Yeah, we know Bill Parcells said “You are what your record says you are.”
But which to teams do you feel are not what their record says they are?
Better than record: Cardinals only because Kyler Murray is back
Worse than record: Steelers whose luck will run out any week now. Right guys? Any week now.
NFL fans: “Good teams find a way to win the close games.”
Also NFL fans: “Your team’s a fraud because those close games could’ve gone either way.”
Bonus peanut gallery perspective: “Your team should never ever play games close enough to let bad officiating dictate the outcome.”
Browns legit got handed 2 wins from the refs, but they are also good.
I don’t think you can count the 49ers. They missed a regular ass field goal. Refs didn’t do that.
That last one is pretty much an AFCN motto.
We also deal with NFL fans and r/NFL saying the Steelers are worse than their record every, single, painstaking year. All the while everyone parrots “Mike Tomlin no losing seasons, womp womp”.
Maybe a HOF coach can have the clutch gene too. Tomlin coaches his teams specifically to win dogfights that go down to the wire. They practice 2-minute drills and situations far more than the average team. But surprise surprise, them winning one score games is fraudulent (which a large majority of NFL games are one score margins, regardless of ANY circumstances).
I mean do Steelers fans actually think their team is good? They seem like an overachieving young team with good defensive talent and atrocious offense being coached by a guy that is contractually obligated to play .500 or better.
Sneaking into the playoffs is definitely possible with the only locks seeming to be Baltimore, Miami, KC and one of the South teams. That leaves 3 WC spots for Cleveland (no QB), The South loser, the Chargers (the Chargers…), Cincinnati (who is underachieving), Denver (what the fuck is this team?) and Buffalo (who is beyond underachieving).
But do you feel like you’d give them even 2:1 odds against KC or Miami (I’ll exclude Baltimore because weird shit happens in games against them)?
Well… looking at one score game records(along with turnover margin) is typically the easiest way to tell which team is gonna improve and decline the most from season to season.
Not all close games are created equal. Time of possession needs to be taken into account, plus who had the ball last and for how long. The Lions won a game by 3 points but ended the game on a 3 minute drive that ended with kneels and a chipshot to turn a tie into a win. That’s different from a team that wins on a all or nothing down by 4 scrambling win.