I came across this interesting bit of trivia recently, and I think it drives home how small the margin between victory and defeat is in the NFL. Take a look.




Margins of Victory Since 2002

Since 2002, the most common margin of victory in the NFL has been 3 points with 418 games out of 2,668 games. This is equivalent to 15.67% of games finishing with a 3 point difference between the winner and loser at the end of the game.


Below, we take a look at the frequency of margins of victories across all 2,668 games to find some interesting trends:


Margin of Victory # of Games % of Games

1 92 ............ 3.45%

2 92 ............ 3.45%

3 418 ........... 15.67%

4 138 ............ 5.17%

5 79 ............ 2.96%

6 148 ............ 5.55%

7 258. ............ 9.70%



Almost half of all NFL games are decided by 7 points or less. Minimizing mistakes and turnovers are keys to victory, obviously.

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