No matter how much football you watch it is almost impossible to keep up with all the different acronyms of this game. Luckily this article is on hand to break down exactly what PF and PA mean in the game of football.
In football standings, the terms PF and PA refer to points for and points against. This is a total of points a team scored throughout the year as well as points scored against said team.
Additionally, this term is used in fantasy football. In fantasy football, PF and PA also stand for points for and points against.
These fantasy metrics measure the number of points your fantasy team scored on the year versus the amounts of points scored against your team on the year.
Why Do PF And PA Matter in the NFL
The way most football fans use PF and PA is to determine the quality of a football team. You may look at these metrics to try and figure out how effective a teams offense and defense are.
Or you may compare these stats to the yards gained versus yards allowed to determine if your team had some bad luck this year.
But in the NFL PF and PA can have some huge effects on your team. What most fans don’t know is that these two statistics are used in the NFL tiebreakers.
This means if your team is tied for the division lead or a wildcard spot this is one of the metrics that may be used to determine the winner.
Though to be clear the first few tiebreakers measure games won and lost. Tiebreakers consider conference record, divisional record, common games, and strength of schedule prior to comparing the statistics like PF and PA.
This tiebreaker is very unlikely to happen. But knowing that this statistic is fifth on the list of tiebreakers is worthwhile knowledge.
Something coaches often sight for their reasoning when continuing to run up the score during a blowout.
Why PF and PA Matter In Fantasy Football
Unlike in the NFL PF and PA are very important metrics in fantasy football. The options chosen by your fantasy football commissioner may of course vary but in most cases, PF or points for is the second on the list of tiebreakers.
Unlike PF and PA in the NFL fantasy football Points For can likely be a deciding factor in your team getting into the playoffs.
The first tiebreaker in most leagues is your head to head matchups. Oftentimes teams will split these matchups 1-1 meaning points for will be the deciding factor.
The reason PF is weighed so heavily in fantasy football is that you have no way to stop the opposing team from scoring.
This means that teams can put up a large number of points yet get unlucky with the scheduling and end up losing games. To even out the playing field PF or points for has been used as a metric to break tiebreakers.
So if you are thinking of sitting a player because you already have the win locked up be sure to check out the points of those teams close to you in the standings.
A few more fantasy points in the PF column can go a long way.
