Before we moved our blog over to BrownBroSports I wrote a blog about debunking the myth that the Patriots have such a good record simply because they play in the dumpster fire of a division.
I thought that I made it pretty straightforward. I broke the article up into digestible chunks. I used pictures. And yet…
So in honor of Mr. Clemons, I’m rewriting the article to help him (and those like him who are also reading impaired).
Question 1: Did you include the Patriots wins in the AFC east numbers? If so, this article is really dumb.
Yes, Jimmy: the Patriots wins are included in ALL the numbers. The numbers that you’re looking at is the Patriots’ record against each division. I can see why you’d be confused; it’s not as if I mentioned this. Wait, no. I did:
It’s been argued that the Patriots great win percentage is a product of happenstance; a mix of good luck and bad opponents. That if they didn’t play in the AFC East, things would look a lot different. Luckily, we here at the PatriotsDynasty site have those statistics, so let’s dive in — starting with the Patriots win percentage against the entire NFL.
So to recap: those numbers in the pretty circles (which are pie graphs of each win percentage, by the way) are actually the Patriots record against each conference or division. Really dumb.
Question 2: Why do you sample size larger for the AFC East? This is a horrible article.
The sample size is larger because teams in the NFL play their division mates twice a season, every season. So the Pats have played the AFC East more than any other division because it’s the one they’re in. What a horrible article.
Question 3: AFC West over the last 20 years has been the toughest division, yet you have it as the easiest.
First of all, this isn’t a question, but I’ll let it slide. Secondly, we’re only going back to 2000 (since that’s when Belichick took over the team), but let’s assume you’re rounding for the sake of simplicity.
And while you are correct that the Patriots have “struggled” the most against the AFC West (well, just the Broncos), that would explain why the Patriots have a LOWER win percentage than anywhere else.
Lower Patriots win percentage = Harder division
However.
If you are actually implying that the AFC West is the toughest division, you’re sorely mistaken. Here, take a look at the current standings since 2000.
Divisional Standings (2000-2017)
| Division | W | L | T | W% |
| AFC East | 636 | 553 | 0 | 0.535 |
| NFC East | 593 | 557 | 2 | 0.515 |
| NFC South | 578 | 572 | 2 | 0.502 |
| AFC North | 577 | 571 | 4 | 0.501 |
| AFC West | 570 | 582 | 0 | 0.495 |
| NFC North | 567 | 583 | 2 | 0.492 |
| AFC South | 548 | 572 | 0 | 0.489 |
| NFC West | 543 | 605 | 4 | 0.471 |
What a shocker, the AFC East has been an absolutely dominant division thanks to the best dynasty in the history of the sport. Without them in the division? That vaunted AFC West? A little less than mediocre. Huh.
Divisional Standings (without the Patriots)
| Division | W | L | T | W% |
| NFC East | 593 | 557 | 2 | 0.515 |
| NFC South | 578 | 572 | 2 | 0.502 |
| AFC North | 577 | 571 | 4 | 0.501 |
| AFC West | 570 | 582 | 0 | 0.495 |
| NFC North | 567 | 583 | 2 | 0.492 |
| AFC South | 548 | 572 | 0 | 0.489 |
| AFC East | 395 | 469 | 0 | 0.457 |
| NFC West | 543 | 605 | 4 | 0.471 |
Shocker, the AFC East plummets. But this isn’t really a fair representation, is it? Of course removing the division winner will drop a division’s win percentage. What happens if we remove the division winner from all of the divisions for each season?
Division Win Percentages (without each division leader)
| Division | W | L | T | W% |
| AFC East | 367 | 389 | 0 | 0.485 |
| NFC East | 390 | 472 | 2 | 0.451 |
| NFC South | 394 | 501 | 2 | 0.439 |
| AFC North | 368 | 493 | 4 | 0.425 |
| AFC South | 365 | 499 | 0 | 0.422 |
| AFC West | 363 | 501 | 0 | 0.420 |
| NFC North | 361 | 502 | 2 | 0.417 |
| NFC West | 347 | 515 | 4 | 0.401 |
Well would you look at that! It turns out that when you look at just the 3 teams in each division that didn’t finish first, the “easy” AFC East is actually the top performing group.
“But wait,” you cry. “Removing the division winner isn’t fair! That punishes teams that only win the division sometimes!” To that I say…
Only win the division sometimes? I don’t understand. But alas, I’ll humor this line of thinking by removing the best team from each division since 2000.
| Division | W | L | T | W% |
| NFC East | 421 | 442 | 1 | 0.487 |
| NFC South | 421 | 441 | 2 | 0.487 |
| AFC West | 401 | 463 | 0 | 0.464 |
| AFC East | 395 | 469 | 0 | 0.457 |
| AFC North | 389 | 472 | 3 | 0.450 |
| NFC North | 389 | 474 | 1 | 0.450 |
| AFC South | 368 | 464 | 0 | 0.442 |
| NFC West | 382 | 479 | 3 | 0.442 |
Yep, still not the worst.
So really what we should be saying is that the Bills, Jets and Dolphins are hanging in there despite having to compete against the Patriots instead of the inverse.
And yet, even with the toughest division in football, the Patriots don’t lose.
It’s awesome that Patriots fans have a site to bury their heads in the sand and read insanely bad statistics. This is awsome!
Yeah, having a site like PatriotsDynasty.info is pretty awesome. Especially when it allows us to debunk bullshit excuses that other fans create to make it seem like this Patriots dynasty isn’t the greatest that the NFL has ever seen. Glad you enjoyed it, and hopefully this wasn’t as hard to read.
