There are three main calculations that are generated based on the gamedata. The "winrating" is a measure of how you've performed against teams based on their record. Losing to a undefeated team hurts a team a lot less than losing to a team that is 0-10, for example. Early in the season, the winrating isn't much use, due to the smaller sample size. Since every team is either 2-0, 1-1, or 0-2, there isn't a lot of variation. For example, in week three, the "raw" winrating ranges from -2 (for the Titans) to 6 (for three teams). Historically, the winrating of teams at the end of the regular season is one of the best indicators of the eventual Superbowl winner. The second calculation is the "offrating", which is a measure of how many points your team produces compared with how many your opponent usually allows. For example, if team A scores 20 points against a team that averages allowing 14 points, their offrating increases by 6. "Defrating" is similar, in that it's a measure of how many points a team allows compared with what the opponent usually scores.
I should point out that while the fields are "offrating" and "defrating", it isn't purely the offense and defense that are being rated. It's related to points scored and allowed, regardless of where they come from. This means that a team that gets a lot of defensive TDs would end up with a higher "offrating", since the scored points would apply to that.
Now, on to the table itself:
The "AverageRank" is the average of where the team ranks in term of those three calculated ratings. "Team", "Wins" and "Losses" are self-explanatory. "AvgOff" and "AvgDef" are the team's average offrating and defrating per game. Having an "AvgOff" of 7, for example, means that that team has scored, on average, seven more points per game than their opponents have allowed over all their games.
Specific comments about this week's ratings are after the table.
| AverageRank | Team | Wins | Losses | AvgOff | AvgDef |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.7 | 49ers | 2 | 0 | 6.5 | 8.3 |
| 5.0 | Saints | 2 | 0 | 14.0 | 0.5 |
| 8.3 | Bengals | 1 | 1 | 4.3 | 3.0 |
| 8.3 | Jets | 2 | 0 | -3.8 | 10.8 |
| 8.3 | Giants | 2 | 0 | 7.0 | -1.3 |
| 9.7 | Patriots | 1 | 1 | 1.8 | 4.3 |
| 10.0 | Ravens | 2 | 0 | 9.0 | -4.0 |
| 11.3 | Seahawks | 1 | 1 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
| 11.7 | Cardinals | 1 | 1 | 5.8 | -0.5 |
| 11.7 | Broncos | 2 | 0 | -4.8 | 9.5 |
| 12.0 | Eagles | 1 | 1 | 1.3 | 1.8 |
| 12.0 | Chargers | 1 | 1 | 4.0 | 0.0 |
| 14.0 | Bears | 1 | 1 | -2.3 | 0.5 |
| 14.0 | Vikings | 2 | 0 | -2.8 | 0.0 |
| 14.0 | Falcons | 2 | 0 | -4.5 | 1.5 |
| 15.0 | Cowboys | 1 | 1 | 3.8 | -2.8 |
| 16.0 | Colts | 2 | 0 | -2.3 | -2.8 |
| 16.3 | Raiders | 1 | 1 | -9.0 | 4.0 |
| 16.3 | Lions | 0 | 2 | -0.5 | 2.5 |
| 16.7 | Texans | 1 | 1 | 4.8 | -7.3 |
| 16.7 | Bills | 1 | 1 | 1.8 | -3.8 |
| 18.0 | Redskins | 1 | 1 | -8.3 | 0.8 |
| 18.3 | Steelers | 1 | 1 | -7.0 | 4.8 |
| 18.7 | Packers | 1 | 1 | 4.8 | -5.5 |
| 20.3 | Dolphins | 0 | 2 | -0.5 | -1.0 |
| 22.0 | Browns | 0 | 2 | 1.5 | -5.5 |
| 22.3 | Chiefs | 0 | 2 | -4.0 | 0.0 |
| 22.7 | Jaguars | 0 | 2 | -3.5 | -0.5 |
| 25.0 | Titans | 0 | 2 | 0.0 | -6.5 |
| 26.0 | Buccaneers | 0 | 2 | -4.3 | -3.0 |
| 27.3 | Panthers | 0 | 2 | -6.3 | -6.3 |
| 27.3 | Rams | 0 | 2 | -9.8 | -2.5 |
There's definitely a few surprises in the rankings, but keep in mind this is just two weeks worth of data, and it usually takes until week 8 or so for things to start to come together and really reveal some interesting trends.
Some things are clear however. The Saints have the best offense going so far, but we'll see if it holds up as the season progresses. The leading defensive teams are...the Jets, Broncos, and Niners? Yikes.
It's kind of hard to argue with the Steelers ranking so far. The offense has been atrocious, and only the Raiders, Redskins, and Rams are rated lower. The defense is holding up, as it's at the top of the second-tier right now.
Note that the Lions are the top-rated 0-2 team. This is because they've faced two teams that are 2-0, so the losses haven't hurt their winrating very much. Their offense and defense have actually done comparably to the Vikings/Saints other opponents, so they are kind of "middle-of-the-pack", despite the losses.
For what it's worth after two weeks last year, the top five teams were: Cardinals, Cowboys, Bills, Panthers, Titans, and the bottom five were Lions, Dolphins, Seahawks, Rams, and Chiefs. The Steelers were right in the middle of the pack with an average rank of 13.7, a 2-0 record, avgoff of -4.5, and avgdef of 1.0.
This slightly implies that at this point last year the defense was weaker, but the offense was a little stronger.
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