NFL Standings: NFC, Week 5

I said I was dropping the standings updates and power poll for this season, but I couldn't do it. Both are going to look a little different than last season.

First off, I am splitting the standings posts into AFC and NFC versions. 

Secondly, I am adding some information to these posts. The basic information (W/L/T/Winning percentage) is still there of course, as is information that is relevant to tiebreakers (division and conference record, strength of victory and strength of schedule). 

I have added information related to each team's Pythagorean record (it's a relationship of points scored and points allowed) and the strength of a team's remaining schedule. Why? The NFL season is so short that it can be hard to see differences between teams via their record alone. If Team A is 4-1 but has played bottom-feeders while winning each game by a field goal, and Team B is 3-2, but has played top teams and won going away, it's hard to see that in the standings. While this information is not at all material to who gets into the postseason, I believe it will help show relative team strength each week, which may help predict who gets the 12 postseason spots. 

NFC
NFC EAST
	Team	W	L	T	Pct	Conference			Division			SOV	SOS	PF	PA	Pythag%	RoS SOS
	Philadelphia Eagles	4	1	0	0.800	2	1	0	1	0	0	0.263	0.330	156	132	0.598	0.591
	Dallas Cowboys	4	1	0	0.800	2	1	0	0	0	0	0.363	0.410	135	103	0.655	0.518
	New York Giants	3	2	0	0.600	2	2	0	1	0	0	0.400	0.510	133	111	0.606	0.527
	Washington Redskins	1	4	0	0.200	0	3	0	0	2	0	0.000	0.550	112	136	0.387	0.545
NFC NORTH
	Team	W	L	T	Pct	Conference			Division			SOV	SOS	PF	PA	Pythag%	RoS SOS
	Detroit Lions	3	2	0	0.600	2	1	0	1	0	0	0.467	0.520	99	79	0.631	0.459
	Green Bay Packers	3	2	0	0.600	2	2	0	2	1	0	0.333	0.470	134	106	0.635	0.500
	Minnesota Vikings	2	3	0	0.400	2	2	0	0	1	0	0.325	0.450	101	126	0.372	0.445
	Chicago Bears	2	3	0	0.400	1	2	0	0	1	0	0.400	0.520	116	131	0.428	0.500
NFC SOUTH
	Team	W	L	T	Pct	Conference			Division			SOV	SOS	PF	PA	Pythag%	RoS SOS
	Carolina Panthers	3	2	0	0.600	3	0	0	1	0	0	0.400	0.480	104	120	0.416	0.509
	Atlanta Falcons	2	3	0	0.400	2	2	0	2	0	0	0.300	0.470	151	143	0.532	0.532
	New Orleans Saints	2	3	0	0.400	2	2	0	1	1	0	0.300	0.460	132	141	0.461	0.541
	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	1	4	0	0.200	0	4	0	0	3	0	0.600	0.450	103	156	0.272	0.495
NFC WEST
	Team	W	L	T	Pct	Conference			Division			SOV	SOS	PF	PA	Pythag%	RoS SOS
	Arizona Cardinals	3	1	0	0.750	2	0	0	1	0	0	0.667	0.688	86	86	0.500	0.483
	Seattle Seahawks	3	1	0	0.750	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.517	0.588	110	83	0.661	0.533
	San Francisco 49ers	3	2	0	0.600	2	2	0	0	1	0	0.667	0.630	110	106	0.522	0.500
	St. Louis Rams	1	3	0	0.250	1	3	0	0	0	0	0.200	0.550	84	119	0.305	0.579

A quick primer on what all of this information is:

Team, W(ins), L(osses), T(ies), and Pct (winning percentage) are all self-explanatory. 

The Conference and Division records are separated into separate columns for Wins/Losses/Ties. This was purely a formatting move designed to help me update the tables more efficiently. 

PF - Points For (points scored by the team for the season)

PA - Points Against (points scored by the team's opponents for the season)

Pythag% - Pythagorean winning percentage - this is based on PF and PA

RoS SOS - Rest of Season Strength of Schedule

And, because we are a quarter of the way through the season (every team has now played at least 4 games), here are the current playoff standings for the conference:

NFC
CURRENT PLAYOFF PICTURE
	Team	W	L	T	Pct	Conference			Division			SOV	SOS	PF	PA	Pythag%	RoS SOS
	Philadelphia Eagles	4	1	0	0.800	2	1	0	1	0	0	0.263	0.330	156	132	0.598	0.591
	Arizona Cardinals	3	1	0	0.750	2	0	0	1	0	0	0.667	0.688	86	86	0.500	0.483
	Carolina Panthers	3	2	0	0.600	3	0	0	1	0	0	0.400	0.480	104	120	0.416	0.509
	Detroit Lions	3	2	0	0.600	2	1	0	1	0	0	0.467	0.520	99	79	0.631	0.459
	Dallas Cowboys	4	1	0	0.800	2	1	0	0	0	0	0.363	0.410	135	103	0.655	0.518
	Seattle Seahawks	3	1	0	0.750	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.517	0.588	110	83	0.661	0.533
	San Francisco 49ers	3	2	0	0.600	2	2	0	0	1	0	0.667	0.630	110	106	0.522	0.500
	New York Giants	3	2	0	0.600	2	2	0	1	0	0	0.400	0.510	133	111	0.606	0.527
	Green Bay Packers	3	2	0	0.600	2	2	0	2	1	0	0.333	0.470	134	106	0.635	0.500

Interesting bits of information:

• The Cardinals and 49ers see their schedules get considerably easier the remainder of the season. 
• The Eagles and Cowboys have feasted on weak competition to this point, but their schedules will be much more difficult going forward. More alarmingly, the Saints will see their sechedule get stronger the rest of the way, and they are currently sitting on the wrong side of .500. 
• The Redskins and Falcons both have stronger pythagorean winning percentages than their actual ones. This is mainly due to blowout wins over the Jaguars (Washington) and Buccaneers (Faclons). 
• The Eagles, Cowboys, and Panthers are the beneficiaries of inflated records, if the pythagorean data is to be believed. In fact, the Panthers have the pythagorean win percentage of a sub-.500 team thanks to the fact that they have allowed more points than they have scored on the season.