A Very Troubling Statistic

[WillH]

Originally Posted by Jake2008

Sorry that you don't agree with the logic, but doesn't mean it is invalid because you don't happen to agree. You just have a different opinion so sorry if I am not allowed to express mine. I never said it has to be dominant to count, but I do believe good teams will dominate bad teams. We have won by margins of 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 points. Those games could have gone either way. Take the Giants, they have won by margins of 3, 7, 9, 12, 21, 28 and 38. I would say 4 of those are pretty dominant and they didn't have much to worry about.

I think this is a valid point . . .

Yes we're 6-3 and that is a good record (and a completely unexpected record) at this point in the season, and no amount of speculation can change that.

But if as fans we can consider things like the difficulty of our schedule when trying to evaluate the strength of our team, certainly margin of victory can come into consideration.

These feelings of inadequacy on the part of the fans is also somewhat valid. We came into this game under the pretense that this would be a statement game, one that decided whether or not the struggles of this team against clearly inferior teams the past few weeks was simply them playing down, or cause for legitimate concern. Pitt was the first very good team we have faced from outside of our division, and to have been beaten so convincingly is a huge letdown.

So yeah I'm glad we're 6-3, and I'm fairly confident that we'll make the playoffs, but after losing to Pitt we cannot start thinking of our team as elite. Furthermore, this game has exposed a huge weakness in our Offense, with alot of pressure and no Moss we're managable. Now Pitt has the best defense in the NFL, so No, I doubt many other teams will hold us to only six points, even under similar conditions, but we should certainly have some concerns about our Offense. And that may be accurately reflected in our slim margin of victory in our 6 wins.