Cowboys will have to earn there keep

[InmanRoshi]

To expand how teams like NYJ and GB might have fed off a last place schedule or a bad divison last year to inflate their W & L records....

Strength of Victories is an NFL playoff tiebreaker that is calculated by the combined winning percentage of the teams you beat. If your strength of victories is really low, that means you beat some awful teams but didn't beat many good teams.

Looking at some people on our upcoming schedule...

Chicago - 26th in the NFL in 2006 strength of victories.
NY Jets - 27th in the NFL in 2006 strength of victories
Green Bay - 28th in the NFL in 2006 strength of victories
St. Louis - 31st in the NFL in 2006 strength of victories
Minnesota - 32nd in the NFL in 2006 strength of victories.

GB, STL and Minn were three out of only five teams to have a strength of winning % under .400. The Jets just barely avoided that mark with a .400 flat, but they had the lowest ranking in the AFC.

Now, there's nothing wrong with beating bad teams. Being able to blow out bad teams is a sign of a good team, which is why points differentiation in points scored vs. points allowed tends to be a pretty good indicator of W-L records. But Green Bay allowed 65 points more than they scored last year, which shows that not only were they beating just bad teams but they were just barely beating them in tight games, and then getting blown out by the good teams they faced. I'm not sure what GB's win total over/under is at the moment, but if anywhere near 7.5 or 8 based on the fact that they went 8-8 last year, I would put money on under.

 

[theebs]

Yup.

Buffalo lost arguably their best offensive player AND best defensive player.

Sure, they could unexpectedly put together decent years, but neither one of them look that great right now.

Buffalo's best offensive player is Lee Evans.

Right now. That is the key. I just think all this we are playing bad teams and we are going to whip them stuff is crazy.

 

[Champsheart]

Buffalo's best offensive player is Lee Evans.

Right now. That is the key. I just think all this we are playing bad teams and we are going to whip them stuff is crazy.

hmmm, I did not hear one person say they where bad teams, nor we would whip them.

What is being said is we are playing a lot of average teams, and it is very difficult for many to say we have such a tough schedule when almost our whole schedule is filled with teams that did not have a winning record the year before.