Hornets end Lakers' 15-game home streak (AP)    'Melo out 3 weeks with broken hand (AP)    BC coach meets with Jets, could lose job (AP)    Bobcats surprise stumbling Celtics in OT (AP)   
breakaway beach
    Well, it certainly was a very defining week 15.
    Unfortunately, my picks were standing on the local side while the express came rolling right past.
    (I don’t really know what that means, but there’s a strike in NYC so it’s on my mind)

    I think I spent so much time last week looking at the big SD/IND game, that I overlooked many of the other important matchups.

    Nonetheless, there are still two weeks left to make up the 2 game hole I’ve dug, so it’s still possible to pull this thing out.

    Looking ahead, it is often said that teams who are out of the playoff race don’t have anything to play for. But in most cases, that could not be further from the truth. There are players on those teams, a great number of players, who are fighting for jobs for next season.

    So over the next couple of days, we’re going to look at trends during this final few weeks.

    Here’s part one of the stats I’ve dug up.
    These are charts showing how teams with worse records than their opponents perform during weeks 15-17.

    Below is 2004; weeks 15, 16, and 17.
    At this point, these charts are very crude, but once they’re all posted, I’ll compile some results that will start making sense.

    A quick legend:
    WEEK- is simply which week the games take place
    DOG H/A- indicates if the team with the poorer record is playing either home or away (’-’ means the two teams entered the game with the same record)
    DOG BY- shows by how many games the two teams were separated by coming into the contest
    RESULT- how did the team with the poorer record do
    SCORE- the final score of the game
    PT DIFF- the margin of point difference for the ‘dog’
    TOTAL- the total number of points scored in the game

    2004
    WEEK 15
    DOG H/A
    DOG BY
    RESULT
    SCORE
    PT DIFF
    TOTAL
    SAT
    H
    7
    L
    33-30
    -3
    63
    H
    2
    L
    26-16
    -10
    42
    A
    4
    L
    31-34
    -3
    65
    SUN
    H
    2
    L
    28-27
    -1
    55
    H
    1
    L
    33-17
    -16
    50
    H
    3
    W
    17-45
    28
    62
    –
    a W
    24-5
    29
    A
    2
    L
    14-37
    -23
    51
    A
    7
    L
    7-12
    -5
    19
    H
    7
    L
    21-0
    -21
    21
    -
    a W
    21-17
    38
    H
    1
    W
    7-31
    24
    38
    -
    h W
    35-40
    75
    A
    1
    W
    28-25
    3
    52
    A
    2
    L
    10-20
    -10
    30
    MON
    H
    8
    W
    28-29
    1
    57
    WEEK 16
    DOG H/A
    DOG BY
    RESULT
    SCORE
    PT DIFF
    TOTAL
    FRI
    -
    a W
    34-31
    65
    SAT
    A
    1
    L
    31-30
    -1
    61
    H
    4
    L
    37-16
    -21
    53
    SUN
    -
    h W
    34-31
    65
    A
    2
    W
    21-0
    21
    21
    H
    5
    W
    26-13
    13
    39
    A
    5
    L
    20-7
    -13
    27
    -
    h W
    19-13
    32
    A
    1
    L
    23-22
    -1
    55
    H
    6
    L
    41-7
    -34
    48
    H
    2
    L
    23-7
    -16
    30
    A
    2
    L
    21-24
    -3
    45
    H
    1
    L
    37-20
    -17
    57
    -
    h W
    13-10
    23
    -
    h W
    7-10
    17
    MON
    H
    7
    W
    7-20
    13
    27
    WEEK 17
    DOG H/A
    DOG BY
    RESULT
    SCORE
    PT DIFF
    TOTAL
    SUN
    A
    11
    L
    7-21
    -14
    28
    A
    4
    W
    22-14
    +8
    36
    H
    4
    L
    31-14
    -17
    45
    -
    a W
    21-18
    39
    H
    5
    L
    29-24
    -5
    53
    A
    4
    L
    23-30
    -7
    53
    H
    3
    W
    18-21
    +3
    39
    H
    2
    W
    19-24
    +5
    43
    H
    3
    W
    29-32
    +2
    61
    A
    6
    W
    38-10
    +28
    48
    H
    3
    W
    26-28
    +2
    54
    -
    h W
    7-12
    19
    A
    4
    L
    17-24
    -7
    41
    H
    3
    L
    13-6
    -7
    19
    H
    3
    W
    14-33
    +19
    47
    H
    1
    W
    24-28
    +4
    52

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 20th, 2005 at 10:12 am and is filed under Football, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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