Ah, but the importance of stats shifts as the season progresses, sometimes even from game to game within the same weeks. By playoff time, the pendulum has swung to the other end of its arc. In playoffs, emotional factors even out. After all, everybody's top priority is a shot at the Super Bowl. Everybody's motivations peak.
Every game is sudden death.
Forget about revenge. Forget about jealousy. Go with the stats. But that, too, isn't quite as simple as it sounds. There are pitfalls when comparing stats.