2018 Week 15 Score Report

Yep, we have our rewrite.

• 38.625 PPG for the week.  That's the lowest this year by four full points.
• Lowest per-week since Week 16 last year (37.75).
• The last three weeks in total, 48 games, have had only 1,999 points.
• Through 12 weeks, the average points per game for the season was 48.364.
• The last three weeks have averaged just 41.667.
• Total average for the year now:  46.924 -- the first time all year the all-time per-game average of 47.2 now holds.  And the 46.707 modern-era record now has only a slim 37 points now on it.

I'll talk more about that in the post you'll see above -- the one I make next.

• Home teams went 9-7 this week for 133-84-2 for the year.  (.607)
• The Over was 5-9-2 for the week (both the Sunday nighter and Cincinnati-Raiders pushed) for 103-116-5 for the year.  If you bet $100 on every NFL game to go over this year, you'd be $2,236.36 in the hole.
• Of course, you could be worse.  You could've done the same with Vegas favorites, who went 6-9-1 against the spread and 10-6 SU.
• That's 99-117-3 against the number.  Same $100 on every Vegas favorite?  You're now down $2,700.
• Straight up for the season:   141-80.
• Team with more penalties was 4-12 this week.  Now 88-104 for the year.
• For the same three weeks the scoring has cratered, the team with more penalties is 8-7, 4-8, and 4-12 -- 16-27 overall.
• As of the end of Week 12, 2282 penalties had been called in 176 games.  (12.966 per)
• The last three weeks, in 48 games, 733 penalties had been called.  (15.271)
• Season average is now 13.46 penalties per game.
• Three Cliffhangers, totaling 47 for the year.
• Eleven games finished within one score, total of 121.  (54%)
• Three non-competitive games for 71 total.  (31.7%, meaning 68.3% of all games are within 8 points at some point in the fourth quarter.)
• Three Last Chance Misses for 58 total.

And now, the playoff storylines in math (the post above will be Political Rankings theorycrafting):

AFC:

Houston vaults to the #2 with New England's fifth loss of the year.

1. Kansas City still is with 11-3 and only one loss in the AFC West.  A win over the Seahawks next Sunday night seals the deal, because the Raiders are the Week 17 opponent.
2. Houston 10-4 outright
3. New England 9-5 outright
4. Pittsburgh 8-5-1 outright
5. LA Chargers 11-3, two losses in the AFC West.  Probably need two wins and a KC loss for the #1, but only the Chargers and Chiefs are guaranteed playoff spots.
6. Again complicated, but it's still Baltimore at 8-6.

Three 8-6s.  First break the tie with Indianapolis and Tennessee (they play Week 17, though), so Tennessee falls to the #8 and Indy #7.  Baltimore has the breaker on Indy on one fewer conference loss.

NFC:

1. New Orleans 12-2, magic number for the #1 is one.
2. LA Rams 11-3 outright
3. Chicago 10-4 outright
4. Dallas 8-6 outright
5. Seattle 8-6 outright
6. Minnesota 7-6-1 outright

No changes, but solidifications.  The top three teams have all won their divisions, but clinched nothing else.

Two 7-7s and a 6-8.