only one of the top ten with fewer than 6.

Perhaps our remaining sched is a bit tougher than we imagined.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

Perhaps our remaining sched is a bit tougher than we imagined.

Our remaining schedule has us facing 3 opponents currently in the top 10.
Indy faces 1 opponent in top 10.
Pitt faces 2 opponents in the top 10.
Chargers face 2 opponents in top 10.
Cowboys face 3 in top 10.
Packers face 3 in top 10 with the Lions twice.
Lions face 5 in the top 10 with the Packers twice. They have their work cut out for them.....

Easiest schedule, Colts, then Chargers.

 

[shakadave]

I've always liked the Sagarin Ratings.

If I'm not mistaken, aren't the ratings in units of points, so that if we hosted the Rams, we should be favored by 34.5? (39.5 minus 8 plus 3 for home field)

 

[PAPatsjunkie]

Our remaining schedule has us facing 3 opponents currently in the top 10.
Indy faces 1 opponent in top 10.
Pitt faces 2 opponents in the top 10.
Chargers face 2 opponents in top 10.
Cowboys face 3 in top 10.
Packers face 3 in top 10 with the Lions twice.
Lions face 5 in the top 10 with the Packers twice. They have their work cut out for them.....

Easiest schedule, Colts, then Chargers.

But... but... ESPN kept telling me after the Colts/Pats game that the Pats had the easier road to the end of the season and the Colts had it tough.

 

[Zeus]

Merril Hoge, meet Jeff Sagarin.

Sagarin would have NE as nearly 18 point favorites (after home field is considered) over the current media darling Pittsburgh Steelers. Note that the Steelers schedule is ranked 30th (i.e., third easiest in the league).

The Steelers have not lost to a top ten team due, in part, to the fact that they have not played a top ten team. Their only opponent ranked in the top half of the league is Denver (#16) and that was a loss.

 

[solman]

Merril Hoge, meet Jeff Sagarin.

Sagarin would have NE as nearly 18 point favorites (after home field is considered) over the current media darling Pittsburgh Steelers. Note that the Steelers schedule is ranked 30th (i.e., third easiest in the league).

The Steelers have not lost to a top ten team due, in part, to the fact that they have not played a top ten team. Their only opponent ranked in the top half of the league is Denver (#16) and that was a loss.

Sagarin ratings are particularly helpful when it comes to quantifying things like the ridiculous schedule that the AFC North teams play.

On the surface, Pittsburgh's strength of schedule is merely bad. But the teams it plays also have remarkably soft schedules. This soft schedule recurses through the AFC North, NFC West and Miami and the Jets, all of whom play each other.

Sagarin ratings unravel this recursion and expose Pittsburgh for what they are: a team with only one game against a legitimate playoff team, the Patriots.

Seattle and Cleveland may make the postseason, but they certainly don't belong there.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

Merril Hoge, meet Jeff Sagarin.

Sagarin would have NE as nearly 18 point favorites (after home field is considered) over the current media darling Pittsburgh Steelers. Note that the Steelers schedule is ranked 30th (i.e., third easiest in the league).

The Steelers have not lost to a top ten team due, in part, to the fact that they have not played a top ten team. Their only opponent ranked in the top half of the league is Denver (#16) and that was a loss.

Steelers going 5 and 2 the rest of the way will really tell how good they are. Look at their last 7 games. They face the 29, 30, 22, 1, 8, 32 and 28 teams according to Sagarin. Hoge will say, but 4 of those games are on the road. Somehow Jets, Rams, Ravens on the road aren't scaring anybody.....On the other hand Mr Hoge, they do face one opponent on the road that could give them some difficulties......

 

[alamo]

I'd heard the Steelers haven't had it tough yet, but Sagarin shows the Steelers as having played only one team in the top 16 (half) of the league... and they lost!

 

[FrontSeven]

Is our division really bad or is it really bad because we're in it.

It's that bad. When two of the teams have one win between them out of a possible 18, don't you have to sorta think, gee, this ain't such a hot division?

When the second place team has a winning record in the division but is still under .500 after nine games, don't you sorta wonder a little about how such a team got to have a winning record in the division?

The Pats should inflict six losses to the division. Unfortunately, the division could lose 40 games. There goes your theory.