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As of Sunday morning before the 1:00 games, the Rams are slightly ahead of the Bucs in the race for #1 overall with a slightly easier strength-of-schedule (SOS). For those who don't know, if both the Bucs and the Rams finish 1-15, the tie-breaker for #1 overall pick will be SOS, where the team with the easier schedule will draft first.
Now, two points I should clarify about strength of schedule - first, I included the records of teams we have not yet played, since by the end of the season these records will be relevant. Second, I included the assumption that both us and the Bucs lose the rest of our games, and included that in the SOS calculation. For example, Seattle is currently 5-8; however, they play the Bucs today and I chalked that up as a win for SEA. The reason being that SOS will probably only matter if both teams lose their remaining 3 games. SOS could come into play if we both win 1 game, but at that point we'll be tied with other teams, and if that's the case then I'll calculate things when we cross that bridge.
Now here's the point of this post - I did the calculations for us so you can follow along today and know which teams you should root for if you want the Rams to get Suh.
For each game (excluding the ones the Rams and Bucs play in) I will list which team we want to win (either because they make our strength of schedule easier or the Bucs' SOS harder) and a point value. If the team we're rooting for wins, add that number to our point total; if that team loses, subtract it from our total. A positive total means we're ahead of the Bucs, a negative number means the Bucs are ahead of us.
Current "score" heading into the Sunday games = +3
Week 15 Sunday/Monday games:
NE @ BUF - Doesn't matter
MIA @ TEN - MIA - 2 points
ARI @ DET - DET - 1 point
CLE @ KC - Doesn't matter (We should probably root for CLE since they have only 2 wins which could come into play if the Bucs and us both win another game, but that's not included in this analysis)
ATL @ NYJ - ATL - 1 point
OAK @ DEN - Doesn't matter
CIN @ SD - Doesn't matter
SF @ PHI - PHI - 3 points
GB @ PIT - Doesn't matter
CHI @ BAL - BAL - 1 point
MIN @ CAR - CAR - 3 points
NYG @ WAS - NYG - 1 point
So, for example, right now we're ahead by 3 points. If MIA wins today, you can add 2 points to us so we're at +5; if TEN wins you subtract 2 and we're at +1. Do this for every game. I will update after each week if there's any interest. At the end of the season, if our total is positive, we have the #1 overall. As you can see, the big games are SF @ PHI (a PHI win gives our SOS 2 more losses since we played SF twice and TB SOS another win since they play PHI 1 time) and MIN @ CAR.
As much as I hate losing, at least there is a silver lining, and this cheat sheet helps us at least have a rooting interest in the other games.
Now, two points I should clarify about strength of schedule - first, I included the records of teams we have not yet played, since by the end of the season these records will be relevant. Second, I included the assumption that both us and the Bucs lose the rest of our games, and included that in the SOS calculation. For example, Seattle is currently 5-8; however, they play the Bucs today and I chalked that up as a win for SEA. The reason being that SOS will probably only matter if both teams lose their remaining 3 games. SOS could come into play if we both win 1 game, but at that point we'll be tied with other teams, and if that's the case then I'll calculate things when we cross that bridge.
Now here's the point of this post - I did the calculations for us so you can follow along today and know which teams you should root for if you want the Rams to get Suh.
For each game (excluding the ones the Rams and Bucs play in) I will list which team we want to win (either because they make our strength of schedule easier or the Bucs' SOS harder) and a point value. If the team we're rooting for wins, add that number to our point total; if that team loses, subtract it from our total. A positive total means we're ahead of the Bucs, a negative number means the Bucs are ahead of us.
Current "score" heading into the Sunday games = +3
Week 15 Sunday/Monday games:
NE @ BUF - Doesn't matter
MIA @ TEN - MIA - 2 points
ARI @ DET - DET - 1 point
CLE @ KC - Doesn't matter (We should probably root for CLE since they have only 2 wins which could come into play if the Bucs and us both win another game, but that's not included in this analysis)
ATL @ NYJ - ATL - 1 point
OAK @ DEN - Doesn't matter
CIN @ SD - Doesn't matter
SF @ PHI - PHI - 3 points
GB @ PIT - Doesn't matter
CHI @ BAL - BAL - 1 point
MIN @ CAR - CAR - 3 points
NYG @ WAS - NYG - 1 point
So, for example, right now we're ahead by 3 points. If MIA wins today, you can add 2 points to us so we're at +5; if TEN wins you subtract 2 and we're at +1. Do this for every game. I will update after each week if there's any interest. At the end of the season, if our total is positive, we have the #1 overall. As you can see, the big games are SF @ PHI (a PHI win gives our SOS 2 more losses since we played SF twice and TB SOS another win since they play PHI 1 time) and MIN @ CAR.
As much as I hate losing, at least there is a silver lining, and this cheat sheet helps us at least have a rooting interest in the other games.
:helmet::helmet::helmet: GO RAMS
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