I’ve got the 2016 difficulty of schedule numbers in front of me, and a couple of teams stand out: Eagles and Broncos. Both of those teams, I thought, were adversely affected by really hard schedules. Those could be teams that are flying under the radar entering the upcoming season.
With the Eagles, they have to play six games against Dallas, Washington and the Giants – those are all good teams. And Denver had a similar thing going in the West, with Kansas City, Oakland and the Chargers.
Looking at the numbers for the last 10 years, I see only a handful of teams that have played harder schedules.
On the figures here, they’re adjusted numbers. That is, they don’t include team’s own games. That is, Denver’s opponents went 140-115-1 – 7-9 against the Broncos, and 133-106-1 against the rest of the league. I leave out those in-house games; otherwise it always looks like a 14-2 team like New England has played an easy schedule, while a lesser team like 1-15 Cleveland was done in by bad luck.
HARDEST SCHEDULES, LAST 10 YEARS | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Team | W | L | T | Pct |
2010 | Cincinnati | 137 | 103 | 0 | .571 |
2011 | St. Louis | 137 | 103 | 0 | .571 |
2007 | Philadelphia | 136 | 104 | 0 | .567 |
2010 | Buffalo | 136 | 104 | 0 | .567 |
2007 | Washington | 135 | 105 | 0 | .563 |
2010 | Cleveland | 135 | 105 | 0 | .563 |
2013 | Tampa Bay | 135 | 105 | 0 | .563 |
2016 | Philadelphia | 132 | 103 | 4 | .561 |
2008 | Cleveland | 133 | 104 | 3 | .560 |
2009 | Miami | 134 | 106 | 0 | .558 |
2016 | Denver | 133 | 106 | 1 | .556 |
2010 | Carolina | 133 | 107 | 0 | .554 |
2012 | Detroit | 132 | 106 | 2 | .554 |
2014 | Oakland | 133 | 107 | 0 | .554 |
2012 | Arizona | 130 | 106 | 4 | .550 |
2013 | St. Louis | 132 | 108 | 0 | .550 |
2011 | Detroit | 131 | 109 | 0 | .546 |
2008 | Pittsburgh | 129 | 108 | 3 | .544 |
2014 | Seattle | 130 | 109 | 1 | .544 |
2007 | Chicago | 130 | 110 | 0 | .542 |
2007 | Detroit | 130 | 110 | 0 | .542 |
2008 | Cincinnati | 130 | 110 | 0 | .542 |
2009 | Carolina | 130 | 110 | 0 | .542 |
2009 | Tennessee | 130 | 110 | 0 | .542 |
2011 | Minnesota | 130 | 110 | 0 | .542 |
2013 | Arizona | 130 | 110 | 0 | .542 |
2015 | Chicago | 130 | 110 | 0 | .542 |
2015 | Green Bay | 130 | 110 | 0 | .542 |
—Ian Allan