Buffalo Bills 2 Losses - But Still NFL's Best Team, Says ESPN Computer
Some will argue that it does not compute. And logic suggests that the NFL standings, not the ESPN computer, is the ultimate measure of which team is the league's best. But ...
While the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers do sit atop those standings as they have the best records in the NFL through six weeks, ESPN's Football Power Index believes it's a team with a pair of losses - your Buffalo Bills - that rank as the league's best.
Per the FPI, the Buffalo Bills (with a score of 9.0) rank first in the league, with the computer maybe ignoring some of their ups and downs so far this season.
Bills Mafia
The Bills are followed by the Niners (8.7), the Miami Dolphins (8.0), the Kansas City Chiefs (7.8) and the Dallas Cowboys (5.4). Oh, and where are the Eagles? Notably, 5-1 Philadelphia makes it inside the top 10 in ESPN's computer model at 4.2, ranking just ahead of the Detroit Lions, the Los Angeles Chargers and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
As always, we note that a computer can only spit out evaluations based on the data it is fed. Is there a "recency bias'' issue here because the Niners and Eagles are coming off shocking losses to underdogs? Are the Bills being credited for a recent scoring outburst in games with the computer forgetting the stunning Week 1 loss to the Aaron Rodgers-less New York Jets in their first game?
The ESPN computer gives us something to talk about between games, we suppose ... and about those games: The Bills' next three outing comes against the 1-5 New England Patriots ... a chance to get healthy on the stat sheet, in the computer and most importantly, in the NFL standings.
