At 5-4, the Baltimore Ravens sit in last place in the AFC North.
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But hey, let’s put a positive spin on on the Ravens first nine games. Whaddya say?
As I pointed out on Sunday night, the Ravens point differential actually indicates that they’ve been a bit better than their record indicates.
Grantland’s Bill Barnwell concurs. According to his calculations, the Ravens point differential should have made them a 6.1 win team so far this season. That 1.1 difference means Baltimore the third unluckiest team in football behind the Oakland Raiders and Atlanta Falcons.
The most interesting team on that list is Baltimore, which somehow sits in last place in the AFC North despite having the third-best point differential in the AFC. It’s weird to say that a last-place team is a favorite to make the playoffs, and the Ravens are way behind on division and conference tiebreakers, but it would be a surprise if their talent didn’t shine through over the second half.
Of course, a slightly closer look at numbers reveals that Baltimore has outscored the three opponents that they faced in the NFC South by 81 points while being outscored by 15 points against their remaining six opponents.
They also have a -8 point differential in their five AFC North matchups.
So basically, 5-4 seems about right — at least to this blogger.
