Revenge of the NFC

In 1984, a sophomoric little movie called Revenge of the Nerds came out, its plot, if one can call it that, centering around rival fraternities of nerds and jocks playing nasty pranks on each other — with the nerds, rather surprisingly, if predictably, prevailing.

Four decades later, a sequel of sorts is being played out in the NFL — which could be titled Revenge of the NFC. In 2023, the AFC won the interconference season series by a margin of 46-34, the most lopsided domination of the series by either conference since 2017, when the NFC came out on top by an imposing 41-23.

But this season, at least so far, turnabout has been fair play, with the NFC ahead, 25-19.

The first thing one typically looks at when the balance of power between the two conferences shifts is the quarterback position — and Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels stands out here: Daniels is seventh in the league in passer rating at 104.3, completing 71.8% of his passes (second only to Jared Goff's 74.1), fifth in yards per attempt (8.4), and Washington is 10th in yards gained per completion (11.6).

Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts of the Eagles, coming off a desultory 2023 campaign, is ninth in the NFL with a 98.6 passer rating (up from 89.1 last season) with a completion percentage of 69.1 (65.4 in 2023), with 8.1 yards per attempt (he averaged 7.2 a season ago) and his yards per completion is up from 11.0 in 2023 to 11.7 in 2024.

Just these two NFC quarterbacks alone have contributed mightily to the NFC's improvement — and Jared Goff's numbers have gone straight up across the board, as well — in passer rating from 97.9 to 115.3, in completion percentage from 67.3 to a league-leading 74.1, in yards per attempt from 7.6 to a league-leading 9.0, and in yards per completion from 11.2 to 12.1.

But can anybody upset the unbeaten Chiefs in Super Bowl XLIX?

Yes, no team in the Super Bowl era has ever "three-peated" — but that jinx has to end sometime, just like the Eagles broke their jinx of having been 0-14 against the spread vs. the Bengals two days ago with an emphatic 37-17 win, their first ever in the City of Satan (they tied a game there once), in which Philadelphia outgained Cincinnati, 397 total yards to 280. (However, the Eagles neglected to score in the first quarter for the 10th consecutive time, not having done so since a game against Arizona at home on New Year's Eve of last year).

Despite Kansas City's deserved favored status, Patrick Mahomes is lagging far behind the aforementioned NFC trio, with an 84.9 passer rating, 7.3 yards per attempt, and 10.7 yards per completion. He is also in a three-way tie with Jordan Love and Baker Mayfield for the most interceptions — 9.

Of course, there is no necessary correlation between which conference wins the interconference season series and which conference wins the Super Bowl. Starting with Super Bowl XIX, which crowned the champion of the 1984 season, the NFC won 13 straight Super Bowls — but lost the interconference season series five times and tied it three times, and logged a combined record of 351-334-1 against the AFC.

If the NFL goes back to basics by encouraging teams to run the ball more often, not as much would hinge on the quarterback position.

There may be somewhat fewer yards gained and somewhat fewer points scored, but there would be more competitive balance — something that the owners have sought for literally decades.

Besides, what's wrong with a strong running game?

And it's not as if we're talking about the Wing-T here.