"Fasces, You can't define a team by history. Sportscasters and analysts do it all the time. By that logic, the Steelers should win the super bowl because they have won the most already. You can't even go year to year with it. Consider each division. New England faces Miami, Buffalo, and New York Jets twice each year. Even for an injured team, that should be 6 wins for the Patriots. Consider the Bengals, they face the Steelers, Ravens, and Browns (one of which is coming off of a super bowl). "
Again you're missing the point of strength of schedule.
If my was facing Jacksonville every weak, and my defence held them to under 20
in most games. You could look at my Points against average and say WOW, he has an amazing defence, but its not, because I'm facing the Jaguars.
On the otherhand if I'm facing the Broncos every weak, it would take a miracle to hold them to under 20 more than a couple of times in the season.
Of course these are both extremes that would never happen but the point is strength of schedule matters. Because we are face different teams, strength of schedule looks at how many wins each team you will face this year has, and adds them up. If they've won more then they've lost, it means you're facing mostly strong teams, if they've lost more then they've won, it means you're facing mostly weak teams.
Stength of schedule doesn't look at past performances, it looks at how each team is currently performing, and makes it so that beating a good team is more impressive then beating a bad team.
You're right that it doesn't take into account injuries so its not perfect.
My point is though is this, Kansas City has faced so many weak offenses this year, and for that reason I think the KC defense is nowhere near as good as some people think.
@Sendric: Watching again I retract that it could have been holding, however it was still passer interference or at the very least illegal contact, and the play should have been redone, either on the 1 yard line or the 13 yard line.
Remember, the only exception for passer interference is if it was clearly uncatchable. and while it would have been a very difficult catch, you can not argue that Gronk wouldn't have been able to dive for it had he not been obstructed.
The bottom line is the Patriots should have had one last opportunity to get the TD, while its not an automatic win, I think Brady and Gronk are good enough to succeed on those kind of plays more often than not, even against a capable Panthers defence.
@brett: fair enough, I retract the defense wins post season games.