Saturday, October 24, 2009

NFL stuff you may not know

or care about....

After 39 games as a starter in the NFL, Kyle Orton is 27-12 with a 56.8% career completion rate and a 1.4 TD/INT ratio. After starting 39 games in his career, Eli Manning was 20-19 with a 54% career completion rate and a 1.2 TD/INT ratio. And just for craps and giggles, you should know that after 40 games as a starter, Ben Roethlisberger was 29-11 with a 62% career completion rate, a 1.2 TD/INT ratio and a Superbowl title.

Both E.Manning and Roethlisberger have played for teams with great defenses but Eli has had the benefit of a consistently superior running game and offensive line. Both currently have started 77 games in their careers. Eli Manning is 47-30 with a career 56.2% completion rate and 1.4 TD/INT ratio, a career yards/attempt of 6.5, a career QB rating of 77.9 and one Superbowl title. Roethlisberger is 55-22 with a career 63.4% completion rate and a 1.5 TD/INT ratio, a career yards/attempt of 8.0, a career QB rating of 90.9 and two Superbowl titles.

If the Miami Dolphins could find some pass defense they could still be a force in the AFC. They are possessing the hell out of the football, averaging over 35 minutes of possession per game. But they lost games earlier in the season because (1) They couldn’t defend the pass, so opponents could strike really quickly and (2) They couldn’t put up points fast with Pennington at the helm. Ever since Henne took over, they have put up 38 and 31 points. Their pass D still sucks and it nearly cost them the Jets game but Henne’s ability to go downfield brought them back to win that game. This week’s game against the Saints will be a good barometer. Miami isn’t going to win many shootouts and their pass D has to play better---and there is currently no better passing attack in the NFL than the Saints’.

Four of the next five games for the Atlanta Falcons are against opponents coming off a bye week (Dallas week 7, Washington week 9, Carolina week 10 and New York Giants week 11). Arthur Blank must have pissed off someone in the NFL scheduling office.



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4 comments:

scribbler50 said...

Yo, Stache, great stuff as usual. And as for Ben, it finally looks like he's getting his props from someone other than you and me. I'm hearing a lot of "pundits" now starting to say he belongs in the same breath as the you-know-who's. 'Bout fucking time, he's only leading the league in total yards right now.

Interesting stuff on Miami. But, hey, not to disagree with the Godfather of stats and all things NFL, but many teams flop after their bye week, Stache, so this may not be a curse for the Falcons to bear. It's good for the injury healing but not always good for the focus and momentum thing.

Anonymoustache said...

Thanks for the comments Scrib50.
You have an interesting point about bye weeks---I hadn't thought of it that way and I hope for the Falcons' sake you're correct.
Generally though, it is a bad idea to give an opposing NFL coaching staff an extra week to prepare. For a good coaching staff, I think the extra prep alone could be worth one possession difference on each side of the ball.
Of course, if the players are late getting focused or a bit rusty, as you pointed out, then that advantage will be gone.

scribbler50 said...

Well, that'll teach me to go against Sir Stat-meister. Dallas slams Atlanta. One down and three bye week teams to go!

Anonymoustache said...

Sadly, yeah.
Washington and Carolina are enough of dumpster fires that ATL shoudl handle them---if they want to be a playoff team anyway. But the Giants game may have to be penciled into the loss column. Giants are too good on defense and with their running game to go on any extended skid, their 'mvp candidate' qb notwithstanding.
Hey, how about the men of steel huh? Best thing about beating the Vikes was that the D allowed only one offensive TD---if they can do that every time out against a quality offense, I like our chances.
Worst thing however, was allowing that special teams return for the second week in a row. That shit needs to be fixed.