This is being down as a followup to a week 4 article I posted on the same subject to see how the trends of the early season continued on throughout the rest of the season. I will not be analyzing things like sacks, interceptions, tackles, you can find those on your own. Besides I am looking at stats that cannot be attributed to one person, but rather how the entire defense functioned as a unit. Cue the table:
What we are seeing here is a remarkable continuation of the trends I tracked all season. Orange county has continually led the league in fewest yards allowed. Arizona has continually led the league (by a significant margin most of the season) in fewest yards allowed per passing attempt. And both orange county and Arizona have been at the very top with fewest touchdowns allowed throughout the season.
What we also noticed is that Baltimore's early struggles have continued to plague them throughout the season. They have consistently allowed the most yards to opposing offenses and allowed the most touchdowns. With the expansion making big moves for Baltimore, one can only think that the GM is planning to go big on the defensive side of the ball.
Some other interesting trends to note were from Yellowknife. They are 100% average in every way. Yards allowed? Average. Yards per carry? Average. Yards per passing attempt? Average. Touchdowns allowed? Average. I feel like the guy explaining Luke Wilson's character in Idiocracy.
What about consistency? Well, for that we'll take a look at the standard deviation week-by-week for each team in our favorite few categories and see what we can find:
A big surprise to me here, Baltimore is the most consistent in every category except touchdowns allowed. The problem is, they were consistently bad. Okay that was a little mean, but it is kind of true. OC and Arizona, while having some of the best passing defenses actually were the most variable week-to-week with their yards/passing attempt. Orange County also was the most variable in terms of total yards allowed, so while they allowed the fewest, they did have some larger swings than the other teams (but only by 14 yards/game standard deviation). And while allowing around the league-average of 22 touchdowns on the season Colorado was very consistent in how many they allowed per game with a standard deviation of only 0.5.
So there you have it folks. Defensive stats you can't get in the Index. Conclusions? Arizona and Orange County good. Baltimore bad. Yellowknife average.
GRADED
What we are seeing here is a remarkable continuation of the trends I tracked all season. Orange county has continually led the league in fewest yards allowed. Arizona has continually led the league (by a significant margin most of the season) in fewest yards allowed per passing attempt. And both orange county and Arizona have been at the very top with fewest touchdowns allowed throughout the season.
What we also noticed is that Baltimore's early struggles have continued to plague them throughout the season. They have consistently allowed the most yards to opposing offenses and allowed the most touchdowns. With the expansion making big moves for Baltimore, one can only think that the GM is planning to go big on the defensive side of the ball.
Some other interesting trends to note were from Yellowknife. They are 100% average in every way. Yards allowed? Average. Yards per carry? Average. Yards per passing attempt? Average. Touchdowns allowed? Average. I feel like the guy explaining Luke Wilson's character in Idiocracy.
What about consistency? Well, for that we'll take a look at the standard deviation week-by-week for each team in our favorite few categories and see what we can find:
A big surprise to me here, Baltimore is the most consistent in every category except touchdowns allowed. The problem is, they were consistently bad. Okay that was a little mean, but it is kind of true. OC and Arizona, while having some of the best passing defenses actually were the most variable week-to-week with their yards/passing attempt. Orange County also was the most variable in terms of total yards allowed, so while they allowed the fewest, they did have some larger swings than the other teams (but only by 14 yards/game standard deviation). And while allowing around the league-average of 22 touchdowns on the season Colorado was very consistent in how many they allowed per game with a standard deviation of only 0.5.
So there you have it folks. Defensive stats you can't get in the Index. Conclusions? Arizona and Orange County good. Baltimore bad. Yellowknife average.
Code:
Ready to be Graded
GRADED
Hank Winchester (S25 - Current) - Scrub
Angus Winchester (S1-S12) - 4x Ultimus Champ - #2 Career Sacks - Hall of Fame
Cooter Bigsby (S14-S23) - S23 Ultimus Champ - #4 Career Yards - #4 Career TDs - 2x MVP - Hall of Fame