The best team, overall, is not the St. Louis Rams, because their defense is shaky. (While it’s true they’ve scored more points than any other team, they have allowed 174 points. Only five other teams have allowed more points, and all those teams have losing records.)
No, the best team right now is the Minnesota Vikings. They have a great offense led by the best young quarterback playing today, Daunte Culpepper. (He’s also the biggest at 6’4" and 266 pounds.) Plus, their defense has allowed only 110 points and they’re undefeated. If they beat Tampa Bay again, I will have to conclude they’re the best.
I’m having trouble deciding who’s the worst team, Cincinnati or San Diego. Flip a coin, I guess.
I don’t care how many points they give up, St. Louis is the best team in the NFL until someone manages to put up more points than they do against them. I would not wager anything on the Vikings (or anyone else) to manage this feat.
The Bengals are the worst by far. I mean, being shut out by the Steelers?
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Short of an injury I give the Rams a 50-50 shot of going all the way through the regular season undefeated. I’m hoping they don’t match my Bears mark for most wins in a season.
The best team in football is still the Titans, granted they need to get healthy at WR before the postseason, but I’d bet on them before the Rams…but not by much. Defense still really matters in big games, the Rams haven’t had any yet.
Teams Ranked By Expected Pythagorean Winning Percentage - NFL
Top 7:
Miami DOLPHINS, .828
Philadelphia EAGLES, .735
Tampa Bay BUCCANEERS, .705
St. Louis RAMS, .694
Denver BRONCOS, .685
Tennessee TITANS, .674
Minnesota VIKINGS, .659
Minnesota’s point differential doesn’t justify a high ranking. But after six games, it might not mean much.
Miami’s point differential is phenomenal (112 to 51) but they’ve been playing amazingly low-scoring games, and the moment someone scores two touchdowns Miami’s in trouble.
My guess is either Tampa or St. Louis will win it all. Last year I picked St. Louis after Week 4.
The worst team in the league, by a mile, is Cincinnati whose expected PWP is .063 (37 for, 143 against) - in other words, they’ll have to work hard to go 1-15. They may well be the worst football team ever assembled; they’re certainly in the running for being the worst offense of all time. As bad as San Diego is, they’re not even remotely as bad as the Bengals; the Chargers going 0-7 is kind of flukey and I’m sure they’ll win a few games. The Bengals going 0-6 isn’t flukey at all, and I will be quite surprised if they win twice, and not at all surprised if they go 0-16.
The Bears are the worst team in the NFC by far by this method.
Saint Louis. As long as Faulk stays healthy, they’re in a class by themselves. Even with the crappy defense. Hell, they lost their kicker last week and became more dangerous because they would go for it on 4th down if they were in Falcon territory and they went for 2 points five times (making 4 of them). However, I don’t think they will go 16-0.
Minnesota. Their offense is the next best to St. Louis (granted, it’s a distant second). Their defense is getting better. If only they didn’t always choke when it matters most.
Tennessee. Look what they’re doing to teams when they’re down to the #4 and #5 wideouts. That means a lot of depth at receiver once the others come back. Eddie George is the best grind it out RB in the game. The defense is great. I think they’ll repeat as the AFC champs.
(Also rans - Tampa Bay, Miami, Oakland, Denver, Washington, NY Jets.)
Cardinals. (No defense, no offensive line.)
Chargers. (No offense whatsoever. Defense suddenly appears weakened.)
Bengals. (No offense. No defense. No special teams. Do they even have a water boy?)
December 10th.
'might have to bet you a haircut.
(man, I am soooo joking – I love the Vikings, but, well, I can see me in the chair, and it’s not a happy sight.)
I’ve already stated that I’ll consider it a moral victory if Washington holds the Rams to under 30 points. Of course, this means our offense has to score over 15 points. This is a problem.
Just please please please let Darryl be healthy by then…the thought of Deion covering Issac Bruce or Holt scares me. shudders Deion was quite possibly the worst personnel move this year for the Skins. With the possible exception of picking up Jeff George.
Don’t count out the Chargers. Did you see their inspirational come-from-ahead loss to preserve their perfect record last Sunday? What is that now, five leads blown in the fourth quarter?
All of you had better pray to your favorite deities that the Vikings don’t ever win the, oh, I can’t say it–you know, THE BIG ONE, because, I promise, Minnesotans would even out-obnoxiousize Packer fans in their gloating, chest thumping, and all around abrasiveness.
But I’m not getting my hopes up. Nope. Remaining stoic. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
The Rams are good, however, their defense is not as good as it was last year, they give up too many points.
Thats why, I believe the Vikings should win in their match up later in the season.
Forget the fact that I live in Miinesota. I grew up in Southern California, and for the first 25 years of my life I was a die hard Rams fan, and if you remember, the Rams never could win the Big One either.
If after all those years, Susan Lucci can win an Emmy, then the Vikings can win the Big One.
Wow! I can’t believe I put Susan Lucci in a football thread.
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