08-24-2023, 03:21 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-25-2023, 08:51 AM by H0PPY75. Edited 1 time in total.)
Hello ISFL!
AW here and we are going to talk rushing defense or run defense for teams in the first half of this exciting season 43!
I have definitely been interested in team defense as a whole and plan to or at least want to expand upon it a bit and maybe have a pass or overall defense as well. When you see the team defense stats in the league, it does not really tell you much outside of total tackles, sacks, interceptions, and other counting stats but it does not give you the exact impact of a team's pass or run defense really. You can go into each team's page and see how many yards per game they allow both on the ground and in the air and can even see total points and yards allowed as well but still even, that does not tell us everything. I wanted to look into things and see some different stuff! What team gives up the least amount of yards per carry, what team has given up the most TDs on the ground or just look at it all together with more than just yards against. Maybe a team gives up the most rushing yards per game but also they are run against the most so they actually hold opponents to shorter carries than another team. Maybe that same team has not really given up many touchdowns to opponent rushers. This is the kind of stuff I would like to see, so, I did it!
Now, I also thought about it in terms of wins and losses and in general, I wanted to see the differences amongst a lot of things so a nice pivot table and some formulas could tell me what I wanted to see. What do certain teams allow in their wins opposed to their losses or what do they allow in home games versus road games or even based on their opponent as well.
What this can also help with is the potential for grading certain performances against one another at least for now with running backs mainly until we have a full defense scoped out. As ISFL Awards head, one of the awards we handle is the performance of the year and year after year, I believe I see a lot of huge performances coming against bottom tier teams. Is that as impressive against a great performance against a top tier defense? It depends, right? Well, we can now take a look and see that a team might be the best at stuffing the run or eventually, what team has the worst passer rating against and use that in a performance piece as well. Maybe Danny Nedelko runs for 200 yards and 3 TDs against New Orleans who is a weaker defense or maybe he goes for 150 and 2 TDs against a bit stronger of a defense like New York. I would tend to believe putting up 150 and 2 TDs against a great defense may hold more weight but it always depends but it is data we will be able to look at and generally in here and for awards and such as a whole, more data is always a great thing.
Let's start with the overall data.
As we can see, we have 2 teams that give up less than 3.5 yards per carry on the ground with New York and San Jose.
We can also see the difference between the index availability and what may or may not be the worst run defense in the league. New Orleans has given up the most rushing yards in the league and while their 5.27 yards per carry against is poor, it is not the worst and they have had the most rushes against them which leads to being ranked dead last in run defense. However, it appears Yellowknife may be the worst run defense with their huge 5.89 yards per carry against and whopping 12 touchdowns against on the ground. You could even make a case for Orange County since Yellowknife has a lot less carries against them which could maybe lead to a partially inflated YPC but it is hard to say but in general, I would say Yellowknife has had the worst run defense of the first half of this 43rd season of ISFL football.
Using the Opponent Analysis
We can now take that data and look further into it and take a look at Yellowknife for example who we just called the worst rushing defense in the league. We can plug in some opponents for them and see how they have fared against maybe some of the best rush offenses by YPC and against some of the worst.
Taking the top 7 offenses (6 technically since Yellowknife is in there) based on yards per carry, we can see how Yellowknife fared against them. The top rush offenses are Baltimore, Cape Town, Arizona, Yellowknife, Berlin, Austin, and Honolulu.
I added the Yards/Event column to accurately get the games against these top offenses. Yellowknife has not yet played Arizona so it is against 5 teams mentioned outside of themselves and the Outlaws. You can see they give up 118.80 yards per game at 6.25 yards per carry and have given up 2 TD per game in these contests. Clearly, Yellowknife has been torn to shreds by the top rushing offenses in the league.
What about against the bottom?
A couple less games as they have only played Chicago, Colorado, and Sarasota out of the bottom rushing teams. Now, even with that said, the yards per event at 88.67 is much lower which is good and while the yards per carry is lower, these are all teams that have averaged between 3.7 and 4.2 yards per carry on the season so the Yellowknife defense is still allowing more rushing yards on average against poor rushing offenses.
It still tells us that Yellowknife appears to have a poor run defense but we see a little more into it. We can also see that a majority of their games have come against the top rushing teams (5 to 3) so they are more expected at least to be torn up just a bit more. They have only given up 2/3 of a TD against the below average rushing opponents as opposed to the 2 against top but still, if you play the Wraiths, run the ball.
What about the top team, New York?
Against the top rushing teams:
They have played 4 games against the top 7 in rush offense and have played Arizona, Austin, Honolulu, and Cape Town. New York actually fares much better than their season average against the top rushing offenses which is a testament to that defense as a whole. Playing guys like Delphine Jr., Nedelko, JHM, and Coward/Newman, New York is giving up just 2.52 yards per carry and a half touchdown per game, pretty remarkable.
Against the bottom, they have given up a bit more on the ground but still it is just 2.75 more yards per game on average. The bottom teams are finding a bit more success against New York's run defense maybe surprising them but 60 rushing yards per game and 3.74 yards per carry not getting it done for them apparently.
Home Field Advantage?
What if we look at rush defenses at home and on the road?
At Home:
Yards per carry on average are a bit lower on average given up by the defenses which is to be expected playing in front of the loud home crowds but it is just a 0.10 difference from the overall. We can see teams like Yellowknife perform better at home whereas New Orleans and Orange County performing worse. You could then take it a step further and look at different opponents played at home versus on the road as well. Chicago vaults to the top as the top performing run defense at home potentially vaulted by multiple time defensive player of the year Joseph Reed on that defensive line.
On the Road:
Teams on average give up about 10 more yards per game on the ground and about .2 difference as opposed to home games. Interestingly enough, the rushing touchdown count is much higher on the road than it is at home (52 to 36). Teams have given up 16 more touchdowns when on the road so opposing rush offenses are to be feared.
Wins and Losses:
We have a lot of filters on this thing and another thing we can look at is how teams perform in wins and losses and see possibly if the run defense is the reason they may be losing or at least leading to losses. One bad game on run defense could lead to a loss in some cases and we can maybe see that here.
In Wins:
In Losses:
I decided to post them together this time and talk about them after. Obviously we see, there is a huge difference in how rush defenses are in wins versus losses. Winning teams are holding opponents to under 4 yards per carry while losing teams are giving up over 4.5 yards per carry. The touchdown differential is massive also with 23 more touchdowns given up by losing teams. Yardage totals are also pretty different as well being about 50 yards difference on average.
If we look at overall run defense versus wins and losses, we can try and see how that works out as well.
Wins:
1) Baltimore
2) New York
3) Cape Town
4) Arizona
5) Austin
6) Berlin
7) Yellowknife
8) Orange County
9) Sarasota
10) Colorado
11) Orange County
12) San Jose
13) Chicago
14) New Orleans
Rush Defense (By YPC):
1) New York
2) San Jose
3) Sarasota
4) Chicago
5) Berlin
6) Baltimore
7) Cape Town
8) Honolulu
9) Colorado
10) Austin
11) Arizona
12) New Orleans
13) Orange County
14) Yellowknife
We don't see a lot of evidence that a top run defense equals a top winning team. The top 3 teams in the ISFL right now are in the top half of the league though with the rest of the league spread out a bit. Obviously, there is a lot of season left to play and while a game and a win can be decided by running and stopping the run, the overall season appears that it does not have to be defined by it.
Spreadsheet:
ISFL Rush Defense Spreadsheet
For anyone interested, you can play around with the spreadsheet! I will likely be updating it weekly or bi-weekly (in game) so you can see some live data and such but you can filter it by making copies and see things filtered by a lot. If you want to see how Orange County does in wins versus the ASFC, you can. If you want to see the league's average rushing data in week 5, you can. If you want to see how all teams did versus a top running offense and see which defense held them the best, you can.
I hope this was a lot of fun to read as much as it was to research and write. I hope to bring you a full season of data along with some passing defenses for either half a season, whole season, or both.
AW here and we are going to talk rushing defense or run defense for teams in the first half of this exciting season 43!
I have definitely been interested in team defense as a whole and plan to or at least want to expand upon it a bit and maybe have a pass or overall defense as well. When you see the team defense stats in the league, it does not really tell you much outside of total tackles, sacks, interceptions, and other counting stats but it does not give you the exact impact of a team's pass or run defense really. You can go into each team's page and see how many yards per game they allow both on the ground and in the air and can even see total points and yards allowed as well but still even, that does not tell us everything. I wanted to look into things and see some different stuff! What team gives up the least amount of yards per carry, what team has given up the most TDs on the ground or just look at it all together with more than just yards against. Maybe a team gives up the most rushing yards per game but also they are run against the most so they actually hold opponents to shorter carries than another team. Maybe that same team has not really given up many touchdowns to opponent rushers. This is the kind of stuff I would like to see, so, I did it!
Now, I also thought about it in terms of wins and losses and in general, I wanted to see the differences amongst a lot of things so a nice pivot table and some formulas could tell me what I wanted to see. What do certain teams allow in their wins opposed to their losses or what do they allow in home games versus road games or even based on their opponent as well.
What this can also help with is the potential for grading certain performances against one another at least for now with running backs mainly until we have a full defense scoped out. As ISFL Awards head, one of the awards we handle is the performance of the year and year after year, I believe I see a lot of huge performances coming against bottom tier teams. Is that as impressive against a great performance against a top tier defense? It depends, right? Well, we can now take a look and see that a team might be the best at stuffing the run or eventually, what team has the worst passer rating against and use that in a performance piece as well. Maybe Danny Nedelko runs for 200 yards and 3 TDs against New Orleans who is a weaker defense or maybe he goes for 150 and 2 TDs against a bit stronger of a defense like New York. I would tend to believe putting up 150 and 2 TDs against a great defense may hold more weight but it always depends but it is data we will be able to look at and generally in here and for awards and such as a whole, more data is always a great thing.
Let's start with the overall data.
As we can see, we have 2 teams that give up less than 3.5 yards per carry on the ground with New York and San Jose.
We can also see the difference between the index availability and what may or may not be the worst run defense in the league. New Orleans has given up the most rushing yards in the league and while their 5.27 yards per carry against is poor, it is not the worst and they have had the most rushes against them which leads to being ranked dead last in run defense. However, it appears Yellowknife may be the worst run defense with their huge 5.89 yards per carry against and whopping 12 touchdowns against on the ground. You could even make a case for Orange County since Yellowknife has a lot less carries against them which could maybe lead to a partially inflated YPC but it is hard to say but in general, I would say Yellowknife has had the worst run defense of the first half of this 43rd season of ISFL football.
Using the Opponent Analysis
We can now take that data and look further into it and take a look at Yellowknife for example who we just called the worst rushing defense in the league. We can plug in some opponents for them and see how they have fared against maybe some of the best rush offenses by YPC and against some of the worst.
Taking the top 7 offenses (6 technically since Yellowknife is in there) based on yards per carry, we can see how Yellowknife fared against them. The top rush offenses are Baltimore, Cape Town, Arizona, Yellowknife, Berlin, Austin, and Honolulu.
I added the Yards/Event column to accurately get the games against these top offenses. Yellowknife has not yet played Arizona so it is against 5 teams mentioned outside of themselves and the Outlaws. You can see they give up 118.80 yards per game at 6.25 yards per carry and have given up 2 TD per game in these contests. Clearly, Yellowknife has been torn to shreds by the top rushing offenses in the league.
What about against the bottom?
A couple less games as they have only played Chicago, Colorado, and Sarasota out of the bottom rushing teams. Now, even with that said, the yards per event at 88.67 is much lower which is good and while the yards per carry is lower, these are all teams that have averaged between 3.7 and 4.2 yards per carry on the season so the Yellowknife defense is still allowing more rushing yards on average against poor rushing offenses.
It still tells us that Yellowknife appears to have a poor run defense but we see a little more into it. We can also see that a majority of their games have come against the top rushing teams (5 to 3) so they are more expected at least to be torn up just a bit more. They have only given up 2/3 of a TD against the below average rushing opponents as opposed to the 2 against top but still, if you play the Wraiths, run the ball.
What about the top team, New York?
Against the top rushing teams:
They have played 4 games against the top 7 in rush offense and have played Arizona, Austin, Honolulu, and Cape Town. New York actually fares much better than their season average against the top rushing offenses which is a testament to that defense as a whole. Playing guys like Delphine Jr., Nedelko, JHM, and Coward/Newman, New York is giving up just 2.52 yards per carry and a half touchdown per game, pretty remarkable.
Against the bottom, they have given up a bit more on the ground but still it is just 2.75 more yards per game on average. The bottom teams are finding a bit more success against New York's run defense maybe surprising them but 60 rushing yards per game and 3.74 yards per carry not getting it done for them apparently.
Home Field Advantage?
What if we look at rush defenses at home and on the road?
At Home:
Yards per carry on average are a bit lower on average given up by the defenses which is to be expected playing in front of the loud home crowds but it is just a 0.10 difference from the overall. We can see teams like Yellowknife perform better at home whereas New Orleans and Orange County performing worse. You could then take it a step further and look at different opponents played at home versus on the road as well. Chicago vaults to the top as the top performing run defense at home potentially vaulted by multiple time defensive player of the year Joseph Reed on that defensive line.
On the Road:
Teams on average give up about 10 more yards per game on the ground and about .2 difference as opposed to home games. Interestingly enough, the rushing touchdown count is much higher on the road than it is at home (52 to 36). Teams have given up 16 more touchdowns when on the road so opposing rush offenses are to be feared.
Wins and Losses:
We have a lot of filters on this thing and another thing we can look at is how teams perform in wins and losses and see possibly if the run defense is the reason they may be losing or at least leading to losses. One bad game on run defense could lead to a loss in some cases and we can maybe see that here.
In Wins:
In Losses:
I decided to post them together this time and talk about them after. Obviously we see, there is a huge difference in how rush defenses are in wins versus losses. Winning teams are holding opponents to under 4 yards per carry while losing teams are giving up over 4.5 yards per carry. The touchdown differential is massive also with 23 more touchdowns given up by losing teams. Yardage totals are also pretty different as well being about 50 yards difference on average.
If we look at overall run defense versus wins and losses, we can try and see how that works out as well.
Wins:
1) Baltimore
2) New York
3) Cape Town
4) Arizona
5) Austin
6) Berlin
7) Yellowknife
8) Orange County
9) Sarasota
10) Colorado
11) Orange County
12) San Jose
13) Chicago
14) New Orleans
Rush Defense (By YPC):
1) New York
2) San Jose
3) Sarasota
4) Chicago
5) Berlin
6) Baltimore
7) Cape Town
8) Honolulu
9) Colorado
10) Austin
11) Arizona
12) New Orleans
13) Orange County
14) Yellowknife
We don't see a lot of evidence that a top run defense equals a top winning team. The top 3 teams in the ISFL right now are in the top half of the league though with the rest of the league spread out a bit. Obviously, there is a lot of season left to play and while a game and a win can be decided by running and stopping the run, the overall season appears that it does not have to be defined by it.
Spreadsheet:
ISFL Rush Defense Spreadsheet
For anyone interested, you can play around with the spreadsheet! I will likely be updating it weekly or bi-weekly (in game) so you can see some live data and such but you can filter it by making copies and see things filtered by a lot. If you want to see how Orange County does in wins versus the ASFC, you can. If you want to see the league's average rushing data in week 5, you can. If you want to see how all teams did versus a top running offense and see which defense held them the best, you can.
I hope this was a lot of fun to read as much as it was to research and write. I hope to bring you a full season of data along with some passing defenses for either half a season, whole season, or both.
Former players:
QB Joliet Christ Jr. (HON/BER) (1x Ultimus Champ)
WR Deondre Thomas-Fox (SJS) (2x Ultimus Champ)
QB Joliet L. Christ (SJS) (Hall of Fame) (1x Ultimus Champ)