Ramfan128":1r0xip46 said:
My two big takeaways from this:
1. I feel bad for Raiders fans. I know how frustrating the last 10 years have been watching the Rams, but at least we've began being competitive - the past 3 years have been fun compared to the previous 7. I personally don't see a window for the Raiders right now. The QBs of their division rivals are either old or not very good....so hopefully they can turn it around soon.
2. The AFC was really, REALLY dominant for a good chunk of this past decade. So much so that 6 of the top 7 teams are from the AFC. I thought the NFC bucked the trend around 4-5 years ago, but that apparently wasn't enough to oust those 6 of 7 teams.
It's not that the AFC was dominant, just that it has had the same handful of teams at the top while the NFC has seen a multitude of teams rise & fall. Since 2002, when the NFL last re-aligned and went to four, 4-team divisions, the AFC has seen New England appear in 8 out of 13 AFC Championship games. Indianapolis and Pittsburgh have been in 4, Baltimore has been in 3. That's 18 out of 26 spots by just four teams.
In the NFC, Philadelphia has the most NFC Championship appearances in the same time frame with 4. Seattle, Green Bay, and San Francisco each have 3. Nobody else has more than 2. That's only 12 out of 26 by the top four teams.
All told, 12 different teams have played in the NFC Championship game in the last 13 seasons compared to 9 for the AFC.