Business is good in the NFL. The League is about to hold its 51st Super Bowl and it's a matchup between two of the best quarterbacks this season as well as a matchup between the top scoring offense and the top scoring defense. In 2016, paid attendance was up, TV ratings increased as the season progressed and finished with strong numbers, and the NFL's digital properties saw increases, as well.
A big key to the NFL's success in the last decade-plus has been parity and close, exciting games. The 2016 season featured both for the NFL and for the Vikings. Below are four League-wide trends (in bold) that led to an exciting 2016 season with accompanying text that examines if and how much the Vikings related to those trends.
Since the 12-team playoff format was adopted in 1990, at least four teams have made the playoffs each year after missing the playoffs the prior season. This year there were six new teams in the playoffs that did not qualify last year.
The Vikings were on the wrong end of this trend this year, having qualified for the postseason last year but missing this year. The trend, though, does lend reason to be optimistic that the Vikings can be one of the handful or so of new playoff teams next season.
Six of the eight divisions this season feature new champions, the most since 2011.
The NFC North features one of the six new division winners, with Green Bay coming out on top in 2016 after the Vikings won it in 2015. The Vikings will look to regain control of the NFC North in 2017 after going 2-4 in the division last year. Playing a 3rd place schedule could help them achieve that goal. Five of the six new division winners in 2016 played a 2nd place schedule.
The average margin of victory for all NFL teams in 2016 was 10.23 points per game, the lowest since 1935 (10.08).
For what it's worth, the Vikings average winning margin and average losing margin were slightly better than average in 2016. The Vikings average winning margin in eight games was 12.37 points, which was 2.14 points higher than the average, and the Vikings average losing margin was 9.87 points, which was .36 points lower than the average.
There were a record number of close games. Almost 60% were decided by eight points or less and almost 25% by no more than three points. There were a record number of games within one score in the fourth quarter and a record number won by teams after trailing in the fourth quarter.
The Vikings had six games decided by eight points or fewer, including five consecutive from Week 9 through Week 13, and three games decided by no more than three points. In 2015 while going 11-5, the Vikings were 4-2 in games decided by one score. In 2016, an 8-8 campaign, the Vikings were 2-4 in one-score games. Also, the Vikings were in 10 games that were within one score in the fourth quarter and they won one game in which they trailed at one point in the fourth quarter.
