Evaluating the Standings: Some games bigger than others

[wskin44]

Bear with me here, I spent way too much time on this:

The standings at any point in the season can only be evaluated by looking at the whole schedule. Some games are more important than others because they are in your Division, or because of Division tie breaking procedures:

1) Head to Head

2) Record vs. Division

3) Record vs Common Opponent

4) Record vs Conference

NFC East teams have 4 common NFC opponents: SF, St.L., Arizona & Seatle. All AFC games are common opponents.

By assigning point values based on the importance of the games and by assuming that the home team should win, then today's standings can be better evaluated.

In the NFC East I rate the standings as:

Washington: Plus 3

Philadelphia: Plus 2

Dallas: Plus 1

NYG: Plus 1

Here's how I assigned the points:

3 points: Division road win

2 points: Common opponent road win.

1 point: Non-common opponent road win.

-3 points: Division road loss

-2 points: Common opponent road loss.

-1 point: Non-common opponent road loss.

Washington is leading based on it's win in Dallas. No other NFC East team has beaten a Division foe on the road yet. We will only gain a real advantage though by beating Dallas again at FedEx.

Since we have already lost both AFC road games we need to beat SD and Oak when they come to town to offset those losses.

Philly won on the road at KC, an important win against a common opponent. A Washington win on the road vs. Ariz or St. Louis could make up for this.

Our biggest priority is to split with Philly since we have already assured a split with Dallas.

At this point the Sunday night game at home vs the iggles is the biggest game of the season.

Dallas beat San Fran on the road, and although you may say so what, Wash will either have to beat Dallas at home or win at Arizona or at St. Louis to keep pace.

The Giants beat New Orleans "on the road" although the game was played in NJ. This game isn't as important since no other NFC East team plays the Saints. What would be sweet is a win at New York on Sunday because combined with our win at Dallas it would put us in a strong position to sweep one or the other and get a leg up on Division record.

When it comes to the Wild Card it would be good to beat Tampa Bay on the road. They are 5-1 in the NFC South, Atlanta is 5-2. One of those teams will probably be contending with one or more NFC East teams for the two Wild Card spots.

Philly's loss to Atlanta on the road in week one could be fatal to them if they get into Wild Card tie breakers with the Falcons.