Browns Chances To Make Playoffs, Win Division Look Promising Through 10 Weeks
It's no secret what was on the line for the Browns in Baltimore on Sunday. A loss to the Ravens would have all but dashed any hope Cleveland may have had to win a rugged AFC North.
Instead, a thrilling 33-31 victory keeps them right in the thick of a highly contested division race with a 6-3 record.
Every NFL season, the New York Times' affiliated data visualization website 'The Upstart" tracks the percentages of all 32 teams to make the playoffs, win their division, earn the top seed in their respective conference and win the Super Bowl. The data is crunched each week – similar to the week-to-week nature that fans and media debate NFL news – and reflect the impact of recent outcomes onto a team's chances to reaching those aforementioned goals.
As expected, the Browns Week 10, come-from-behind win over the Ravens has helped Cleveland's playoff percentages immensely in their quest for the postseason. Based The Upstart's metrics, Cleveland is now listed at an 83-percent chance to make the postseason – the fourth highest figure of all AFC teams.
What's more though is that their chances of winning the division jumped in a major way to 32-percent, which is still 12 percentage points behind Baltimore at the moment. The Steelers – who still are ahead of the Browns in the actual standings thanks to their head-to-head win – have 60-percent odds to make the playoffs. They have the exact same record as Cleveland and only have a 17-percent chance to take the AFC North crown. Meanwhile after a wild loss to the Texans, Cincinnati has dropped to having a 42-percent chance to make it back to the postseason and a mere seven-percent chance to take the division.
Considering that the Ravens welcome the Bengals to town on Thursday night and the Browns will host the Steelers on Sunday a much larger shake up in those figures is on the way.
For what it's worth, The Upstart data has Cleveland listed at nine-percent to earn the No. 1 seed in the AFC and just seven-percent to win the Super Bowl, but hey, they're saying there's a chance.
