Predict Patrots 2010 record

[Kontradiction]

Part II

Of course they were. Probably top 5 because its hard to count the 59 they allowed after they gave up in week 16 against them. Christ they were 14-0 of course they had a top 10 D, what league are you watching, and in what year?

I guess I should have known better than to ask that. If you actually thought that the 2009 Colts were a top ten defense then it's no surprise that you're completely lost when it comes to the 2009 Patriots, a team that apparently should have gone to the Super Bowl and won by 50 points in AndyJohnson's world.

Neither, of course.
Just because you want to take 2 statements and imply meaning to them does not make your implicaiton correct.
I did not say points was the ONLY factor, I said it was most important.
I have not commented whether the defense was 5th best, 2nd best, 28th best or anything else.
That is pretty much the point.
The discussion stated with me saying fans expectations have been elevated and they are overcritical, such as we allowed the 5th fewest points and many say our D sucked.
Thats it. You have proven my point.

I don 't know how I could 'yield to you' on a point I wasn't even discussing.
You appear to now be arguing with yourself in the middle of my comments

I wish we had a clapping smiley in this forum. A politician couldn't have done a better job at dodging the question to try to preserve his case. Since I already asked the question at the top of the post, I'll save you from having to read it again. However, let me address a few other points in this post...

1. You either contradicted yourself there, or you are agreeing with my point, the whole point which we have been arguing about, that the defense was not a top five defense. There is absolutely no other way around that statement. You have basically sunk yourself.

2. When you say that the most important statistic in the world in regards to this debate states that the team was the fifth best defense, you are saying that the team was the fifth best defense. It's really not that hard to understand.

3. I don't believe that you really believe that this defense was top five. What I do believe is that admitting so would be admitting that you have been wrong this entire time. What I'm now wondering is why that is so hard for you to do.

4. Please don't play dumb. You're better than that. I have never said they sucked and you know full well that the reason I am arguing with you is that I don't believe this is a top five defense and that your original assertion is that they were.

But defenses that allowed more points did not do that either.
Maybe 5th isnt good enough, but I'm pretty sure 11th isnt better.

Around 11th is where I would have probably put this defense if ranking all 32 defenses in the NFL from last year.

5th best by what measure? Yu keep saying the # is skewed. Its not.
Its a fact. Those ae the points they allowed. Whether they let up more or les rushing yards, had more or less sacks, etc doesnt change that fact.
We would not have won a single extra game last year if those underlying stats were better but we still allowed the same points. And you are saying teams that allowed MORE points are better because you like the way they allowed them better????????

And once again you sink yourself. It's going to become increasingly difficult to deny that you aren't asserting that the Pats were a top five defense in the NFL last season. And what do you mean by what measure? I've already explained this to you in alarming detail.

You dont think the way the Patriots played had anything to do with it? Your position is that one day 53 players from Tennessee decided to show up and not try? When teams get killed the media always plays the didnt show up card. That doesnt mean anything.

Well, you're completely missing the point of me bringing up the Tennessee game. No surprise there either.

How could you see with your 2 eyes that they didnt want to win? Because they played bad? Please clue me in on how you decipher the difference between poor play and not trying.

Sure. Guys on the Titans jogging behind Welker as he went in for a TD, doing the same thing behind Maroney, not hustling for the catch while Kerry Collins is in. You can tell by reading the body language. If you really think that Tennessee actually showed up and REALLY wanted to win that game then I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After all, you seemed to have thought that the defense was Top 5.

I have never said it is. It is the point of this discussion, and it is the most important defensive statistic. You are contradicting yourslef when you agree with that but say another team that allowed more points because it allowed less yards, or you dont know which QBs had good days against them, so we must be worse.

Where have I agreed that PA is THE most important statistic? What I have said is that it's an important stat, but it's only one important stat in a slew of important stats that all need to be considered. I've considered them when you haven't. Once again, what other mediocre quarterbacks had career days against other defenses last year?

100% wrong.

Excellent rebuttal. I really won't say more than that, especially since I've already made the case for why you were defending Aiken.

We allowed the 5th fewest points. Where have I said I was satisfied with that ranking? See heres the difference. I accept the fact. Whether I like it or not I accept it.

Of course you accept it. Why wouldn't you? It makes the Patriots defense look better than they really were. You know that, I know that, the handful of people that have come into this thread to tell you how wrong you are know that, the handful of other people that have had this discussion with you in other threads also know it.

I was very unhappy with 2009, and the defense was half the problem.

Huh? How would the 5th ranked scoring defense be a problem? Oh that's right, you're contradicting yourself again.

I was unhappy because I want SB Championships. That doesnt mean they didnt rank 5th in the most important defensive statistic, but it does mean 5th for what ever reason wasnt good enough.
Instead of trying to come up with some ridiculous argument about why they werent 5th, as they were, I accept that 5th wasn't good enough.

You're back peddling.

What this really has become is an argument about you finding some mystical reason to apply your gut instinct that what you saw isnt what 5th should be, and me saying it is what it is, whether thats good enough or not. You simply can't refute that they allowed the 5th fewest points and that it is not at all skewed. (Yards can be skewed by points, points really cant be skewed by yards, because points are the end objective)
5th was not good enough to win a SB, but it was far from awful.

No, the gist of the argument is that I don't believe that the 2009 defense was the 5th best while you have tried to make an argument that they were. Slowly but surely you have begun to back peddle even going as far as to contradict yourself multiple times in multiple posts. For example, in one quote in this very response, you go on to hint that you really don't believe deep down that this was a top five defense. In other quotes, you stick to your guns and try to make the point that the most important statistic says that they were the fifth best so they must be.

I'll stop there because this has become pointless.

Well I hope that you at least answer my first question honestly. You've done a commendable job of dodging it so far.

 

[captain stone]

A "bend but don't break" defense isn't structured to win stat wars. It is structured to allow as few points as possible and win football games.

"Bend but don't Break" is Broken, and needs to be relegated to the scrap heap of history.

The NFL is a different (but not nec. better) place today than it was in the 1970s & 80s, when BBDB was practiced here by Hank Bullough & Rod Rust. Heck, the NFL is a different place today than it was in 2003; the filthy scum NaPolian & PayaTon have seen to that.

The best way to close games today is to have a cohesive, talented Secondary, and to Kill The Quarterback. Unfortunately, the only QB the Pats will kill will be Brady.

Clinging to a defensive philosophy in which the means to success is predicated on hoping for highly-paid & trained professionals to screw-up for you is suicidal.

 

[glm]

11 - 5

*Our QB has alot to prove after the way last year ended. Brady is healthy, highly motivated, very focused. Last year Tom was coming into the season after a year off and with the psychological battle of playing with a reconstructed knee. He also had the added distraction of his wife having a baby in the bathtub. None of those issues exist this season for Tom Brady. Think we'll see the "old" TB in action aka Mr. Clutch.
*Brady will have more weapons in the passing game than he's ever had. (including '07) These young TE's are going to be dynamic and with Wes back, Edelman a year wiser, dog Moss playing for a new contract and one of the young kids fighting for the 3rd WR spot this is going to be a scary scary passing game. And what are the chances we have the same number of injuries with the RB corp that we did last year??
This offense is going to be unstoppable
*Bad apples are gone from the roster.
*Love the LB corp on this team and I do expect Burgess back. Think Spikes is going to be a beast and I expect the D-ROY Jerod Mayo to return to his rookie form. One of the most underplayed stories from last year was Mayo's ineffectiveness due to an early injury and how his ineffectiveness really hurt the D. Expect Mr. Chung to step forward. BIG question is where will the pass rush come from. BB needs to scheme it. Overall this D is younger, tougher and more athletic. If they can get pressure on the QB this D will be just fine.
* The kicking game matters. LOVE the punter they drafted.
*BB had probably his worst game management season last year. I expect the hall of fame coach to bounce back strong.

The Patriots aren't sexy anymore. Nobody is picking them to win anything.
I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!! (and so does the coach and qb)

What also hurt Mayo was that he was playing out of position. His DROY season he played WILB, last year he was SILB. But now he's healthy and back to WILB, so now it's all cool.

 

[West Philly Patriot]

The way I see it, this team could either be significantly better or significantly worse than last year. Here are a couple of things that this team would depend on in order to come out significantly better than 2009...

1. Improve play at the quarterback position.
Brady started off the year badly erratic, seemed to have corrected it through the middle of the season, then began slipping again at the end of the season. I believe that this is due to three things in particular. The first is that Brady was coming off of the first serious injury of his career. That much is obvious and he had to deal with the physical and mental aspects of this. The second is the absolute drop off in weapons after Welker and Moss. Aiken sucked... badly. I actually laughed out loud as people defended him last year, then laughed so hard that I sharted when BB shot those defendants of the guy down with the heavy drafted in pass catching options and the signing of Torry Holt. He was terrible, Stanback wasn't much better, Edelman was serviceable and showed promise in his rookie year but was injured, Chris Baker was unbelievably slow, and both he and Watson had to stay back to block the majority of snaps due to injuries and inconsistencies on the offensive line. The third reason was injuries done unto Brady himself. The shoulder that Haynesworth re-injured in the preseason, the broken ribs, and the finger. All of those had an impact on his spotty play at the end of the season. Hopefully we can keep Brady upright and healthy this season.

2. The emergence of our young guys in the passing game.
As has been mentioned, the options in the passing game outside of Moss and Welker were not exactly stellar last season. We let Watson and Baker walk off into the sunset and have replaced them with three bodies: Crumpler, Gronk, and Hernandez. While I expect Hernandez to spend whatever time he sees on the field in the slot this year, we need to hope from something more from Gronk in the passing game. Can he contribute and be the threat down the seam and over the middle that we need from the TE position? Can he block on running downs? On top of that, can Edelman show improvement over 2009? Can Tate get on the field and make any contributions? What about Taylor Price? Will he show us anything this year? Torry Holt alone is not going to be enough, I don't think. We're going to need a few of these guys to step up if this offense and this team is going to make any significant improvements over 2009.

3. Can the O-Line, as it is, stay healthy and keep Brady upright?
This was as detrimental to the offense as anything last season. Light, Neal, and Vollmer all had significant injuries last year and the depth that came in behind them was not about to get the job done on anything approaching an admirable level. Because of this, Brady suffered multiple injuries and was often hurried to make a throw to a sub-par receiving corps by better pass rushing defenses. On top of that, the TE's were taken out of the passing game to help protect the edges against edge rushers from opposing defenses. The health and consistency of the offensive line is absolutely critical this year if we are to see any improvement. Admittedly, the (what looks like) loss of Mankins does not help that. Can Kaczur come in and do an admirable job of replacing his production? We'll see. But, for now, I'm liking the way the starting O-Line is looking. Light-Kaczur-Koppen-Neal-Vollmer sounds about right to me. But their health is absolutely key. I'm not high at all on Connolly. LeVoir is decent, we have no clue what we have in Bussey or Ohrnberger, and Larsen is a rookie. Here's to hoping...

4. Can Gerard Warren or Damione Lewis do better than Green and Wright?
The loss of Seymour at RDE hurt us on so many levels last year. When it first happened, I said that I was cool with it just as long as we had someone coming in behind him that showed promise at the position. Turns out we didn't. Teams gashed the right side of our defense all season long in the run and Jarvis Green was not the presence in the passing game that he once was. The floodgates finally flew open in the Baltimore playoff game. Can Warren or Lewis come in and show themselves to be effective run stuffers and can they also get a push in the passing game? If they aren't the ones, can Deaderick, Brace, or anybody else step up to do a great job of making us forget about the issues of 2009? Someone stepping up there will not only help the D-Line, but it will also help the OLB position extensively as well.

5. The ability of our younger guys to step up in the LB corps.
Those of us with our doubts about Gary Guyton kept having to try to sell his believers on the fact that he was more than just a third down ILB. Turns out the team sided with us with the drafting of Brandon Spikes to go with Tyrone McKenzie. But can one of them step up to effectively put Guyton on the sidelines during first and second down? This will be imperative to our interior run defense as well as our interior pass rush (which would make the defense much more effective against the likes of the Mannings and the Brees' of the league). At OLB, can Jermaine Cunningham show anything this year? It appears that he's going to be counted on much more now with the release of Crable. Can Cunningham show enough to supplant Ninkovich (a JAG, IMO) in the starting line-up? Can TBC give us even half of what he gave us last year? In order for the defense to show improvement, the D-Line has to improve first followed very closely by the LB corps.

Good piece of writing here kontra... Im totally with you especially in ref to our Dline play and interior run defense we were very soft on the second level with an injured mayo and a tweener in guyton.

Mackenzie is the guy with spikes spelling him at the start of the season imoh with spikes becoming the eventual starter. I am actually hoping damione lewis despite his average numbers during his panthers tenure will give us some much needed help on the Dline but its def a domino effect we need stout Dline play to even think about our OLB situation improving and we will be attempting to replace seymour with a commitee of journeyman lineman so we'll see...

 

[West Philly Patriot]

Sorry forgot my prediction... pats are on the upswing with the youth movement but i don't see a vast improvement losing mankins and we have a not so friendly schedule so 10-6 with a slight chance of 11-5 should we actually close some 4th quarters this season

 

[Kontradiction]

"Bend but don't Break" is Broken, and needs to be relegated to the scrap heap of history.

The NFL is a different (but not nec. better) place today than it was in the 1970s & 80s, when BBDB was practiced here by Hank Bullough & Rod Rust. Heck, the NFL is a different place today than it was in 2003; the filthy scum NaPolian & PayaTon have seen to that.

The best way to close games today is to have a cohesive, talented Secondary, and to Kill The Quarterback. Unfortunately, the only QB the Pats will kill will be Brady.

Clinging to a defensive philosophy in which the means to success is predicated on hoping for highly-paid & trained professionals to screw-up for you is suicidal.

The bend but don't break philosophy has been around longer than the both of us. It's not broken. We just haven't had the ideal staff of horses to run it in a little while. Give Belichick that staff and this defense will once again be dominant. What we have right now is a good start.

 

[Kontradiction]

Good piece of writing here kontra... Im totally with you especially in ref to our Dline play and interior run defense we were very soft on the second level with an injured mayo and a tweener in guyton.

Mackenzie is the guy with spikes spelling him at the start of the season imoh with spikes becoming the eventual starter. I am actually hoping damione lewis despite his average numbers during his panthers tenure will give us some much needed help on the Dline but its def a domino effect we need stout Dline play to even think about our OLB situation improving and we will be attempting to replace seymour with a commitee of journeyman lineman so we'll see...

IMO, improvement at RDE is the main key to improving the defense. Outside of that is OLB, ILB, then CB. We look to have two capable bodies in place of Guyton this year on first and second down (if TC is any indication) and drafted a potential future starter at CB in McCourty as well as drafted what we hope will turn into an immediate starter at OLB in Cunningham. At RDE can Lewis or G. Warren be more effective against the run than the slew of bodies we had there last year? Can they take up two blockers and still get a push toward the QB? We shall see.

 

[Ring 6]

Part II



I guess I should have known better than to ask that. If you actually thought that the 2009 Colts were a top ten defense then it's no surprise that you're completely lost when it comes to the 2009 Patriots, a team that apparently should have gone to the Super Bowl and won by 50 points in AndyJohnson's world.



I wish we had a clapping smiley in this forum. A politician couldn't have done a better job at dodging the question to try to preserve his case. Since I already asked the question at the top of the post, I'll save you from having to read it again. However, let me address a few other points in this post...

1. You either contradicted yourself there, or you are agreeing with my point, the whole point which we have been arguing about, that the defense was not a top five defense. There is absolutely no other way around that statement. You have basically sunk yourself.

2. When you say that the most important statistic in the world in regards to this debate states that the team was the fifth best defense, you are saying that the team was the fifth best defense. It's really not that hard to understand.

3. I don't believe that you really believe that this defense was top five. What I do believe is that admitting so would be admitting that you have been wrong this entire time. What I'm now wondering is why that is so hard for you to do.

4. Please don't play dumb. You're better than that. I have never said they sucked and you know full well that the reason I am arguing with you is that I don't believe this is a top five defense and that your original assertion is that they were.



Around 11th is where I would have probably put this defense if ranking all 32 defenses in the NFL from last year.



And once again you sink yourself. It's going to become increasingly difficult to deny that you aren't asserting that the Pats were a top five defense in the NFL last season. And what do you mean by what measure? I've already explained this to you in alarming detail.



Well, you're completely missing the point of me bringing up the Tennessee game. No surprise there either.



Sure. Guys on the Titans jogging behind Welker as he went in for a TD, doing the same thing behind Maroney, not hustling for the catch while Kerry Collins is in. You can tell by reading the body language. If you really think that Tennessee actually showed up and REALLY wanted to win that game then I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After all, you seemed to have thought that the defense was Top 5.



Where have I agreed that PA is THE most important statistic? What I have said is that it's an important stat, but it's only one important stat in a slew of important stats that all need to be considered. I've considered them when you haven't. Once again, what other mediocre quarterbacks had career days against other defenses last year?



Excellent rebuttal. I really won't say more than that, especially since I've already made the case for why you were defending Aiken.



Of course you accept it. Why wouldn't you? It makes the Patriots defense look better than they really were. You know that, I know that, the handful of people that have come into this thread to tell you how wrong you are know that, the handful of other people that have had this discussion with you in other threads also know it.



Huh? How would the 5th ranked scoring defense be a problem? Oh that's right, you're contradicting yourself again.



You're back peddling.



No, the gist of the argument is that I don't believe that the 2009 defense was the 5th best while you have tried to make an argument that they were. Slowly but surely you have begun to back peddle even going as far as to contradict yourself multiple times in multiple posts. For example, in one quote in this very response, you go on to hint that you really don't believe deep down that this was a top five defense. In other quotes, you stick to your guns and try to make the point that the most important statistic says that they were the fifth best so they must be.



Well I hope that you at least answer my first question honestly. You've done a commendable job of dodging it so far.

There is no point here.
Lets do it this way.
You win. I am absolutely wrong about the argument that I am not making that you are arguing I am.

 

[Ring 6]

Seriously? You're really going to go out of your way to skew basic arithmetic to try to make your point look stronger? Look, I'll make it really simple for you: there are 32 teams in the NFL. To find the actual midpoint, you would take 32 and divide by 2. The answer you would get is 16. This means that the actual midpoint of all teams in the NFL is 16. Anything less than 16 is above average. At 16, you're average. Anything below 16 is below average. In this case, we wouldn't stop at 16.5. We would have to round it out. That makes the average offensive rank that we faced go to 17. Being that 17 is below 16 in the discussion about offensive rank, that makes the average offensive rank of the teams that we faced on defense decidedly below average.

I hope that helps.


.

Dude, how can you be so condescending when you are wrong?
Dividing the number of teams by 2 does not give you the midpoint.
Here is an example.
If there are 3 teams, your method says the average is 1.5 and the 2nd ranked team is 'decidely below average' when they are the average.
Its a math problem, and you are wrong.
There are 32 teams. The first 16 are above average, the bottom 16 below average. That makes 16 above average and 17 below average.
Rounding up is ridiculous, as well as irrelevant.

 

[VJCPatriot]

2010 REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE
Date Opponent Time Affiliate Network
Sunday, Sept. 12 Cincinnati Bengals 1:00 p.m. ET WBZ-TV CBS W
Sunday, Sept. 19 @ New York Jets 4:15 p.m. ET WBZ-TV CBS W
Sunday, Sept. 26 Buffalo Bills 1:00 p.m. ET WBZ-TV CBS W
Monday, Oct. 4 @ Miami Dolphins 8:30 p.m. ET WCVB ESPN W
Sunday, Oct. 10 BYE
Sunday, Oct. 17 Baltimore Ravens 1:00 p.m. ET WBZ-TV CBS W
Sunday, Oct. 24 @ San Diego Chargers 4:15 p.m. ET WBZ-TV CBS L
Sunday, Oct. 31 Minnesota Vikings 4:15 p.m. ET WBZ-TV CBS W
Sunday, Nov. 7 @ Cleveland Browns 1:00 p.m. ET WBZ-TV CBS W
Sunday, Nov. 14 @ Pittsburgh Steelers 8:20 p.m. ET WHDH NBC W
Sunday, Nov. 21 Indianapolis Colts 4:15 p.m. ET * WBZ-TV * CBS* L
Thursday, Nov. 25 @ Detroit Lions 12:30 p.m. ET WBZ-TV CBS W
Monday, Dec. 6 New York Jets 8:30 p.m. ET WCVB ESPN W
Sunday, Dec. 12 @ Chicago Bears 1:00 p.m. ET * WBZ-TV * CBS* W
Sunday, Dec. 19 Green Bay Packers 8:20 p.m. ET * WHDH * NBC* W
Sunday, Dec. 26 @ Buffalo Bills 1:00 p.m. ET * WBZ-TV * CBS* W
Sunday, Jan. 2 Miami Dolphins 1:00 p.m. ET * WBZ-TV * CBS L (Resting Starters)

So that's a 13-3 season assuming they lose their 2 toughest games and give themselves an extra 'bye week' in week 17. None of the other divisional teams impress me. The Jet's might manage to split us to drop the Pats to 12-4, if Revis isn't still holding out in week 2, but that's about it imo. Pats should still win the division and the pundits will be 'shocked' that this team came out on top in the AFCE.

 

[Kontradiction]

Dude, how can you be so condescending when you are wrong?
Dividing the number of teams by 2 does not give you the midpoint.
Here is an example.
If there are 3 teams, your method says the average is 1.5 and the 2nd ranked team is 'decidely below average' when they are the average.
Its a math problem, and you are wrong.
There are 32 teams. The first 16 are above average, the bottom 16 below average. That makes 16 above average and 17 below average.
Rounding up is ridiculous, as well as irrelevant.

LMAO. Okay, you're right. 16 isn't half of 32 and 16.5 isn't a lower number (in this instance) than 16 and you wouldn't round 16.5 up to 17. I don't know what those god damn mathematicians were thinking.

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

19-0

----

 

[Sciz]

Random fact:
Last season, four teams put up at least 24 points against us. Three were the top 4 teams in passing yardage, other than us (Indy, NO, Hou), and the fourth was the first Bills game where there was a defensive TD to get them to exactly 24. Oh yeah, and the playoff game, but that was just crappy play along the DL and LBs.

So, had the offense scored at least 25 points in every game, we would have been 13-3. With the new toys for Brady along with the supposed upgrades in the secondary, I like our chances next season. Pass-rush is my big concern, though.

 

[Ring 6]

LMAO. Okay, you're right. 16 isn't half of 32 and 16.5 isn't a lower number (in this instance) than 16 and you wouldn't round 16.5 up to 17. I don't know what those god damn mathematicians were thinking.

You cant really think you are right here?
The average of teams is not solved by dividing the number of teams by 2.
How do you explain that your formula says the 2nd ranked team out of 3 is below average?
Same thing with 4 teams. Your was says there is 1 average team, 1 above average team and 2 below average teams.

Are you seriosly telling me that you think when you rank 32 teams that
15 are abover average
1 is average
16 are below average?

This is why this thread turned into this.

 

[Kontradiction]

You cant really think you are right here?
The average of teams is not solved by dividing the number of teams by 2.
How do you explain that your formula says the 2nd ranked team out of 3 is below average?
Same thing with 4 teams. Your was says there is 1 average team, 1 above average team and 2 below average teams.

Are you seriosly telling me that you think when you rank 32 teams that
15 are abover average
1 is average
16 are below average?

This is why this thread turned into this.

Since the actual midpoint formula needs to have two X-Values and two Y-Values followed by dividing both by two, the only way we can find averages in this case is to take the total number of teams in the NFL and divide them by two. What I did was took the mean of our offensive schedule and came up with roughly 16.5 - 16.6. After that, I divided the total number of teams by two to find the midpoint. At 16, your schedule is exactly average. Above 16 (15-1), your schedule is above average with the degree of difficulty going up as you approach one. Below 16 (17-32), your schedule is below average with the degree of difficulty going down as you approach 32. At 17 (or 16.5 if you would prefer), our schedule was hovering around the average but was actually slightly below average after taking the mean then finding the middle. This really isn't that hard to understand. Your problem comes in your belief that for some reason I'm saying the schedule was ridiculously easy. That's obviously not the case. But, if we're going to be precise about it, our schedule WAS actually slightly below average. Ever so slightly, but still there.

Any more hairs you want to split, Andy?

 

[Ring 6]

Since the actual midpoint formula needs to have two X-Values and two Y-Values followed by dividing both by two, the only way we can find averages in this case is to take the total number of teams in the NFL and divide them by two. What I did was took the mean of our offensive schedule and came up with roughly 16.5 - 16.6. After that, I divided the total number of teams by two to find the midpoint. At 16, your schedule is exactly average. Above 16 (15-1), your schedule is above average with the degree of difficulty going up as you approach one. Below 16 (17-32), your schedule is below average with the degree of difficulty going down as you approach 32. At 17 (or 16.5 if you would prefer), our schedule was hovering around the average but was actually slightly below average after taking the mean then finding the middle. This really isn't that hard to understand. Your problem comes in your belief that for some reason I'm saying the schedule was ridiculously easy. That's obviously not the case. But, if we're going to be precise about it, our schedule WAS actually slightly below average. Ever so slightly, but still there.

Any more hairs you want to split, Andy?

You are wrong.
Your formula is #teams/2=midpoint
If there are 3 teams you have a midpoint of 1.5, making the 2nd ranked team, the diefinition of average, below average.
You can write a freakin disseration but you are WRONG.

At least though now you have admitted that schedule does not create any significant skewing. (By the way your 16.5-16.6 is wrong because you need to calculate the average by not including the game agaisnt us to be statistically accurate)
I have though already shown you at least 5 times that profootballreference has done the math, and we allowed 4.5 fewer points per game than our opponents scored in all their other games, tied for 4th best.

 

[Horace's Ivories]

12-4 ten char

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

12-4 and hopefully hitting their stride in the playoffs.

They have too many youngsters to win every game, and question marks about whether they can run the ball due to OL/RB (health and other issues). Also the pass rush by committee may or may not work out well although they have a solid secondary.

We have seen the scenario SO MANY TIMES before that Brady is beaten to within an inch of his life by the time they limp into the playoffs and that is what happens without a Corey Dillon in the backfield, or at least an OL that plays like they did in 2007....

 

[Ring 6]

Since the actual midpoint formula needs to have two X-Values and two Y-Values followed by dividing both by two, the only way we can find averages in this case is to take the total number of teams in the NFL and divide them by two. What I did was took the mean of our offensive schedule and came up with roughly 16.5 - 16.6. After that, I divided the total number of teams by two to find the midpoint. At 16, your schedule is exactly average. Above 16 (15-1), your schedule is above average with the degree of difficulty going up as you approach one. Below 16 (17-32), your schedule is below average with the degree of difficulty going down as you approach 32. At 17 (or 16.5 if you would prefer), our schedule was hovering around the average but was actually slightly below average after taking the mean then finding the middle. This really isn't that hard to understand. Your problem comes in your belief that for some reason I'm saying the schedule was ridiculously easy. That's obviously not the case. But, if we're going to be precise about it, our schedule WAS actually slightly below average. Ever so slightly, but still there.

Any more hairs you want to split, Andy?

Maybe you can understand it this way.
We are talking about the average ranking. You have solved for how many teams there would be if you split the league in half.
To solve for the average ranking, you must add all of the values together and divide by the number of values. Avg=sum of numbers/amount of numbers
You can be ranked with each number from 1 thorugh 32. 1+2+3....+32= 528
528/32=16.5

See now it works for any quantity.
3 teams 1+2+3=6/3=2 2 is the average ranking for a 3 team league

4 teams 1+2+3+4=10/4=2.5 Less than 2nd is above average, more is below average, there is no 'average' team out of an even #, so an average ranking lies in between the 2 teams in the middle

Got it yet?

 

[Deus Irae]

Perhaps a team by team vote?

For example:

Better defense, NE or BAL?

I'd expect that BAL, DAL, NYJ, SF, GB, SD and MIN would be agreed upon without too much argument, and you could go from there. Teams like Denver and Pittsburgh would be more difficult to place, because of their Jekyll/Hyde situations, but some approximate range could be worked out.

I never did get a follow up on this.....


Well, here's another tidbit to add. The Patriots were #3 in the league in TOP in 2009.