It’s been one of the most hotly contested questions of this ever-so-intriguing NFL season: Is the league’s best division the NFC East or the NFC South?
You’re about to find out.
What a season it’s been for the National Football League.
Following Tom Brady’s monumental season-ending injury in Week One, the downfall of the San Diego Chargers (a team that many prognosticators had winning it all this year – they must feel pretty stupid right about now), and the emergence of the Tennessee Titans (yes, the Tennessee Titans) as the team sporting the AFC’s best record with two weeks remaining, the NFC has suddenly became the NFL’s powerhouse conference.
What a dramatic role reversal from two or three years ago, when everyone just assumed that a Colts/Bears Super Bowl would be a lopsided affair (and how right they were!), or that the Patriots were a lock to be hoisting the Lombardi Trophy the first weekend of February.
That, my friends, is no longer the case.
The NFC now boasts the stronger teams and the marquee matchups, after years of being deemed the ugly, red-headed stepsister of its mighty counterpart, and its Super Bowl representative will likely come from one of two divisions: the NFC East or the NFC South (no offense Cardinals/Vikings fans), which leads us to the $64,000 Question.
Which is the best?
First of all, if we want to make this argument based solely on which division has the highest grand total of wins, the South wins by one (36-to-35), and that’s only because of the infamous Eagles tie with the lowly Cincinnati Bengals, a game that most view as a loss for the Eagles.
But, there’s a lot more to it than wins and losses.
When considering which division is the NFL’s elite, we should probably focus on the top three teams in each division, discounting the Washington Redskins and New Orleans Saints, both of which carry a subpar, disappointing record of 7-7.
The Redskins, after jumping out to a 6-2 start and looking like legit contenders in the NFC, have suddenly became the laughingstock of the NFL, coming off an embarrassing loss to the Bengals (a team that, despite its 2-11-1 record, has proven that it can hang tough with the big boys in the East, beating the ‘Skins, tying the Eagles, taking the Giants to OT, and losing to the Cowboys by single digits).
The ‘Skins have lost five of their last six, disappearing into irrelevance. This weekend, they’ll play the role of spoiler to the Eagles.
As for the Saints, they can’t seem to buy a win on the road. They have lost all but two of their eight games away from the Louisiana Superdome (one “away” game for the Saints was a game in London versus the Chargers, which they won 37-32).
Fortunately for them, they travel to the Motor City to face the Lions this weekend. On the flip side, the Saints are 5-1 at home. Nevertheless, like the ‘Skins (yet another team that they lost to on the road), the Saints’ playoff hopes are all but dead.
That leaves us with the Giants, Cowboys and Eagles in the Beastly East, and the Panthers, Bucs and Falcons in the Dirty South.
If we wanted to play the strength-of-schedule card, you would have to give that one to the East.
Their AFC opponents hail from the AFC North, a top-heavy division featuring two of the league’s elite defenses with the Steelers and Ravens, and a bottom-heavy one as well thanks to the Bengals and Browns.
The South got matched up with the AFC West this season, arguably the worst division in the NFL that is not the NFC West. Speaking of the NFC West, the South got paired up with those fine teams for interconference division play.
So, there’s really no question that the East teams have traveled a tougher road through 14 games.
Next, if we wanted to see which was the more competitive division, it would be hard to argue against the South.
The Carolina Panthers, the team that is poised to take this division crown, have a record of 3-2 within the division. If they lose to the Saints the final week of the season, they could end up winning the division with a .500 record versus their most intimate foes.
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