(Use this to highlight the #3 vs. #4 seed rankings come Sunday's games). Strength of victory tiebreaker will be used if NE and Cincy are tied. This is because they'll be tied in conference record and record vs common opponents. Right now, NE leads Cincy in strength of victory, 65-61 (wins by teams NE and Cin have each beaten). Tough for Cincy to win the tiebreak but far from impossible. It will depend on how teams NE and Cin have beaten do this Sunday. (1) NE has beaten Buf, Buf, NYJ, Mia, Atl, Car, Jack, TB, Ten, Balt. (2) Cincy has beaten Cleve, Cleve, Pitt, Pitt, Balt, Balt, Det, KC, Chi, GB Cincy's strength of victory could exceed NE's if Cleveland beats Jacksonville, Pittsburgh beats Miami, Baltimore beats Oakland, and Green Bay beats Arizona (plus if Tennessee loses to Seattle,and Buffalo loses to Indy). You'll need some upsets BY teams that Cincy has beaten plus upsets of teams NE has beaten to narrow the gap. Clear ???
Keep an eye on the CLEV, PITT, BALT games...as you can see above, since CINCY beat them each twice so far, a win by those teams counts DOUBLE in the SOS tiebreaker (though NE gets +1 if BALT wins, too).
Its not meaningless. Depending on what happens, Cincy may possibly be in a position to play for the 3 seed on Sunday night by beating the Jets. Could become an important factor as the day develops tomorrow.
But like I said it would be meaningless if we win and the Pats win. Should that happen the Bengals are our opponent. They can't win the tie break if they are 10-6 and the Pats are 11-5.
The difference between the 3rd and 4th seed is pretty meaningless for the Bengals. It's a Sunday night game on the road, which amounts to a lost day of rest and training, so they're going to treat this as a preseason game.
The key to being #4 is: (1) avoid SD, and play Indy (not a great choice, granted, but ask NE who they'd rather play on the road) (2) avoid PITT or BALT (or Denver) in 1st round, all with veteran QB's and instead get Jets/Sanchez. I agree: Cincy has little incentive to win this game....NE does have incentive to LOSE and slide to #4 if things break right, but Cincy doesn't have incentive to get the #3 seed. The only advantage in #3 vs. #4, given opponents in the 1st and 2nd round, is the AFC Championship game where #3 would have the home-field. THAT'S the only reason you'd want #3 right now vs. #4....and that would take alot to break right to give those teams the home-field in the AFC Champ. Game (you'd need for 2 upsets in the divisional round).
OK....as of 4 PM.....CINCY has seen its SoS strengthen by 5......(2 for CLEV, 2 for PITT, CHI).....figure BALT wins at Oakland takes it to +7...that leaves the KC and GB games to count. NE's SoS has gone up by +5 (2 for BUFF, ATL, CAR, figure BALT).......still have TEN. Net-Net It was 65-61 (+4) for NE going into today.....so as of 4 PM it's still +2 over CINCY. With only 2 games left for CINCY and 1 for NE, it looks like NE will be #3 if the Jets win tonite.
BTW, this thread should be entitled STRENGTH OF VICTORY since its records of teams beaten, not schedule. Sorry.....but thread data is still correct.
so basically cinci and NE have the same 'Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games' and therefore it will go to whoever has the best Strength of Victory? Correct?
Does anyone know what would happen if KC GB and Balt all won and if Tenn lost. Wouldnt that mean that Cinci and NE would be tied in Strength of Victory and it would go to strength of schedule? Who is winning in that category?
