I'm horrible with numbers, but love reading sports stat blogs because they give you another way to look at what you are seeing on the field. One of my favorite sports stat blogs is Zachary Levine's "The Unofficial Scorer" at the Houston Chronicle blogs.Prior to the Super Bowl, Levine said that though most numbers seemed to go all the Patriots way, one number didn't.
Teams in the Super Bowl coming from a stronger division, even with a worse record than their opponent, tend to have more Super Bowl wins. After the Giant victory, he revisited that entry and discussed the trend of teams with the worse record winning the Super Bowl:
We've now had four teams that came in with the better record lose the Super Bowl since the last time the team from the better division lost the Super Bowl.
And this is more than just a recent fluke. Somehow, the winner has come from a better division than the loser 28 times, a worse division 12 times and a division of equal record 3 times (28-12-2=.690) Meanwhile for the better team, those numbers are (24-11-7=.655)
So basically he is talking about something that most of us know intuitively. Maybe not all regular season records are the same. Alternatively, another website that likes crunching numbers, ColdHardFootballFacts.com tells us that the 2007 Patriots had by far the most quality wins of any team in the league. Numbers, of course, have the limitation of not being able to know when the inexplicable is going to occur.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-08-2008 @ 5:53PM
incognito said...
True, you can't win them all no matter how close NE came. Eventually you are going to lose and with NE's division, there are 6 easy wins! It's not how you start but how you finish and NE's great offense was slowing down late in the season! It could be said for the same reasons the Colts always lost into the postseason. Though now their division is one of the toughest but that is just in recent years!
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2-09-2008 @ 10:12AM
rrm12 said...
Seems everyone only remembers the Patriots 6 easy wins. How about their ten [10] tough wins???? SD, Cleveland, Dallas, Washington, Indy, Philly, Pitts, Giants, Jacksonville, SD again and the Giants again?????????? ELEVEN TOUGH ONES.
A Total of 112 Wins and 52 Losses. Two of those teams were undefeated when the Patriots played them and won. It appears to me that the only easy games they had were those six division games that everyone seems to point out. That accomplishment in my opinion is what made them so great, sure they lost the Super Bowl [By three points], but just look at what they accomplished before they lost 18 Wins in a row "NOT DONE BEFORE" There might have been teams with 18-1 records, but none with 18 in a row and none with the schedule they had to play. I for one am not heartbroken as some would like from the Patriot fans, The only thing that the sore winners can gloat over is that their record [Patriots] was not perfect. In my eyes, perfect they were and hopefully we will see you all in the Super Bowl 2009.
My My, one loss and all the Patriot haters have us dead and buried just like those classy Giants and there complimentary comments at the Rally.
Always a Patriot Fan Win or Lose
Richiemac
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2-09-2008 @ 10:12AM
Bill Walters said...
Hey rrm2
How about their ONE loss? I would prefer a 10 - 6 regular season record with a superbowl win.
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2-09-2008 @ 10:12AM
pat gallagher said...
I really dont care how tough their records were. The bottom line is that the Giants won the game. You cannot even consider this patriots team with the greatest teams of all time because they didnt win the Superbowl. However, I would put them in the top 10 among teams that have LOST the Superbowl
P.G. from CHI.
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2-09-2008 @ 4:50PM
incognito said...
Cry me a river rrm12!...LOL
SD earlier in the year when the patsies faced them weren't very good! The second time you played them in the playoffs three of their star players were hurt! So good try on that one!
Cleveland? Though they played well this year who did they really beat? I believe that is minus 2 for you!
Washington and Philly, give me a break! Both teams sucked this year and the only reason the Skins made the playoffs is because there are 6 seeds to fill! My total brings me to -4 now.
Pittsburgh, though a great team wasn't as good as their scedule (and i'm a Steelers fan) they had an easy scedule and With an off-line as horrible as their's, any team that is able to score big and fast would beat them! Plus when you played them two of their most important pass-defensive players were out. Yeah moss and brady burned Smith for two TD's but who is SMith?!?!?!? Basically a rookie who bit the run twice. Plus Pitt barely beat miami and lost to the jets!
Though i will give you Pitt I only award you Dallas, Indi, Giants and Jack. That would be 5 tough wins! 6 if you want to add Balt. but Balt had you beat and their coaching staff gave you that game!
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2-11-2008 @ 2:53PM
tobrien28 said...
rrm12
Actually we have more to point to than your imperfect record. Its the fact that the Giants won the Super Bowl and the Pats got a certificate of participation.
P.S. is a Pats fan really complaining about another team's lack of class?
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2-16-2008 @ 9:53PM
SAL said...
I WAS RIGHT!! LOOK ALL COMMENTS IN ABOUT STRENGTH, OH WOW THE PATRIOTS SCORRE LOTS OF POINTS, BECAUSE THE PLAYED 9 WEAK DEFENSE TEAM YEARS OF 2007, COME ON GIVE ME A BREAK ! THE GIANTS IS TOUGHEST SCHEDULE TO PLAY AND I WAS RIGTH THE PATRIOTS GOT LUCKY FEW TIMES THEY SHOULD HAVE LOST THE GAMES, IN SUPER BOWL THE GIANTS MADE LOTS OF MISTAKE BUT WE COULD HAVE BLOW OUT THE PATRIOTS BUT GIANTS GAVE THEM STUPID 14 POINTS BUT GIANTS DEFENSE SHUTTING DOWN AND NASTY OUTPLAYED THE PATRIOTS, WHO S THE TRASH TALKER, I NEVER FORGET ABOUT SUPER BOWL DO YOU KNOW WHY, NO ONE WOULD WIN ROAD GAME 12 IN ROW AND BREAK RECORD, ITS VERY HARD AND THE PATRIOTS PLAYED MICKEY MOUSE 8 WEAK TEAM OF YEAR 2007 , GOT TO BE KIDDING, I WOULD LOVE COLTS, JAQUARS REVENGE AGAIN THE SLOW AGLESS PATRIOTS IN 2008, ITS OVER, GIANTS IS OUT OF PICTURE FOR FEW YEARS , SHOCK THE WORD, SHOCK THE WORLD, PATRIOTS 18- 1 LUCKY THAT PATRIOTS COULD HAV 5 LOSS ! I WAS RIGTH !!!! STUPIDS PATRIOTS FAN, THEY CARE ABOUT THE OFFENSIVE, DEFENSE WIN THE GAMES ALWAYA ! ASK BELICHICK, !!!
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