Who will win the AFC North? Hold up, hold up. Is this about something OTHER than Carson Palmers injury? It is? Youre kidding, right? No Im not. While I wish the best for Carson, I think that a bigger question right now, given the sliding around in the standings, is the AFC North. Who wins? Who loses and is OUT of the playoffs? This is so far the strongest and most unpredictable division in the league. The Bengals did great starting off. Oh wait, blown out by New England and they fall. Havent been the same since. Cleveland? Oh, Cleveland has done great! Wait-they lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Hold up, hold up, Baltimore has been steady, right? They have a great record! Nope, theyve lost to the Bengals twice this year. And the Steelers? Theyve been tearing it up! Theyre on a roll! Lets just say that the Jets shot them down (pun intended). In case you dont get it: THE AFC NORTH IS VERY UNPREDICTABLE, YOU SEE. (profootballmock reference, hehe) So what team wins? How predictable is it? What team is the best? Thats what Im trying to find out. My first step was to look at the standings. But look at that-each team has either 6 wins, 3 losses, and the Browns have both of those! This is crazy. So, I looked at points scored and points given up. Heres what caught my eye: the Bengals have net points of -14. -14!! Thats easily the worst in the division. The lowest after that is 22, by the Steelers. Now, net points arent entirely useful for judging a team-each team has down days. However, a net of -14 points does not often result in a winning team. That signifies that either the offense is poor or the defense is poor, and neither of those bodes well for a team. For this reason, Im ruling out the Bengals. Sorry, but they havent done well. Not to mention the lowest record in their past 5 games (2-2-1). Moving on, theres one thing that also catches my eye. Baltimore and Pittsburgh are very, very even teams. Same points scored, same record, same record in the past 5 games. Same record on the road and the same record at home. Theyve even each beaten each other-BY 20 POINTS EACH TIME. These similarities are just...wow. The difference? Pittsburgh has a much worse defense in terms of points, the only stat that really matters. Theyre giving up 239 points at the moment, as opposed to 181. And we all know the saying: Defense wins championships. Given how close these 2 teams are, Im going to give the Ravens the upper hand here. They both have the same points for, same record, and theyve beaten and lost to each other by 20 points. Go figure. So now, it comes down to the Browns and Ravens. And will you look at that-the Browns have given up the lowest amount of points in the division and are currently IN FIRST PLACE. (I know, right? What a surprise.) Taking a look at their team: the Browns have lost to both the Steelers and Ravens, in weeks 1 and 3 respectively, but by a margin of 5 points, collectively. They would later go on to rout the Steelers, 31-10, and fellow division rivals, the Bengals, 24-3. That is remarkable, in my opinion. Cleveland has had a very surprising season. Brian Hoyer leading them to this? Wow. Theyve dealt with Josh Gordon, Jordan Cameron, Ben Tate-nearly all the big names in their offense-while losing Alex Mack during the season to injury. Theyve done all this. Obviously, there was a low point where they lost to Jacksonville. However, Im going to chalk that down to bad days-each team has them. Pittsburgh had one this week. Irregardless, the game still counts. So, these are my predictions for the end of the year in the AFC North: 1) Cleveland Browns (shocker) 2) Baltimore Ravens 3) Pittsburgh Steelers 4) Cincinnati Bengals -GH2
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 23:09:52 +0000
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