As Moose pointed out, a fully connected graph in Week 2. Next week is when it really gets fun, but it’s already interesting. Beatpaths picks were 11-4 this week.
Don’t read much into the vertical placement, it’s graphviz that does it. Pittsburgh could just as easily be very low on the graph. The algorithm errs towards graph clarity more than anything else, which in this case appears to be short line segments.
I like the shape; it looks like a dinosaur
I think it’s interesting that not only is it one single connected path, but it’s an open-ended one due to the Baltimore-Houston postponement. Which allows the graph to have all short paths. Just for kicks it might be interesting to see how the vertical placement would be affected by a HOU->BAL win or a BAL->HOU win.
My graphs will look exactly the same until we have our first beatloop to deal with, so I won’t bother linking them yet. The only difference is that this year my Iterative graph will have the arrows become dashed and then dotted the weaker each link gets. All links are solid for now as there are no loops to weaken them. The Weighted graph will have colored links based on the strength of the link. Looking at this weeks graph you can see where loops would break. For example: NE has a solid black line over NYJ which represents a solid victory. NYJ however, has a weak red line to MIA. This means if MIA defeats NE this week to create a loop, the loop will likey be broken at the NYJ->MIA link.
As far as rankings go, again they’re the same between the Standard and Iterative methods. NYG is #1 for having the longest path directly beneath them (5.00), CAR is #2 (4.08) and there’s a 5-way tie for third between ARI, DAL, DEN, NE, and WAS (3.54). At the bottom is DET, then MIN, and then the inverse 5-way tie of ATL, KC, MIA, SEA, and STL.
On the Weighted ranking table, where the final score matters, NYG is still #1 (5.26), but DAL moves up to #2 (4.62) with DEN #3 (4.01). DET is still at the bottom (-5.08) with STL right above them (-5.01) and KC (-4.28).
To answer your question Justin, if HOU beat BAL I believe TT’s graph would just stretch HOU and BAL between PIT and CIN. They way I work my graphs though, each team can only be 1 level higher than the best team it has beaten, so the effect would be HOU one level above where BAL is now and PIT’s arrow to HOU being long. If BAL beat HOU, HOU would be listed at the bottom of the graph below BAL and PIT’s arrow to HOU again would be long.