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Bad Teams Doing Well In Good Divisions

In 2012, the Rams went 4-1-1 in the NFC West, but 3-7 against the rest of the NFL. The NFC West was pretty good that year, which made that even more remarkable: St. Louis had the best record in intradivision games of any NFC West team, but the worst interdivision record.

Then, last year, the Rams did it again, going 4-2 against the NFC West (best record, tied with Arizona) but a division-worst 3-7 against the rest of the NFL.

How often does it happen that a team does this? Perhaps more frequently than you might think. The Bills swept the Dolphins and Jets last year, but were swept by New England. Meanwhile, the Patriots dropped a game to both Miami and New York. But while the Patriots (8-2), Jets (7-3), and Dolphins (5-5) fared better against non-AFC East competition last year, the Bills went 4-6 outside of the division.

Since 2002, it has happened 24 times. Take a look:

YearTmDivIntra W%Inter W%Div Strength
2008NYJAFCEast0.6670.5000.650
2002ATLNFCSouth0.6670.5500.638
2015BUFAFCEast0.6670.4000.600
2005WASNFCEast0.8330.5000.600
2012STLNFCWest0.7500.3000.575
2015STLNFCWest0.6670.3000.575
2002NWEAFCEast0.6670.5000.575
2002NYJAFCEast0.6670.5000.575
2012CARNFCSouth0.5000.4000.550
2012TAMNFCSouth0.5000.4000.550
2012NORNFCSouth0.5000.4000.550
2009NYGNFCEast0.6670.4000.550
2009CINAFCNorth1.0000.4000.525
2009MIAAFCEast0.6670.3000.500
2011KANAFCWest0.5000.4000.475
2010OAKAFCWest1.0000.2000.475
2006GNBNFCNorth0.8330.3000.450
2011PHINFCEast0.8330.3000.450
2006ARINFCWest0.6670.1000.425
2013DETNFCNorth0.6670.3000.425
2006CARNFCSouth0.8330.3000.425
2013DALNFCEast0.8330.3000.400
2010SFONFCWest0.6670.2000.325
2014ATLNFCSouth0.8330.1000.263

The standard bearer for the most Rams team of the post-2002 era? All four AFC East teams won at least 7 games, and the division was 65% (24-16) of its interdivision games that year, the 2nd best season in AFC East history (1999). In those games, the Bills, Dolphins, and Patriots all went 7-3, while the Jets (with Brett Favre) went 5-5. You might think that means the Jets would have struggled in division games, but New York went 4-2, as did New England and Miami, while Buffalo went 0-6.

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