Cheesehead
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- Mar 19, 2019
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In a whopping nine division games on the schedule in Week 1, six of them were decided by more than one score, including Green Bay's 43-34 win at Minnesota. Only one-third featured one-score final margins.
But since then, of the 23 division games played across the league, 15 of them – or roughly two-thirds – were decided by just one score. Nine of those 15 were decided by three points or less, including four just last week.
The longer the season has progressed, the more competitive division games have become, while runaways are fewer and farther between. Oh, and there have been just three overtime games across the league all season thus far – all three have been division games.
To take it a step further, there's a litter of matchup examples that, on paper, record-wise, would look like Packers-Vikings this week but illustrate just how difficult division games can be.
Jacksonville and Houston are both 1-6 while Tennessee, as mentioned, is 5-1. Yet the Titans have squeaked out narrow wins over the Jaguars, 33-30, and the Texans, 42-36 in OT.
The Chargers are 2-4 while the Chiefs are 6-1, yet their meeting went to overtime as well, 23-20 for Kansas City, whose only loss as the defending Super Bowl champs is to a division rival, the Raiders. The Jets are 0-7 and the Bills are 5-2, but they just played last week and Buffalo had to come from behind for an 18-10 triumph in which the Bills never scored a touchdown.
Yes, the Vikings are riddled with injuries at cornerback, and they no longer have the top two pass rushers they planned on this season at their disposal. They have a lot to overcome, but they're still a division foe with a coach who knows QB Aaron Rodgers as well as any opponent.