We Need To Improve Our Point Differential To Be Competitive

[mgteich]

Best Point Differential By An NFL Team In 2021 | StatMuse

Yes, Buffalo is better.

 

[borg]

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Beating the crap out of the worst teams in the league and running up the score, skews all the Pats stats. I think the offense averaged 17 points a game taking out beatdowns of barely-NFL-caliber league-worst teams.

1-4 in the last 5 games. No way to sugar coat it.

The last game scoring 3 total points till the 4th quarter wasn't good, and also anytime Godchaux/Bentley played a lot resulted in the worst run defense in the entire league.


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[jmt57]

BTW beating the crap out of the worst teams in the league and running up the score, skews all the Pats stats. I think the offense averages 17 points a game taking out beatdowns of barely-NFL-caliber league-worst teams.

True, but the OP comparison to Buffalo is weak. The Bills did the same thing; their point differential was skewed just as much by a few blowouts. They also showed an inability to win close games, despite that league-best point differential.

The Bills went 11-1 in games decided by 14 or more points; 0-5 in games decided by 7 or fewer. Buffalo only averaged 17.5 points in their losses.

Buffalo's wins:
35-0
43-21
40-0
38-20
26-11
45-17
31-6
31-14
33-21
29-15
27-10

Buffalo's losses:
16-23
31-34
6-9
15-41
10-14
27-33

 

[mgteich]

True, but the OP comparison to Buffalo is weak. The Bills did the same thing; their point differential was skewed just as much by a few blowouts. They also showed an inability to win close games, despite that league-best point differential.

The Bills went 11-1 in games decided by 14 or more points; 0-5 in games decided by 7 or fewer. Buffalo only averaged 17.5 points in their losses.

Buffalo's wins:
35-0
43-21
40-0
38-20
26-11
45-17
31-6
31-14
33-21
29-15
27-10

Buffalo's losses:
16-23
31-34
6-9
15-41
10-14
27-33

OK, so you think that Buffalo isn't that strong a team. I STRONGLY disagree. When the season started, there were 5 top teams: TB, KC, GB, BUF, and LAR. As of now, there are the same top teams. We don't come close to measuring up to any of them (or to other 3 teams left for that matter.

We were rated at about the #10 team going into Game 17 and into the playoffs.

The issue is semantics. We are NOT competitive with the top teams and need serious improvements to be so.

However, as an NFL team, we are certainly competitive, if we are comparing to the league as a whole. Our failure this year was losing to MIA. If we had beaten them, we would still have been about the 10th best team.

Each of has a choice with regard as to how to feel about a team that ins 10-7, and one and done.

 

[TheRainMaker]

This is a weird stat, given they lost 6 times.

 

[kennyb]

Point differential is meaningless. Your threads make no sense.

How about point differential against goodcteams when it mattered? They were terrible. You're arguing otherwise because they beat bad teams resoundingly?

 

[jmt57]

OK, so you think that Buffalo isn't that strong a team. I STRONGLY disagree. When the season started, there were 5 top teams: TB, KC, GB, BUF, and LAR. As of now, there are the same top teams. We don't come close to measuring up to any of them (or to other 3 teams left for that matter.

We were rated at about the #10 team going into Game 17 and into the playoffs.

The issue is semantics. We are NOT competitive with the top teams and need serious improvements to be so.

However, as an NFL team, we are certainly competitive, if we are comparing to the league as a whole. Our failure this year was losing to MIA. If we had beaten them, we would still have been about the 10th best team.

Each of has a choice with regard as to how to feel about a team that ins 10-7, and one and done.

I do not at all believe that "Buffalo isn't a strong team", not in the least.

As I mentioned in the "Defensive Stats" thread, I consider the Bills to be a top tier team. The Patriots on the other hand are a middle of the pack team, along with half the NFL: they are one of 17 teams that finished between 10-7 and 7-10. Eight teams performed better, in what is more or less the top tier, and seven bad teams are in the bottom segment.

I was simply opining that point differential is a poor metric, using the examples of those two teams. I do agree 100% that the Patriots need improvements to move into that upper echelon.