RealGM

Been looking over the numbers lately, I thought I'd share what I came up with... (NOTE: two teams had a semi-bye week because of IKE)

OFFENSE


I'm loving the majority of our O stats. This is a nice recipe for a run dominated offense. Very high 3rd down conversion rate, great time of possession, but lots of penalties. Unfortunately the majority of those penalties are from our offensive lineman.

All in all, a lot, I mean A LOT, better than we could've thought.

Our passing offense is pretty mediocre. Middle of the pack to middle-lower in most of the passing categories. Orton hasn't been turning heads, but he's done a hell of a job minimizing mistakes. He hasn't been great, but if he shows me this productivity with marginal improvement, I'll be happy. Another thing to note, we were middle of the pack in sacks given up. A lot better than last year. Good for the OL, or is it?

I'll conclude Orton's decision making in a very quick hurried 3 step offense(because thats all our offensive line can manufacture), is a lot better than Rex's. The reason why Orton has been a little more successful at avoiding TOs than Rex was.

Rex can't make a defensive read to save his life. He couldn't pick up blitz packages, he couldn't step up in the pocket, he couldn't shift his line to defend against a stunt, and he can't visualize the depth of the defense when passing. So what? his long ball is better than Orton's. Useless if you can't set it up. I havn't been completely happy with Orton, but I'm happy with Orton over Grossman.

Here's a look at our running offensive rankings...


Ahhhh... the running game. I love it.

My only concern is our avg yards per run. I blame the offensive line. Forte's vision can break through for a long run, but a good line can scrounge up another yard or two when there is no hole to break through. The Bears offensive line is not a good line.
Out of the 12 teams ahead of us, the majority of them are considered to have great offensive lines...Vikings, Pack, Cowboys, Broncos, Giants, Bucs, Seahawks, etc. So our offensive line isn't as bad as we thought, most of that credit goes to Forte, but I wonder how Forte would be behind a great O line. (sorry to go Clinton Portis on ya'll...)

Our defensive rankings get a little interesting...



Running Defense



Our running D is rock solid. Period.

Passing Defense



Didn't include the yards, but to note, we were ranked pretty bad in anything involving yards. It okay, goes along with our "Bend, don't break" philosophy. The rest of the rankings also support this.

What's surprising...



Sad. I don't know what else to say. The inner pulse of our defense is ranked 20th. Getting to the QB is the most important part of the cover 2 defense. Looks like everybody else on our defense is doing their part.

We're giving up the 3 yard running plays, and the 4-6 yard pass plays.

Add up 3 downs with that yardage = lots of first downs, and lots of 3rd down conversions.

Without getting to the QB and forcing the opposing team to have 2nd and long, or 3rd and long, we are giving away first downs. The defensive backs look like they have been covering pretty well, the linebackers are making their reads and getting tackles, MIKE BROWN hasn't allowed a 40+ yard pass, but where is our defensive front?

For the most part our team as whole has been doing great, numbers wise. We own the time of possession, we are running the ball well, we are limiting TO's, but if we aren't getting to the QB, guys like Brian Griese are going to have 120 pass attempts and beat us by nickle and diming our defense.

WE NEED TO GET TO THE QB OR ELSE WE FAIL.

Sorry if some of the stat definitions are a little confusing...

We're 4th in time of possession and 3rd in number of plays on defense? ...hmm

Yeah, our DTs & DEs aren't putting enough pressure on the QB. They need to get after him asap, or we'll see more games like the last two, this season.

We're 4th in time of possession and 3rd in number of plays on defense? ...hmm

I wonder how many teams have had to play sudden death? ...I'm sure that added a whole bunch of plays.

TB is also high in the defensive plays from scrimmage stat. (just a guess) take away 15-20 plays and we're middle of the pack, same with TB.

Either way, it shows that opposing teams have been effective against our defense. Maybe not efficient, so no big plays, but effective.

We've allowed ONE run play over 20+ yards. None over 40+ yards. Only 6 teams can claim better and 3 of those teams allow 90+ rushing yards per game. We allow 71 ypg.

Out of the 8 teams that haven't allowed a 40+ pass play, we avg the most pass yards given up at 249 ypg. Not one of the other 8 teams is over 180 ypg.

ALthough we're 4th in offensive time of possession, we'd be higher than that with a few more sacks, which in turn, would keep our defense on the sidelines a little longer.

I hate hearing the cliche, our offense needs to protect our defense... no, our defensive line needs to step it up.

30 minutes per game is what our defense averages. Thats way too long.

All this makes me wonder even more, why the heck did we call a pass play on 3rd and short. We were in a position of time management and we had Orton dancing around behind a mediocre O line. Why not give it to the most productive person in the offense?