The NFL “Watchability Index” is based upon betting market point spreads and totals for the week and current wins of both teams in the 2020 season. This information can be combined to peer into the future and determine what games are the most “Watchable” for week 11 in the NFL. The visualization shows the absolute value of the point spread on the horizontal axis and the total (over/under) on the vertical axis. Additionally, the sum of the wins (home team plus road team) is noted by color with gold being the highest sums and red being the lowest sums. The shape reveals the day and time of the game. As of right now, I do not have a point spread and total for Detroit/Carolina, so that game is not included in this week’s index.
Based on this week’s numbers, what games are most “Watchable”? The games that are expected to be both high scoring and close are in the upper-right hand quadrant. Thursday night should be special with Arizona visiting Seattle as both teams try to get a leg up on the race for the NFC West. Green Bay-Indianapolis is also a great matchup that lies in this quadrant.
The lower-left hand quadrant features games that are expected to be close, but not as high-scoring. LA Rams-Tampa Bay is the best game in this group, with other interesting matchups including Philadelphia-Cleveland, New England-Houston, and Miami-Denver (and even Cincinnati-Washington is relevant with how poor the NFC East is).
The upper-right hand quadrant has games that are expected to be high-scoring, but not necessarily close. Kansas City-Las Vegas is a good matchup here, despite the high point spread, while Atlanta-New Orleans is also an interesting contest. The lower-right hand quadrant features games that are not expected to be close, nor high-scoring, but there are a couple of intriguing games with Tennessee-Baltimore as a pivotal game with playoff implications and the opportunity to see if Pittsburgh can remain undefeated.
My top matchups for the afternoon timeslots on Sunday are Tennessee-Baltimore at 1 PM (EST) and Green Bay-Indianapolis in the 4:05/4:25 (EST) contests. Enjoy the games!
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