The final 2016-17 Score Report

So another NFL season is in the books.

For just Week 17:

• Scoring average:  44.9375 PPG
• Home teams were 10-6, including the first eight games on the Vegas board.
• The Over was 8-8.
• Favorites were only 7-9 against the number, but 12-4 straight up.
• Team with more penalties was 5-9
• Three Cliffhangers, including another "go for two and miss it at the end" motif.  
• 3 Last Chance Misses.
• 7 non-competitive games.  Not surprising when only 7 of the 16 games meant a tinker's damn this week.

So now, the end of year totals:

• Scoring Average:  44.933 points per game.  (Last year:  45.625.  2014:  45.1875  2013:  46.707.)

The biggest argument one can give for someone like a Seattle winning the Super Bowl is the league concentrating on defense.  I also believe (and this is only my personal opinion on this subject, YMMV) that the NFL's misguided efforts to deal with post-touchdown unsportsmanlike conduct were meant to intrinsically aid the defenses as well.

• Home teams were 147-104-1, with four neutral-site foreign games (three London and one Mexico City) this year for a .5853 winning percentage.  (Last year:  .5494, two years ago .589)

Returning to the form of two years ago, home teams winning about 59% of the time.

• The over was a half-game a week above .500 this year (not quite enough to overcome the juice (the 9% the Vegas casinos take off winning bets)).  It was a half to a full game a week under .500 last year.  Two years ago, a full game a week under .500. 

Somewhat surprising, but perhaps a partial overcompensation on some of the games by the bookmakers in Vegas regarding the push of the defenses this season.

• Favorites were 123-115-7 against the spread this year -- again, a half-game above .500 per week.  Perfect for Vegas.  Last year, they were a full game below .500 against the number.
• For the first time, I also kept track of the straight-up numbers:  161-83-1 straight up -- favorites in their games won the game about 2/3 of the time.

Not really much to say here except, again, perfect for Vegas that the spread was just enough above .500 to entice players, but not far enough above .500 to make any money on a blanket basis.

• There were 50 Cliffhangers this year.  Last year:  57.  Two years ago:  40.  Three years ago:  56.)

Especially with the league breaking the record on 4th quarter comebacks this year, I'm more than a little surprised at this.  But, when you take a look at a stat I was looking at for the first time this year...

• 70 games ended with a meaningful Last Chance Miss -- be it an onside kick or a drive that didn't come to fruition.

Yes, there was some overlap, but a good 35-40% of the games were basically decided, one way or the other, at the end.

• The interesting thing I saw is that we actually got to 73 non-competitive games for the season.  Meaning, after a huge start to the year, it got down to 71.1% of the games finished competitively (at least some point in the fourth quarter where the game was within one score).  (Last year:  67.57%. Two years ago:  62.89%.  Three years ago:  68%.)

31 of those 73 games were in the last 5 weeks (just over 6 a week).  Only 42 games in the first 12 weeks were non-competitive (less than 4 a week).  You want an indication of how bad some of the teams were?  Here you go.