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Last year, I did an exercise where I looked at how early/late teams were knocking out other teams by securing the necessary points to secure victory. A team with three losses actually showed up as the clear knockout winner at the halfway point last year, thanks to blowouts and last second losses. That team was Green Bay. Last year, I just approximated using the quarter the knockout occurred. The idea came from a series of posts at the pro-football-reference blog a few years ago, where the 1968 Baltimore Colts showed up as the team with earliest average approximate knockout, and the New York Jets, despite a 9-7 record in 2009, showed up as the 2nd highest average knockout time for the season.
When we opponent adjust the knockout times, though, the Buffalo Bills move past the Green Bay Packers, just barely. The Packers have played some Glass Joes and their average opponent has a negative knockout time of 5 minutes, 21 seconds. The Bills, meanwhile, have played a group of teams that have a positive average knockout time, at +1 minute, 54 seconds.
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