The Official Warpath Sign Tim Rattay and Cut Todd Collins Thread

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

Yeah the defense is largely to blame for sure. But the offense absolutely did not stay on par. You need to stop looking at so many stats like yards per attempt and all this sabermetric crap. One number matters: POINTS.

2005 - 359 points scored, 13th in the NFL
2006 - 307 points scored, 20th in the NFL

A 15% drop in points.

Cause? Hardly any big plays.

Our yards per carry, and yards per attempt, and QB ratings, and all that crap didn't change much. Gee, effing great. What wins games in the NFL: BIG PLAYS. We didn't generate them.

I know it's been a while since we've watched football, but keep the images from the season fresh in your mind. They tell the tale a lot better than the stat sheet does.

How do you suggest we improve the frequency we get big plays at?

Look, the reason I look at sabremetric stats is because points don't tell the whole story. The raw points don't tell you how many turnovers we didn't get this year, how many points the defense didn't score this year, how pathetic our 32nd ranked starting ave. field postion was, or how much the discrepancy of points were just a function of luck. 15% doesn't look all that convincing when you see the reasoning.

Big plays will certainly help, but I don't know how you plan to get them. If you throw deep too often hoping to create big plays, you will raise INTs and kill a lot of drives.

The best way to get big plays is to get the ball in the hands of Moss, Portis and Cooley and let them do their thing. This is a sign Tim Rattay/Cut Todd Collins thread. I don't understand how creating more big plays should be a factor in this decision.