Snoopy said:
Giants are not as bad as you think they are. And rival teams play harder. Looks how close it was for Arizona vs Seattle at Seattle. |
Patriots beat the Jets by 35. Chiefs beat the Raiders by 32. Texans beat the Jags by 17. Rams beat the 49ers by 16 while resting many of their starters. Chargers beat the Broncos by 14. Out of the eight divisional games on Sunday where one team had a better record than their opponent by at least 3 games coming in, the team with the better record went 7-1, and won by at least 14 points in 5 of those games. The single loss was the Saints, who sat their starters the entire game.
The notion that division rivals play each other close regardless of record is just a myth. Close games inevitably happen in the NFL because the disparity in skill is relatively small compared to something like college football. Having a close game against an inferior opponent is nothing to be ashamed of; it happens. However, it's not really something to brag about either.
