Total wins by Carolina's opponents through week 11 = 53. Total wins by Bengal's opponents = 49. The difference is more than made up by the two outliers, the Bengals played Indy and Carolina played Green Bay. The idea that Dalton is playing a weaker schedule than Newton is just false if you look at the facts. But the analysts who tout the ROY for Newton are stuck in their preseason mentalities. In addition, if you look at common opponents, Dalton won and scored 30 on Jacksonville while Newton scored 16 in their win. Newton scored 3 points in their loss to Tennessee while Dalton scored 24 the week before in his victory over Tennessee. Total wins of opponents on the remaining schedule Carolina =28; Cincinnati = 30. By the time the season is over they will have faced 3 more common opponents (for a total of 5) and Cincinnati will have evened up the number of home games (Carolina has had 2 more home games than the Bengals up till now, meaning Dalton is winning on the road!). Instead of anointing Newton in week three or week 11 based on false assumptions and bad facts, why don't we wait until we have a full body of evidence to compare them? I am confident that Dalton wins out, if we avoid a rush to judgment.

And if you love stats, the average passing yards per game allowed by the defenses that Newton has faced is 240.6, good enough for a 21st place ranking. Whereas the average passing ypg allowed by defenses that Dalton has faced is 220.2, good enough for a 7 place ranking. If you project that over the rest of the schedule Dalton will face an average ranking of 7 place (201,8 pypg) whereas Newton will continue to face an avg ranking of 21 (241,1 pypg). In addition, there are really no outliers that skew these numbers. Week on week off Dalton faces top 10 pass defenses while Newton puts up those gaudy numbers facing bottom 11 pass defenses. And Dalton still has 3 times as many wins, more TD's, fewer interceptions, and 4 come-from-behind 4th quarter wins to Newton's zero. Dalton is leading his team at an unbelievable level, and that leadership is a qualitative indicator not found in stats!