What it takes to be a playoff team

[44Deezel]

Originally Posted by Defensewins

This morning I was watching NFL network and they were running stats. I have never been a stats guy but I was surprised at what it showed.

In the 2008 regular season stats

The top passing teams:
1) N. O. Saints - did not make the playoffs
2) Arizona Cardinals - made it but I am not impressed. They will get beat soon.
3) Denver Broncos - Did not make the playoffs
4) Houston Texans - Did not make the playoffs
5) Philly - Good team

The Top Running Teams:
1) NY Giants- Solid playoff team
2) Atlanta Falcons- average playoff team
3) Carolina Panthers- Solid playoff team
4) Baltimore Ravens- Solid playoff team
5) Minn. Vikings-ok team

The Top Defense fewest points allowed:
1) Pittsburgh Steelers
2) Tenn. Titans
3) Baltimore Ravens
4) Philadelphia Eagles
5) NY Giants

You have run the ball and play defense.
The passing game while important enough to be balanced on offense, is clearly overrated. The teams that can run the ball effectively a dn play good defense usually win.

The top running teams also spread the ball around, while Zorn decided to run Portis into the ground and all but ignored the RBs in the passing game(Turner and Peterson had more carries, but they don't have near the wear and tear Portis does):

Carries
Giants - Jacobs 219, Ward 182, Bradshaw 67
Falcons - Turner 376, Norwood 95 (and 36 receptions), Ryan 55
Panthers - Williams 273, Stewart 184
Ravens - McClain 232, McGahee 170, Rice 107, Flacco 52
Vikings - Peterson 363, Taylor 101 (and 45 receptions)

Redskins - Portis 342, Betts 61 (only 6 more than Flacco), Campbell 47

With our receiving corps, you would think the running backs would be a bigger part of the passing game. I'd love to see Rock get a few passes each game. We've seen what he can do in open space. Look how the Chargers utilized Sproles and the Eagles utilized Westbrook (71 yard screen pass for a TD yesterday). Even the Dolphins got some big plays from a dude named Cobbs... their third RB.

I'm just sayin'.