SIX STATS you might not know about… NFL’s divisional playoff weekend
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“SIX STATS…” is a bonus feature of Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ and is published every Friday.
(Note: In 1990, the NFL went to a playoff system that allowed 12 teams to play in the postseason. The following stats reflect playoff games from 1990 through 2010 [21 postseasons… 84 games] during the Divisional Playoff Weekend (DPW), which is after Wild Card Weekend and prior to the conference championship games. Divisional Playoff Weekend is this weekend!)
1. Fifty-four of the 84 DPW games (64.3%) were decided by nine points or more. Nineteen games were decided by three points or less (22.6%); 11 games were decided by four to eight points (13.1%). Twenty-five games (29.8%) were decided by 20 or more points.
2. On 11 of the 21 DPW the number one seeds from both conferences won advancing to the conference championship games. In the last six postseasons, however, 2009 was the only year that the two number one seeds both won on DPW.
3. Teams that scored under 20 points during DPW won 10 games and lost 58 (a .147 winning percentage). Teams that scored 30 or more points on DPW were 36-4 (a .900 winning percentage).
4. Home teams were 62-22 on DPW, a winning percentage of .738. In the last six postseasons, however, home teams are 12-12 on divisional playoff weekend.
5. The last time all four home teams won on DPW was in 2004. Since 1990, all four home teams have won on DPW only seven times in 21 postseasons.
6. In the last three DPW, the team that scored the most points on DPW of the eight teams has gone on to win the Super Bowl: last year, Green Bay, 48; in 2009, New Orleans, 45; in 2008, Pittsburgh, 35.
How many points does a team need to score to win an NFL playoff game?
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Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a biweekly blog published every Wednesday and Sunday with a bonus “SIX STATS…” posting every Friday.
Looking at the 422 playoff games that have been played in the Super Bowl era (since 1966, and not including last night’s contests), here is a breakdown of win-loss records when teams scored a certain number of points.
Points Record
0-9 points 3- 105 .028
10-19 points 62-196 .240
20-29 points 181-104 .635
30-39 points 128-16 .895
40-49 points 39-1 .975
50 points or more 9-0 1.000
Here’s a few more stats:
* The most frequent score in the playoffs has been 17 points, which has happened in 68 of the 422 playoff games since 1966. Next is 20 points, which has been scored by a team in 55 games.
* Teams that scored 25 or more points in a playoff game since 1966 have won 250 and lost 42 (a .856 winning percentage).
* Most points scored in a playoff game (since 1966) to lose a game is 45. Packers fans will remember that loss to the Arizona Cardinals in the first round of the 2009 playoffs.
* Teams were 65-301 (.178) when they scored under 20 points in a playoff game since ’66.
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