Quote:
Originally Posted by Droford
Looking over the stats, the scoring was the highest its been in the 32 team era dating back to 02, and 3 of the last 4 seasons have been at 22 ppg or more. As for 1985, the following 9 years showed a huge drop off in team average scoring, with at one point the average was 299 points per season vs 344 in 85 and 354 in 2011.
In 1985 there was only 1 QB that threw for over 4,000 yards (Marino). In 2011, there were 10 that threw for over 4,000 and 4 that threw for over 5,000. I would dare say that in the era of protected QBs and rules against defenders that you could see a 6,000 yard passing season from someone in the next couple of years (its only about 30 yards per game more to what Brees did last year to get to 6000). Some of this has come at the expense of the running game..which is another argument entirely.
2011 had 3 of the top 12 highest scoring teams in NFL History (Packers #2 35.0, Saints #4 34.2 and Patriots #12 32.1) 5 of the top 12 are 2007 or later (the 2007 Patriots #1 and 2010 Patriots #10)
The 2011 Bucs were the 7th worst team in points allowed (30.9).
Im a big fan of defense..and you cannot say that the rule changes the nfl has made over the last couple years have been in any favor of the defenses.
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You are so flawed. Not just in life, but in the way you present your arguments. For whatever reason, you provide all of this offensive data, but neglect to acknowledge the actual defensive statistics.
All the rules related to hits and quarterback protection were implemented in the
2009 season. That year, the average team scored 21.5 points per game. The Saints, Vikings, Colts and Jets were the teams that made it to the conference championships. All of those teams, except the Saints, had a defenses ranked in the
TOP 10. Those were some good offenses in that mix too, so that season would prove your point except for the fact that in the following two seasons, 5 of the 8 teams that played in the Conference championship had better defenses than they did offenses.
In 2010, the average team scored 22 points per game (same PPG as the 2008 year in the period before the rule changes). The Steelers, Jets, Packers and Bears were the teams that made it to the conference championships. All of those teams, except for the Jets, had a defense ranked in the
TOP 5. The Jets were
#6. Of those teams, only the Packers had a
TOP 10 overall offense.
In 2011, the average team scored 22.2 points per game. The Giants, 49ers, Ravens and Patriots made it to the conference championships. The Ravens and 49ers were the
#2 and
#3 ranked defenses respectively. The Patriots were 15 and the Giants were 25. Neither the Jets or Ravens had
TOP 10 offenses either. Don't forget that both of those teams had a shit ton of luck (i.e., fumbles, missed field goals) getting to the Superbowl in those Conference games. It's not like the offenses for the Giants and Patriots went out and won 45-6.
So how is it that top defenses are hampered, yet in the three seasons since the major rule changes, 9 of the 12 teams playing in the conference championships were TOP 10 defensively and in many cases carried their offenses? Also, the NFL is a copycat league. With every team running some version of the Spread, it makes sense for passing yards to go up. However, if you look at the number of total touchdowns top defenses gave up in 2011 and compare them to the total number of touchdowns in 2001, 2002, 2003, etc... you'll see that the numbers are less or almost identical.