05-22-2022, 09:39 PM
(05-14-2022, 05:27 PM)KillerGoose Wrote: If you use raw record, then yes. However, there is a better way to try to assess SOS, in my opinion. I like the SOS metric that PFR provides. It is looking at your opponents margins of victory and who they have played to get there. Long story short, a lot of the Bengals opponents had mediocre records but didn’t really play tough schedules themselves.
By this metric, the Bengals had the easiest schedule in the league. I’m not entirely certain that I agree with that, but I don’t believe that the Bengals had the third toughest schedule by any stretch. The answer is probably somewhere in between what we are discussing here. I think Cincinnati had a fairly easy schedule. None of the divisional teams were very good except for Baltimore, who was eaten alive by injuries. Then you add in teams like the Jets, Lions, Jaguars, and Bears and it starts looking pretty unimpressive.
I think they showed out well against the tough teams, aside from the Chargers. They played GB and SF tough while outright beating KC.
That is an interesting take. Now the Bengals play a lot of close games (margin of victory). I wonder how many wins we could attribute to Evan Mcpherson. A lot of doubters seem to reference this "The Bengals might have lost 4-5 more games because of" the kicker. I mean Fat Randy wouldn't have taken us to the super bowl let alone the playoffs, probably.
They mention this as if the game could have swung the other way, there aren't many McPherson/Tuckers around.
