Are You Ready for Some Football - Week 11

[pchang]

Well, I think all 3 stats are useful because no one stat can give you the complete picture. If you notice, the teams the show up at the top of all 3 lists are:
Pittsburgh
Buffalo
Washington

Out of those 3, Pittsburgh is the only one with a real offense, but Buffalo appears to have recently discovered Mr. McGahee.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Buffalo is handicaped by the fact that Bledsoe is their QB instead of a guy that actually realizes that forcing the ball between 4 players isn't the best of ideas!

Hey, but at least he's better than Mark Brunell and his Social Security collecting arm!

[pchang]

New England

Is the team that really breaks the mold.
They are in the middle of the pack in both defense (19 for total yards) and offense (14 for total yards), yet they are tied for the best record in the league. They are definitely a team that somehow finds a way to win.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Well they've played a number of good teams. Last year they were 7th in Defense Total Yards. Yards per attempt is also a good measure and they were 1 in YPA for passing and 6 in YPA for rushing.

Though in 2001, the Pats were 19th in Offensive total yards and 24 in Defensive total yards . Though somehow where 6th in points scored and 6th in points allowed. Very rare indeed.

[pchang]

Top 3 teams by record and by total yards

Pittsburgh - #2 defense, #13 offense (but #1 run offense)
New England - #19 defense, #14 offense
Philadelphia - #24 defense, #12 offense

Philly don't make sense until you realize that
Philly is #2 defense in points allowed => The Philly defense has been lucky


New England is #11 defense in points allowed so they don't make sense at all.

added

On the other hand New England is #5 offense in points scored => The New England offense has been lucky (or opportunistic)

[Imran Siddiqui]

Teams haven't figured out that Philly's run defense isn't that good yet. With the Steelers' win, that may change.

[pchang]

I think teams were trying to catch up via the pass because McNabb - Owens got Philly the early lead.
After Pittsburgh, teams will realize the best defense against McNabb - Owens is to run (and keep) the ball.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It'll be interesting to see how well it works... or if it just worked because Pittsburgh is amazing .

[pchang]

At the beginning of the season, there is too much parity to accurately predict how teams will do. However, now that we have a half season's worth of stats, I really believe careful examination of the numbers (along with the latest injury report) can accurately predict winners.

[Imran Siddiqui]

accurately predict winners

I wouldn't go that far .

[reismark]

reismark presents...

Why I Am Better Than You

[Imran Siddiqui]

Looking at the chart, I'd actually say that zoom155, Zopperoni, rah, and Ned are better than you .

[Ned]

Guys, I think going on season stats is misleading in the case of the Bears given the number of injuries to key players. Now that they are getting healthy (except for Brown), the defense is looking real good. I don't think what happened in NY was a flook.

On the stats, another key stat is takeaways. Chicago is tied for fifth. But they are also near the bottom on giveaways -- which has lead to a lot of points given up by the offense. The offense this year has been really poor, adding to the team's points given up by quite a few, IIRC. All things being considered, I think Chicago is near the top in defense right now. But the are looking better game after game as players come back from injuries.

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by pchang


Philly don't make sense until you realize that
Philly is #2 defense in points allowed => The Philly defense has been lucky

They are not "lucky". Most of the yardage given up on defense has been given up late in games when they have had a comfortable lead.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think going on season stats is misleading in the case of the Bears given the number of injuries to key players.

So what happened last year? They were upper-mid pack. How did they suddenly become Top 5 just because of injuries?

And, sorry to tell you, but the Giants aren't really that good of a team. A few weeks ago, the Lions pasted them.