[Mr. Mulliner]

I like Kenneth Massey and his Massey Ratings, especially for college football. Here's something from his NFL ratings that may buck you up if you're rooting for a Broncos-Seahawks Super Bowl. Notice that his ratings have Denver and Seattle as the two highest rated teams left in the playoffs.

Using games from Thursday, September 8, 2005 to Sunday, January 15, 2006

• These ratings are based on win-loss outcomes relative to schedule difficulty.
• Margin of victory is not used, and ratings don't reflect point differentials.
• Early season ratings will fluctuate significantly until a sufficient number of games have been played.
• Teams that are not connected via the schedule graph are rated as isolated groups.

group1

Ch	Team	W	L	Rating		Schedule
1	Denver	14	3	1.833	( 1)	0.19	( 5)	AFC West
-1	Indianapolis	14	3	1.582	( 2)	-0.05	(20)	AFC South
	Seattle	14	3	1.367	( 3)	-0.16	(32)	NFC West
	Pittsburgh	13	5	1.176	( 4)	0.06	(11)	AFC North
1	Jacksonville	12	5	0.897	( 5)	-0.07	(23)	AFC South
2	NY Giants	11	6	0.863	( 6)	0.12	( 9)	NFC East
4	Carolina	13	5	0.847	( 7)	-0.11	(30)	NFC South
-1	New England	11	7	0.819	( 8)	0.20	( 4)	AFC East
	Kansas City	10	6	0.815	( 9)	0.16	( 6)	AFC West
-5	Washington	11	7	0.815	(10)	0.24	( 2)	NFC East
-1	San Diego	9	7	0.767	(11)	0.33	( 1)	AFC West
1	Cincinnati	11	6	0.614	(12)	-0.01	(16)	AFC North
-1	Chicago	11	6	0.532	(13)	-0.10	(26)	NFC North
	Dallas	9	7	0.469	(14)	0.16	( 8)	NFC East
	Tampa Bay	11	6	0.454	(15)	-0.11	(29)	NFC South
	Miami	9	7	0.235	(16)	-0.07	(24)	AFC East
	Minnesota	9	7	0.189	(17)	-0.10	(27)	NFC North
	Atlanta	8	8	-0.143	(18)	-0.06	(22)	NFC South
	Philadelphia	6	10	-0.360	(19)	0.16	( 7)	NFC East
	Baltimore	6	10	-0.506	(20)	0.01	(12)	AFC North
	Cleveland	6	10	-0.622	(21)	-0.04	(18)	AFC North
	St Louis	6	10	-0.760	(22)	-0.13	(31)	NFC West
	Buffalo	5	11	-0.788	(23)	0.01	(14)	AFC East
	Oakland	4	12	-0.861	(24)	0.22	( 3)	AFC West
	Detroit	5	11	-0.975	(25)	-0.06	(21)	NFC North
	NY Jets	4	12	-1.003	(26)	0.10	(10)	AFC East
	Green Bay	4	12	-1.004	(27)	0.01	(13)	NFC North
	Arizona	5	11	-1.031	(28)	-0.07	(25)	NFC West
	San Francisco	4	12	-1.207	(29)	-0.01	(17)	NFC West
	Tennessee	4	12	-1.428	(30)	-0.11	(28)	AFC South
	New Orleans	3	13	-1.502	(31)	-0.01	(15)	NFC South
	Houston	2	14	-2.084	(32)	-0.05	(19)	AFC South

[normy]

Denver had a brutal schedule playing of course the AFC West and the NFC East. Seattle had an easy schedule but what do you do? Is an 11-5 team who played their starters going into the playoffs better than a team 13-3 who sat starters for the last two games, (one they lost).

Are the numbers in parentheses after the schedule rating the rank in toughness of schedule? I noticed Carolina is 30 and Seattle is 32