Passing Expectations

Long a Bastion of star quarterbacks, the AFC is beginning to lose the arms race. Through 11 games this season, NFC passers have a surprisingly large lead over their AFC counterparts in most cumulative passing categories, including a 9.2 bulge in quarterback rating. Here's all you need to know about the state of AFC passers this year: Mike Tomczak of the Browns, Stan Humphries of the Chargers and Hugh Millen of the Patriots are among the conference's top eight signal-callers-and all three are NFC rejects.

The two conferences were virtually even in passing statistics over the past five years, but this fall the NFC is wav out front.

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]