1997 TEAM EFFICIENCY RATINGS

Regular season totals, playoffs not included

Revised as of 7/22/2008

These are the Football Outsiders team efficiency ratings for 1997, measured by our proprietary Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA) system that breaks down every single play and compares a team's performance to the league averaged based on situation in order to determine value over average. (Explained further here [1].)

OFFENSE and DEFENSE DVOA are adjusted based on strength of opponent as well as to consider all fumbles, kept or lost, as equal value. SPECIAL TEAMS DVOA is adjusted for type of stadium (warm, cold, dome, Denver) and week of season. NON-ADJ TOTAL VOA does not include these adjustments.

As always, positive numbers represent more points so DEFENSE is better when it is NEGATIVE. LAST YEAR represents 1996 rank.

	TEAM	TOTAL DVOA	LAST YEAR	NON-ADJ TOT VOA	W-L	OFFENSE DVOA	OFF. RANK	DEFENSE DVOA	DEF. RANK	S.T. DVOA	S.T. RANK
1	KC	27.8%	9	31.8%	13-3	8.7%	5	-13.6%	4	5.5%	2
2	DEN	27.4%	3	31.8%	12-4	15.9%	2	-9.5%	7	2.0%	9
3	SF	26.7%	2	34.3%	13-3	2.1%	13	-23.5%	1	1.1%	12
4	GB	25.9%	1	25.3%	13-3	9.7%	4	-13.5%	5	2.7%	6
5	JAC	18.7%	16	15.8%	11-5	17.5%	1	1.2%	22	2.4%	7
6	PIT	18.7%	6	13.6%	11-5	4.8%	8	-15.9%	2	-2.0%	20
7	DET	13.1%	23	13.7%	9-7	4.4%	9	-7.7%	10	1.0%	13
8	NE	10.6%	8	10.7%	10-6	2.3%	12	-7.0%	12	1.4%	10
9	TB	6.1%	24	7.1%	10-6	-4.1%	15	-7.8%	9	2.4%	8
10	BAL	3.8%	17	-0.5%	6-9-1	-5.3%	19	-5.7%	13	3.4%	3
11	NYG	2.9%	25	9.7%	10-5-1	-9.0%	23	-14.9%	3	-3.0%	25
12	TEN	2.8%	11	5.1%	8-8	3.5%	10	-1.8%	16	-2.4%	22
13	WAS	2.5%	12	2.2%	8-7-1	-3.7%	14	-5.3%	14	0.8%	16
14	DAL	0.6%	4	1.8%	6-10	-7.1%	22	-1.1%	17	6.6%	1
15	SEA	-1.0%	22	-0.2%	8-8	7.1%	7	-0.5%	18	-8.6%	30
	TEAM	TOTAL DVOA	LAST YEAR	NON-ADJ TOT VOA	W-L	OFFENSE DVOA	OFF. RANK	DEFENSE DVOA	DEF. RANK	S.T. DVOA	S.T. RANK
16	MIN	-2.1%	19	-0.7%	9-7	8.6%	6	7.9%	26	-2.8%	24
17	NYJ	-2.7%	30	-2.5%	9-7	-5.9%	20	0.0%	20	3.1%	5
18	CIN	-3.0%	10	-7.1%	7-9	13.3%	3	15.1%	30	-1.2%	19
19	ATL	-3.5%	28	0.3%	7-9	-4.1%	16	0.4%	21	1.0%	14
20	MIA	-4.3%	15	-1.5%	9-7	2.6%	11	8.2%	27	1.3%	11
21	PHI	-5.7%	7	-7.7%	6-9-1	-4.1%	17	-1.9%	15	-3.4%	26
22	STL	-10.9%	26	-9.6%	5-11	-11.3%	25	-7.0%	11	-6.5%	28
23	CAR	-11.8%	5	-13.7%	7-9	-9.6%	24	1.4%	23	-0.8%	18
24	BUF	-15.5%	14	-19.8%	6-10	-23.4%	28	-12.8%	6	-4.9%	27
25	IND	-18.1%	21	-16.9%	3-13	-6.7%	21	9.1%	28	-2.4%	21
26	OAK	-18.7%	13	-21.9%	4-12	-4.5%	18	11.8%	29	-2.4%	23
27	ARI	-24.7%	29	-31.3%	4-12	-17.9%	27	6.4%	25	-0.4%	17
28	CHI	-25.4%	20	-25.3%	4-12	-15.2%	26	2.2%	24	-8.0%	29
29	SD	-25.7%	18	-28.2%	4-12	-29.2%	29	-0.4%	19	3.1%	4
30	NO	-25.7%	27	-27.3%	6-10	-35.4%	30	-8.8%	8	0.9%	15

ESTIMATED WINS [2] uses a statistic known as "Forest Index" that emphasizes consistency as well as DVOA in the most important specific situations: red zone defense, first quarter offense, and performance in the second half when the score is close. It then projects a number of wins adjusted to a league-average schedule and a league-average rate of recovering fumbles. It is based on the number of games a team has played so far, so teams which have not had their bye will appear higher.
WEIGHTED DVOA [3] represents an attempt to figure out how a team is playing right now, as opposed to over the season as a whole, by making recent games more important than earlier games.
1997 SCHEDULE lists average DVOA of opponents played this season, ranked from hardest schedule (#1, most positive) to easiest schedule (#32, most negative).
PYTHAGOREAN WINS [4] represent the number of wins projected from the team's points scored and allowed, as described in this article [5].
VARIANCE [6] (VAR.) measures the statistical variance of the team's weekly DVOA performance. Teams are ranked from most consistent (#1, Green Bay) to most consistent (#30, Seattle).

	TEAM	TOTAL DVOA	W-L	ESTIM. WINS	RANK	WEIGHTED DVOA	RANK	1997 SCHED	RANK	PYTH WINS	RANK	VAR.	RANK
	TEAM	TOTAL DVOA	W-L	ESTIM. WINS	RANK	WEIGHTED DVOA	RANK	1997 SCHED	RANK	PYTH WINS	RANK	VAR.	RANK
1	KC	27.8%	13-3	11.7	2	31.3%	2	-2.5%	22	12.1	2	16.9%	18
2	DEN	27.4%	12-4	11.1	4	21.5%	5	-1.5%	20	12.2	1	21.4%	23
3	SF	26.7%	13-3	11.8	1	26.5%	3	-4.8%	29	11.1	4	25.7%	27
4	GB	25.9%	13-3	11.5	3	31.5%	1	-4.5%	27	11.6	3	7.4%	1
5	JAC	18.7%	11-5	10.4	5	20.7%	6	3.1%	4	10.0	6	8.8%	4
6	PIT	18.7%	11-5	10.3	6	26.0%	4	4.1%	1	9.8	9	23.5%	25
7	DET	13.1%	9-7	9.6	7	19.5%	7	-3.5%	26	10.0	7	29.3%	29
8	NE	10.6%	10-6	9.3	8	3.4%	12	-2.4%	21	10.3	5	13.2%	12
9	TB	6.1%	10-6	8.6	10	0.6%	15	0.6%	13	9.2	11	26.5%	28
10	BAL	3.8%	6-9-1	8.4	12	-1.6%	16	1.0%	10	7.5	18	17.0%	19
11	NYG	2.9%	10-5-1	8.7	9	6.7%	10	-3.1%	24	9.4	10	9.3%	6
12	TEN	2.8%	8-8	8.0	14	7.1%	8	1.1%	9	8.7	13	17.6%	21
13	WAS	2.5%	8-7-1	8.5	11	2.8%	13	-2.8%	23	9.2	12	8.3%	3
14	DAL	0.6%	6-10	7.0	20	-9.5%	21	0.2%	15	7.7	17	15.4%	15
15	SEA	-1.0%	8-8	7.7	17	1.8%	14	-0.4%	18	8.1	15	30.2%	30
	TEAM	TOTAL DVOA	W-L	ESTIM. WINS	RANK	WEIGHTED DVOA	RANK	1997 SCHED	RANK	PYTH WINS	RANK	VAR.	RANK
	TEAM	TOTAL DVOA	W-L	ESTIM. WINS	RANK	WEIGHTED DVOA	RANK	1997 SCHED	RANK	PYTH WINS	RANK	VAR.	RANK
16	MIN	-2.1%	9-7	7.8	15	-3.4%	17	-0.1%	16	7.9	16	7.9%	2
17	NYJ	-2.7%	9-7	7.4	19	-7.2%	18	-5.1%	30	9.8	8	17.3%	20
18	CIN	-3.0%	7-9	7.6	18	4.5%	11	2.6%	6	6.8	20	11.8%	10
19	ATL	-3.5%	7-9	7.7	16	7.0%	9	-4.5%	28	6.9	19	13.6%	14
20	MIA	-4.3%	9-7	8.1	13	-8.0%	19	-1.0%	19	8.3	14	15.7%	16
21	PHI	-5.7%	6-9-1	6.8	22	-8.1%	20	3.0%	5	6.5	21	8.9%	5
22	STL	-10.9%	5-11	6.1	24	-11.6%	22	0.8%	11	6.3	23	13.3%	13
23	CAR	-11.8%	7-9	6.8	21	-12.4%	23	0.7%	12	6.4	22	18.7%	22
24	BUF	-15.5%	6-10	6.3	23	-15.2%	25	3.7%	2	4.7	28	9.4%	7
25	IND	-18.1%	3-13	5.6	26	-13.6%	24	0.5%	14	5.7	24	21.7%	24
26	OAK	-18.7%	4-12	5.9	25	-27.2%	30	1.2%	8	5.6	25	16.3%	17
27	ARI	-24.7%	4-12	4.9	27	-25.2%	29	-0.2%	17	5.3	26	10.6%	8
28	CHI	-25.4%	4-12	4.8	28	-23.6%	26	2.5%	7	4.0	30	11.2%	9
29	SD	-25.7%	4-12	4.8	29	-25.1%	28	3.1%	3	4.0	29	13.1%	11
30	NO	-25.7%	6-10	4.8	30	-24.6%	27	-3.2%	25	5.1	27	23.5%	26

DVOA version: 5.0