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Factoid

Protecting the football = playoffs

Nobody doubts the importance of avoiding turnovers in today's NFL, but it's a little striking how important avoiding interceptions is to winning right now. Eight of the nine teams that threw the fewest interceptions in the league in 2013 made the postseason, and only two of the 12-team playoff field finished lower than 13th in terms of avoiding picks.

One of the two teams that was only average or worse in terms of avoiding interceptions was Green Bay, which was without its starting quarterback for half the season, and was awfully fortunate to sneak in as an 8-win team. The other happens to be this weekend's biggest favorite, Cincinnati. Does its tendency to throw interceptions make it a candidate for the weekend's major upset? We'll see.

The interception totals for each NFL offense last year are presented below, with playoff teams listed in bold.

2013 INTERCEPTION TOTALS (OFFENSE)
TeamInts
Kansas City 8
San Francisco 49ers 8
Philadelphia Eagles 9
Seattle Seahawks 9
Denver Broncos 10
Indianapolis Colts 10
San Diego Chargers 11
New England Patriots 11
St. Louis Rams 11
New Orleans Saints 12
Dallas Cowboys 12
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 12
Carolina Panthers 13
Chicago Bears 13
Pittsburgh Steelers 14
Buffalo Bills 15
Green Bay Packers 16
Tennessee Titans 16
Atlanta Falcons 17
Detroit Lions 19
Washington 19
Miami Dolphins 19
Minnesota Vikings 19
Cincinnati Bengals 20
Cleveland Browns 20
Oakland Raiders 20
Jacksonville Jaguars 21
Arizona Cardinals 22
Houston Texans 22
New York Jets 22
Baltimore Ravens 23
New York Giants 29

--Andy Richardson

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