Day 592, Part Two: NFL, we need to have a serious talk...

That may have been the least competitive day in NFL history.

In fact, I'm almost certain it was.

The NFL was wasting little time, at the start of the day, touting the 23 games through 6 weeks decided in the last minute of regulation and overtime.

They got one today, a field goal at the gun for Atlanta to best Miami.

Then the carnage started:

• Kansas City, Carolina, and Baltimore were all favored in their games, and at least Baltimore and Kansas City are (or were at one time) major players in the playoff discussion.  All lost by at least three touchdowns.
• The Jets, seriously, quit against the Patriots, getting 54 points dropped on them for the highest total against this season.
• Four teams couldn't even manage six points this week, and a fifth only could come up with 10.
• Only ONE GAME today (and the Thursday nighter) finished within eight points, the aforementioned Cliffhanger.
• Arizona was a 20-point favorite in beating Houston today.  By beating them 31-5, they became only the fourth team in history to cover a 20-point spread.  The NFL record was Pittsburgh over the expansion Buccaneers, favored by 27 and winning 41-10 in December, 1976.  Second was Week 3 2019, Dallas -22.5 over Miami 31-6.  Tied for third with today's was Week 3 2013 Seattle -20 over Jacksonville (41-17).

This had to be one of the worst schedules in NFL history:

• Of the eleven games today, precisely ONE featured two teams over .500 -- and Tennessee ran all over Baltimore today.
• Three of the late-afternoon games were double-digit spreads (two covered).  The early slate of games Week 17 last year had the same.
• By the end of the debacle, an Indianapolis win in the bomb cyclone hitting California -- PLEASE FLOOD THE INSANITY OUT OF THIS STATE... -- the scoring average for the week stands at only about 44 1/2 points a game.  You'd have to go back to Week 12 of 2019 to get a lower one.
• Average margin of victory today?  17.18 points.
• I'm going to need to look into some research.  Week 7 of 2019 had only three games be within one score.  Four happens on an intermittent basis.  But I have research charts going back to 2014 -- never has the NFL, at least since then, and I'd wager far further than this, had only two games end within one score within a week.

Why?  I can think of two reasons:

• The NFL has been SERIOUSLY greasing the skids for "fantastic finishes" this year.  
• The other reason?

Many of the teams, and some of the franchises, are utter fucking GARBAGE.

Let me lay out some general evidence, and then the "serious talk" about some of these can begin:

• As of the end of the game tonight, there have now been 106 NFL games this year.  Of those 106, only 47 have now finished within one score.  When I started charting this, it was on a statistic Brian Tuohy found that about 48% of all games ended within one score.  Several years, it's gone well over 50%.  We are now down, as of tonight, to just 44.34% of all games, and those are the games which finish within eight points.
• Of that number, OVER HALF, 24, have finished with the winning score within one minute of regulation or some point of overtime.
• Of that 47, only eleven have finished without either a lead-changing score in the last two minutes or overtime (26) or an opportunity to tie/win the game which fails (10), or both (11)!
• 26 games have been played in the last two weeks.  15 have never gotten within a score in the 4th quarter.  Only 8 have finished within one score.

Now, NFL, we need to have a talk about some teams:

• They didn't play this week (on their bye), but no list of teams in this regard can be complete without the debacle which is the Jacksonville Jaguars.  The team has won two games of their last 22, hasn't had a winning season since 2017 (the only time the Shad Khan ownership has had a winning season -- their last before was in 2007)...
• Of course, you could be the Jets at this point!  No winning seasons since 2015.  They've won three of their last 22 (and the only reason they went 7-9 two years ago was finishing the year on a 6-1 tear -- otherwise they haven't even won more than FIVE games in a season since 2015!)  Last playoff appearance?  2010.
• How bout dem Giants?  Yeah, they won today.  They still suck rocks.  Last winning season was in 2016 (haven't won more than six games a season since), last playoff appearance before that was in 2011.
• Detroit...  Last winless team in the league at 0-7.  Last winning season was in 2017.  Last playoff appearance was in 2016.  Last playoff win?  NINETEEN NINETY ONE!  It has been THIRTY YEARS since the Detroit Lions have won a playoff game!
• And, more specifically to this year, the Houston Texans.  So why was the league so fast to put Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice on the Commissioner's List or whatever it was (I could find the right name if I had the want to look right now), and yet the Texans have been left to twist on the DeShaun Watson thing, and have, as predicted, become one of the worst teams in a BAD NFL?  (I think there's a very prescient reason -- Texas is COWBOY COUNTRY!!  Rargh!!)  (More like Moooooooooooooooo...)  

I'm not going to include Houston in this list, but DEAR FOR THE LOVE OF GOD -- do we have a standard of what constitutes a "professional" franchise at this point in the United States?  I mean, I know the league likes to rig shit, but you can't tell me something is badly wrong when, even in a rigged NFL, there hasn't been a winning season in the city of New York since 2016, and no hope of getting one this year?

And the entirety of Florida football in the pro ranks is such a complete and abject joke that I have to think the Jacksonville TV stations are back to apologizing they even have to carry a shit team that the roster of the Khans' other American project could probably defeat in American football!!!

I really get the sense, looking at this week's schedule, that you finally showed what would happen if the games weren't as manipulated as you want them to be.  You've got some shit football out there -- not only unentertaining because the zebras help the league determine the outcome, but you've got a lot of players and more than a few franchises robbing money from this economy on a blind basis.

• The Holy Hell with the entire NFC East (this year, outside of Dallas).  Dallas had their bye this week at 5-1 -- the rest of the division has six wins between them.  The last time more than two teams won 8 games in that division was 2017.