stats to ponder as we wait............
 

taken from a piece on espn........

. The Super Bowl defense eliminator: Don't you get the feeling an unconventional team could win Super Bowl XLI? Since 1983, every Super Bowl winner has ranked in the top 10 in scoring defense. If that eliminates teams from consideration, then you can scratch seven teams -- the Chiefs (11th at 19.7 points a game), the Saints (13th at 20.1), the Eagles (15th at 20.5), the Seahawks (19th at 21.3), the Cowboys (20th at 21.9), the Colts (23rd at 22.5) and the Giants (24th at 22.6). Five of the defenses not ranked in the top 10 for scoring are in the NFC, meaning only the Bears would have a chance of winning the Super Bowl. The four AFC teams in the top 10 are the Ravens, Patriots, Jets and Chargers. The Chargers are clearly the most complete team. They score 30.8 points a game and they give up 18.9 points a game, eighth best in the league. The Ravens score 22.1 points and give up a league-low 12.6. Will defense win the championship or will it be offense?

interesting, huh?
tell you the truth, i did not know the saints got that high......
i'm sure a lot of you out there like stats so i challenge everyone to post as many interesting stats as you can between now and gametime for the saints. i mean seriously, besides heart, what else is there? smitty

RE: stats to ponder as we wait............
 

Saints are ranked #1 in the NFL in total offense per game with 391.5 yards per game.
Eagles came out second (381.4 yards per game)
Colts came out 3rd ( 379.4 yards per game)

I give a lot of credit to the offensive line.

I don't get it:
You mean to tell me that the Saints defense scored 20 points every game the past season? Or are they counting special teams scoring as "defense scoring"? Because that's another story. I don't think you can bundle punt/kickoff returns and field goals as "scoring defense".

And, if the Chiefs "defense" scores 19.7 points a game. why are they ranked ahead of the Saints who supposedly score 20.1 points a game?

not scoring, ranked................,as, allowing..........
here's another stat.............

GO FIGURE!
Eight teams finished the season with better road records than home records -- so much for that home-field advantage. The Patriots, Jets, Broncos, Cowboys, Giants, Saints, Bears, and Packers all traveled better than they did at their home stadium. Six of these teams are in the playoffs and they did it without the great home-field advantage people feel is necessary.

taken from nfl.com......................smitty

From the way I read it, the average is concerning points allowed by the defense...

"The Chargers are clearly the most complete team. They score 30.8 points a game and they give up 18.9 points a game, eighth best in the league.

and whatever you do, don't leave out the feel good stories by writers who believe.................


http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/9900450

Ok. The "scoring defense" got me confused.
"Scoring defense" sounds to me like "points scored by the defense", not "points allowed by the defense".

Even if that's the case, still the rankings are not accurate. They pretty much added all the final scores for each game, then divided them by 16, counting special teams scores and points scored by other defenses on turnovers. Case and point: add all the scores against the Saints, you get 322. You divide 322 by 16, you get 20.125. However, I know that at least 14 of those 322 points allowed came in INT's that were returned for TD's by the Ravens, where no defensive player was on the field.

So again, stats are for Baseball.

If we would've played our starters in the Carolina game the average would be much more less than that.

well said