Unmasking NFL’s pretenders as playoffs near: One metric shows who’s for real amid jumbled landscape

Article Summary:
One would assume that the teams that score the most touchdowns and give up the fewest touchdowns would have the best shot of winning it all, or at least merit strong consideration.
We are always looking for ways to quantify teams or assess how much luck or good fortune or defying the odds has gone into a team’s overall record. Are there some teams that probably deserve a better or worse record? I’m not smart enough or mathematically inclined enough to pretend I have an answer to that question, but I did find spending time studying the touchdown differentials to make for interesting fodder, as one ponders the stretch run of the season in trying to sort out a jumbled pile of teams in each conference at a time when results seem more unpredictable than ever.
All the AFC North teams are above.
