A new graph, and the first interesting one of the 2009 season. Beatpaths picks were 12-4 this week – the other two were slightly worse – we’ll review them when we make the Week 3 picks. Remember that the top of the graph does not necessarily mean the highest-ranked team – it might just be the most efficient way to draw the graph.
Things to consider from this graph – the longest beatpath does not necessarily mean the best team. There might be tiny gradations of quality in Denver’s chain, while there could be leagues between NO->PHI->CAR. It’s also interesting how Baltimore’s chain basically had a two-week, four-team tournament.
Iterative and Weighted are up. Iterative looks like Standard, as it will with no loops. Weighted has the same arrows, but a different ranking setup due to point spreads.
beatgraphs.com
Nice to see some divisions taking shape, at least initially. I realize due to the schedule the in-division games tend to be the most volatile. The NFC West has a nice little tree under SF, while the AFC East and West both have 3 of 4 teams in a nice little chain.
Yep, BAL->KC is the one redundant game so far. If that had gone the other way we would have a 4-team beatloop in week 2.
Detroit and Miami are the only 0-2 teams whose losses are both to 2-0 teams. Just an early indicator that they *might* not be as bad as they seem, just victims of a difficult early schedule. Or, on the flip side, Atlanta and Indy both are 2-0 over 0-2 teams – maybe they’re not that great. (Incidentally, I thought that was a really good game last night. I enjoy games that showcase a great contrast of styles, and you can hardly get a greater contrast than that.)
Cleveland is also 0-2, losing to 2-0 teams. That’s a good point… and as a Denver homer, I was glad to see that Cincinnati might not be as bad as everyone thought. And, Minnesota is 2-0 over 0-2 teams. (Shows how the graph is confusing sometimes, those teams are a level higher than DET/MIA/ATL/IND)
It’s impressive that the graph is almost entirely connected after only Week 2.