SaintFanInATLHELL

I see that "the analyst" is trying to make a point about the lack of consistency of the offense. But I believe what he is missing is that lack of consistency is even more pronounced in the defense.

I'm not going to break down scoring by halves. But let's dump last years games into a few rough buckets to see any trends. Three categories:

+ : 30 points or greater for offense, 20 points or fewer for defense
- : 20 points or fewer for offense, 30 points or greater for defense
= : between 20 and 30 points for both offense or defense.

Raiders: +-
Giants : -+
Falcons: +-
Chargers: +-
Panthers: +-
Chiefs: ==
Seahawks: =+
49ers: +=
Broncos: ==
Panthers: -=
Rams: +=
Lions: -=
Bucs: -+
Cardinals: +-
Bucs: +=
Falcons: +-

The offense went 9-4-3 (+,-,=) while the defense was 3-6-7. There were exactly 0 ++ games and exactly 0 -- games. As shown there were exactly 3 games where the Saints held the opposition to 20 points or less.

Let look at the distribution and records:

++ : 0
+= : 3 (3-0)
+- : 6 (3-3)
=+ : 1 (1-0)
== : 2 (0-2)
=- : 0
-+ : 2 (0-2)
-= : 2 (0-2)
-- : 0

So what can we see from the data?

1. The offense had to play well for the team to win. The team was 0-4 when the offense scored 20 or less.

2. Shootouts are a tossup (+-). And the team had more shootouts than anything else.

3. The majority of the losses (+=,==) happened when the defense gave up 21 or more points.

4. Productive offense and decent defense (+=,=+) are a winning formula (4-0 total)


Overall it seems that eliminating shootouts is the path forward. That means continuing the stand up a defense that can hold opponents to under 30 PPG while maintaining an offense than can score 30+ PPG. Moving 3-4 games from +- to += could make all the difference.

SFIAH

Super Bowl Championships: New Orleans Saints:1, Carolina:0, Atlanta Chokers: STILL ZERO

Only Atlanta choked in an unchokable situation... Life is definitely good.