Peter King on the Power Conference: NFC

THE NFC IS FAR AND AWAY THE NFL’S POWER CONFERENCE WITH SEVEN WEEKS TO PLAY

Peter King

[www.si.com]


Point differential is not the tell-all stat in football, but it’s interesting, and it’s recently been a great indicator of NFL power. The top three teams in point differential through 10 weeks:

Team W-L Point Differential
L.A. Rams 7-2 +134
Philadelphia 8-1 +104
New Orleans 7-2 +103

Eight of the best 12 teams in point differential reside in the NFC this year. Only Jacksonville (fourth), New England (fifth), Kansas City (eighth) and Pittsburgh (12th) from the AFC crack the top dozen.

Check out how the point-differential leaders in the past four seasons turned out:

• 2016: New England 1, Atlanta 2. They met in the Super Bowl, and the top-scoring Pats won.

• 2015: Carolina 1, Arizona 2, New England 3, Denver 10. Ten beat one in the Super Bowl.

• 2014: New England 1, Seattle 2. They met in the Super Bowl, and the top-scoring Pats won.

• 2013: Denver 1, Seattle 2. They met in the Super Bowl, and the number two team won.

It’s not a perfect indicator. In 2012, 11 (Baltimore) beat four (San Francisco) in the Super Bowl. In 2011, 19 (New York Giants) beat three (New England) in the Super Bowl. But it’s interesting to note how spot-on it’s been over the past four seasons.

If I were picking the order of teams this morning, the NFC would have four of the top five teams. In order: Philadelphia, New England, Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans, Carolina. Miami’s a psycho team, and I have no clue what a totally decisive win over the Dolphins means these days, but the Panthers’ stifling defense and adolescent-but-scary offense (with Greg Olsen likely returning for the last six regular-season games) is such a lethal combination right now that they easily could be a January power team.

Think of a possible NFC playoff seeding: 1. Philadelphia, 2. L.A. Rams, 3. New Orleans, 4. Minnesota, 5. Carolina, 6. Seattle or Detroit.

How about this for a divisional-round scenario—one of the best in years: Saints at Rams, Panthers at Eagles.

I know we’re not talking about football much in these days of anthems and Goodell-Jones, but if we ever get by the off-field flotsam and look at the potential for the home stretch of the 2017, it could be pretty great.