AFC NORTH CHANGING OF THE GUARD

[BmorePat87]

(01-01-2016, 12:02 PM)Essex Johnson Wrote: Zero doubt the AFC North has changed.. Baltimore and Pittsburgh pretty much fought it out for the division in late 90s and most of the  2000s, but since 2009 the  have become a dominate force in the AFC North, winning more titles than the other two.. plain and simple... 

Playoffs different matter,, but that is not the point of the thread..  

2009 is an interesting year to begin with. I tend to use 2008 since that's when Flacco joined. Of course, that's just as arbitrary as it means nothing else for the Steelers and Bengals. 

Going off 2009, the Bengals and Steelers have finished an average of 2nd in the division (combined 14) while the Ravens have finished an average of 2.14th (15 total). Bengals with 3 division titles over the Steelers, but the only team of the 3 to be 4th ever. So they're the only team of the 3 to ever be the worst team in the division. That does say a lot.

We could use more even numbers (5 or 10). 5 seems more relevant. It gives the Bengals the best average finish (1.8), then Steelers (2), then Ravens (2.2). Ravens and Bengals with 2 titles each. Steelers with 1. 





Now, if we're rejecting all playoff performance, which obviously Bengals fans need us to do, then we have to only look at division games. In 5 years, the division records are
 
Ravens 19-10 (.655)
Steelers 17-12 (.586)
Bengals 15-14 (.517)


Remove the Browns

Ravens 11-8 (.579)

Steelers 10-10 (.500)
Bengals 8-11 (.421)



Hmm.... 2 division titles is impressive in 5 years... but it looks like the Bengals still struggle a lot more in the division and against the Steelers and Ravens. 


I think what we can say is that it is a very even division with the Ravens having the Steelers number recently, the Steelers having the Bengals recently and the Bengals having the Ravens recently. Who wins the division seems to depend on non division games, and the Ravens are the only team within the division doing anything in the playoffs in the last 5 years.
/thread