Week 3 Score Report 2016 -- and some SERIOUS ratings numbers...

Last week of 16 games per week until about Thanksgiving.  15 games this week.

• Week 3 Score Average:  46.94  (Last year:  48.31, two years ago:  46.5)
• 48 game per game total score average:  45.688 (Last year:  47.104, two years ago:  44.6)
• Home teams started the week 4-5, but the entire late schedule went to the home teams, as did Sunday night.  Home teams were 10-6 on the week, 27-21 for the year.  (Last year:  8-8, 26-22.  Two years ago:  9-7, 30-18)
• The over was 9-7, making 26-21 for the year.  (Last year was 10-5 for 25-20 to 25-23.  Two years ago was 8-8 with anywhere between 18 and 22 overs for 26 unders)
• One game went middle against the spread (Baltimore was anywhere from a 1 to 2.5 point favorite over Jacksonville and won by 2.)
• Big week for the underdogs straight up, as favorites only went 7-8 against the number and 8-7 straight-up.  For the year, that's 20-23 against the number and 25-18 straight up.
• 226 penalties this week (almost matching last year's 229).  Big story of the year appears to be the team with more penalties is losing:  5-8 on the week, 17-26 on the year.
• Something tells me Goodell was not happy with the ratings, and gave up this week, at least for this week:  Though there were four Cliffhangers (11 for the year (23%)), there were SEVEN non-competitive games this week.  Happened three times last year and was either met or exceeded three times the year before.  The big stat from that:  There'd only been five such games in Weeks 1 and 2 COMBINED.
• Three Last Chance Misses, counting one of the Cliffhangers.  14 of those, with 2 overlaps.  Meaning that 23 of the first 48 games were either a Cliffhanger or that the team behind had a feasible last chance for one and missed.
• Only seven games this week ended within one score.  29 out of the 48 for the year (60.4%)
• The games within one score at some point in the fourth quarter (nine this week):  36 out of 48 (75%).
• Last year:  No Cliffhangers Week 3, 6 Cliffhangers total.  Two years ago:  2 to total 8.
• Ending within one score last year: Six for the week, 23 total (47.9%).  Two years ago:  Only 18 total.
• Within one score at some point in the 4th last year:  32/48.  Two years ago?  29.
• Interesting Point to Ponder #1:  Through three weeks, there have been as many games decided by one score this year than there were games within one score at any point in the fourth quarter two years ago.
• Interesting Point to Ponder #2:  For the third week in a row, the Monday night game in the regular time slot was non-competitive.
• Interesting Point to Ponder #3:  There has been neither a Cliffhanger nor a Last Chance Miss on the Sunday nighter this year so far.
• Interesting Point to Ponder #4:  There have been 12 games in which the game was decided through three quarters.  Only TWO have come from the main 1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific start times.
• Interesting Point to Ponder #5:  Raising speculation that the election may be becoming the main focus of ratings this year, the Los Angeles Times reports through Sports Media Watch that Monday Night Football had it's lowest overnight rating EVER.  Not just ESPN-era.  The 5.7 overnight rating for Falcons-Saints was the lowest ever recorded in the history of the series.
• There's a reason for that:  Overnights for nine networks airing the debate?  FORTY-SIX POINT TWO.  Meaning almost half the television sets in the country which were on at all were watching those two motherfuckers barf all over the stage.
• The final rating was 4.9 -- and that is the lowest-rated Monday Night game ever.  To give comparison, the last two years of Monday night had 40% higher ratings.
• SMW reports the CBS regional half of the doubleheader was down 13% from last year, but the national half was rather consistent with last year.  FOX is the only network seeming to buck this trend, and did again for it's single window on Sunday.