Quote:
Originally Posted by Donkey OT
I meant to say "were close" not "are close" to suggest that if you look just at ypp (a decentish indicator) in last week's game, the two teams played fairly close. That's pretty much the whole crux of my "game was much closer than the score indicated" argument.
somewhat misleading though, as NE will always give up a high ypp due to the defensive philosophy they employ, avoid huge plays in lieu of allowing more 5-15 yard stuff and forcing opposing team to run lots of plays and not make a mistake. i have been considering doing some research into this actually, seeing if there are coordinators/HC's who have a consistent track record of allowing an unusually high YPP in relation to points allowed. could be that statistical analysis of football hasn't reached the point yet to identify what an optimal defensive strategy actually is. perhaps finding players who defend over the top well (avoid big plays) and have really good instincts (defending the end zone on 1st and goal) are really undervalued as opposed to pure defensive studs like suh/revis etc...not to say any coach wouldnt love those guys ofc.
as usual just free flowing some thoughts, dont have data to back this up.
also only one of the turnovers was a fumble recovery which is a lot luck based than an INT.
which of course isn't to say the patriots are a lot better team than NY....just that i dont think last weeks game was really all that close.