Beatpaths

Washington is actually favored in the game tonight according to the power rankings, which I’m hoping should come later tonight!

It’s been a crazy week with the holidays and with DIA messing everything up. But first off, here is the beatpaths graph for Week 16.

While the Week 15 Power Rankings remained mostly stable, the EOY Projections changed quite a bit, with two completely different teams in the Super Bowl. In addition, we’re figuring in tonight’s Green Bay upset win over Minnesota – the main result there is that in addition to GB being ranked ahead of MIN, we [...]

The rankings were quite stable this week, although there are some interesting NFC shifts. The top half of the graph is almost completely identical to last week’s graph, though.
If the season ended today, the beatpaths playoff seedings would be:
AFC: IND, SD, BAL, NE, DEN, CIN
NFC: NO, CHI, PHI, SF, DAL, SEA
AFC teams ranked ahead [...]

The power rankings were 10-6 last week. Once again, we have plenty of matches that are considered beatflukes:
ARI=>SEA
ARI=>STL
KC=>DEN
KC=>SD
STL=>SF
NYJ=>NE
MIA=>NE
JAC=>IND
TEN=>JAC
NYJ=>BUF
NYG=>PHI
TEN=>IND
DET=>BUF
TB=>CIN
TB=>PHI
CAR=>NO
CAR=>CLE
CAR=>BAL
OAK=>PIT
ATL=>PIT
ATL=>CIN
HOU=>JAC
SEA=>DEN
STL=>DEN
DET=>ATL
WAS=>JAC
WAS=>NO
HOU=>MIA
HOU=>JAC
DAL=>IND
WAS=>DAL
ARI=>SF
And only nine beatloops left over:
CAR=>TB=>WAS=>CAR
BAL=>SD=>DEN=>BAL
TEN=>PHI=>DAL=>TEN
MIA=>CHI=>GB=>MIA
BUF=>MIA=>CHI=>BUF
MIA=>CHI=>NYJ=>MIA
MIN=>SEA=>GB=>MIN
GB=>SF=>STL=>GB
GB=>SF=>SEA=>GB

As the season winds up, it’s interesting to look at how the year will end up if games end up as projected. This is a bit of a silly exercise because the power rankings aren’t very accurate in the predictive sense. But it does show how strength of schedule can give certain teams [...]

Here are the Week 14 Power Rankings. We’re 112-96 for the season. The main differences are that Buffalo is better than you think, and Pittsburgh’s rise is affecting a lot of other teams.
Right now, the graph suggests the following playoff seedings, which are quite different than the standings indicate.
AFC: IND, SD, BAL, NE, [...]

I was feeling unloved so I delayed posting the graph to make y’all whine. No, seriously, my schedule just got away from me this week. Here’s the beatpaths graph for Week 14! We were 9-7 last week. Overall this has been a lousy year for picks, but I guess that was [...]

It’s always interesting to see how one game impacts things – Pittsburgh defeated Cleveland tonight. The end result is that Pittsburgh’s beatwin over New Orleans actually re-emerges, which is a significant shift in the graph. In the rankings, most things are the same, except Pittsburgh is now ranked just ahead of New Orleans, [...]

Power Rankings are 103-89 for the season after an 8-8 week. The story of the week appears to be the Giants’ collapse – it made a TEN=>NYG beatpath emerge, which is affecting much of the NFC. Going by who beat who, the graph suggests that the playoffs should look like this:
AFC: IND, NE, [...]