And down the stretch they come! With three weeks now remaining in the 2015 NFL season, several teams are still alive in the race to make the playoffs as there are only three spots currently spoken for after 14 weeks of play.
The adjusted net yards per passing attempt differential stats heading into Week 15 are below for you and it’s easy to see in the rankings that the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers are the best two teams in the league right now.
The third-ranked team, the Cincinnati Bengals, are coming off of not only a loss in Week 14, but the loss of starting quarterback Andy Dalton as well as he’s expected to miss the rest of the regular season due to a right thumb injury that he suffered during Sunday’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. It will now be interesting to see if how backup A.J. McCarron plays from here on out as he might just be their quarterback in the playoffs. In other words, you can probably disregard the Bengals offensive ANY/A number that they have registered so far this season because of the change at the quarterback position.
The Seattle Seahawks have come on very strong over the course of the last several weeks and while they won’t catch the Cardinals in the NFC West, they are almost certain to secure a Wild Card spot at this point.
As for the Steelers, their defense will continue to be a huge question mark for the remainder of the season. However, after their Week 15 game against the Denver Broncos, they have two easy games against the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns to close out the season. Because of their remaining schedule, I fully expect the Steelers to end the 2015 season with an offensive ANY/A greater than 7.0 and a differential close to 1.0.
Sunday’s game against the Broncos will be a huge test for the Steelers offense as they will be playing a defense that currently owns the second-best defensive ANY/A number in the league. That defense has only allowed more than 15 points just once in their last four games in addition to not allowing 30 or more points to be score against them in a single game this season.
| TM | OFFENSE | DEFENSE | DIF | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TM | AT | YDS | TD | INT | SK | SKYDS | ANY/A | AT | YDS | TD | INT | SK | SKYDS | ANY/A | DIF |
| ARI | 458 | 4019 | 31 | 9 | 21 | 131 | 8.57 | 471 | 3216 | 18 | 16 | 24 | 165 | 5.44 | 3.13 |
| CAR | 401 | 3098 | 28 | 10 | 24 | 186 | 7.11 | 527 | 3178 | 16 | 21 | 40 | 276 | 4.02 | 3.09 |
| CIN | 422 | 3552 | 27 | 9 | 23 | 136 | 7.98 | 501 | 3378 | 15 | 16 | 34 | 224 | 5.11 | 2.87 |
| NE | 538 | 4174 | 33 | 6 | 32 | 187 | 7.68 | 483 | 3290 | 17 | 10 | 42 | 288 | 5.51 | 2.17 |
| SEA | 386 | 3298 | 26 | 7 | 39 | 211 | 7.75 | 450 | 3142 | 11 | 10 | 32 | 222 | 5.58 | 2.17 |
| KC | 401 | 3038 | 15 | 4 | 41 | 219 | 6.65 | 497 | 3377 | 22 | 18 | 39 | 245 | 5.15 | 1.50 |
| GB | 461 | 3175 | 28 | 5 | 31 | 213 | 6.70 | 457 | 3254 | 16 | 12 | 35 | 215 | 5.73 | 0.97 |
| NYJ | 487 | 3394 | 27 | 12 | 18 | 99 | 6.52 | 509 | 3433 | 23 | 13 | 33 | 249 | 5.64 | 0.88 |
| OAK | 488 | 3455 | 30 | 10 | 21 | 160 | 6.77 | 528 | 3711 | 21 | 11 | 34 | 182 | 6.15 | 0.62 |
| BUF | 392 | 3004 | 21 | 8 | 32 | 227 | 6.69 | 507 | 3413 | 24 | 13 | 19 | 111 | 6.08 | 0.61 |
| PIT | 465 | 3873 | 20 | 15 | 27 | 171 | 6.97 | 494 | 3851 | 25 | 14 | 38 | 224 | 6.57 | 0.40 |
| DEN | 492 | 3320 | 14 | 20 | 32 | 201 | 4.77 | 448 | 2736 | 13 | 11 | 44 | 290 | 4.49 | 0.28 |
| CHI | 436 | 3211 | 16 | 8 | 23 | 134 | 6.62 | 425 | 3006 | 22 | 7 | 29 | 201 | 6.45 | 0.17 |
| HOU | 524 | 3450 | 25 | 10 | 30 | 211 | 5.94 | 438 | 3044 | 22 | 10 | 33 | 228 | 5.96 | -0.02 |
| NYG | 500 | 3655 | 28 | 10 | 21 | 119 | 7.00 | 530 | 4092 | 23 | 14 | 16 | 83 | 7.03 | -0.03 |
| TB | 409 | 3059 | 18 | 11 | 24 | 164 | 6.37 | 471 | 3389 | 26 | 11 | 31 | 178 | 6.45 | -0.08 |
| ATL | 520 | 3716 | 17 | 15 | 28 | 202 | 5.80 | 450 | 3237 | 17 | 14 | 15 | 76 | 6.17 | -0.37 |
| PHI | 488 | 3280 | 18 | 15 | 29 | 211 | 5.33 | 511 | 3575 | 29 | 15 | 31 | 210 | 6.03 | -0.70 |
| JAC | 502 | 3524 | 30 | 13 | 39 | 231 | 6.11 | 490 | 3621 | 24 | 7 | 32 | 219 | 6.83 | -0.72 |
| WAS | 455 | 3306 | 18 | 11 | 23 | 161 | 6.30 | 435 | 3342 | 24 | 9 | 24 | 191 | 7.03 | -0.73 |
| SD | 547 | 4039 | 24 | 10 | 35 | 228 | 6.60 | 407 | 3287 | 20 | 8 | 24 | 156 | 7.36 | -0.76 |
| MIN | 390 | 2748 | 9 | 8 | 38 | 282 | 5.34 | 446 | 3218 | 19 | 8 | 29 | 201 | 6.39 | -1.05 |
| DET | 531 | 3610 | 25 | 14 | 35 | 210 | 5.78 | 420 | 3254 | 20 | 6 | 34 | 230 | 6.95 | -1.17 |
| STL | 395 | 2363 | 8 | 11 | 16 | 113 | 4.66 | 462 | 3295 | 16 | 10 | 36 | 196 | 5.96 | -1.30 |
| DAL | 417 | 2862 | 12 | 15 | 27 | 164 | 5.10 | 423 | 3083 | 14 | 6 | 25 | 209 | 6.44 | -1.34 |
| TEN | 439 | 3248 | 21 | 13 | 44 | 289 | 5.78 | 404 | 3268 | 28 | 10 | 35 | 245 | 7.14 | -1.36 |
| CLE | 499 | 3619 | 19 | 8 | 43 | 286 | 6.19 | 423 | 3446 | 26 | 8 | 26 | 146 | 7.71 | -1.52 |
| MIA | 479 | 3338 | 22 | 11 | 35 | 333 | 5.74 | 452 | 3597 | 28 | 11 | 26 | 193 | 7.26 | -1.52 |
| IND | 520 | 3384 | 23 | 17 | 31 | 188 | 5.25 | 492 | 3726 | 27 | 14 | 22 | 135 | 6.81 | -1.56 |
| NO | 536 | 4129 | 25 | 12 | 30 | 214 | 6.85 | 448 | 3799 | 36 | 6 | 25 | 175 | 8.61 | -1.76 |
| SF | 399 | 2772 | 12 | 8 | 45 | 270 | 5.36 | 453 | 3651 | 18 | 9 | 22 | 161 | 7.25 | -1.89 |
| BAL | 534 | 3602 | 17 | 17 | 20 | 151 | 5.46 | 459 | 3406 | 27 | 4 | 28 | 178 | 7.37 | -1.91 |
