2008 NFL Statistics

One or two or sixty-five arresting and intriguing facts from last years NFL season, just in time for them to be completely resigned to history as the new year begins.

The Bears paid a large price to acquire Jay Cutler from Denver over the off-season in an attempt to improve their offense. No surprises then that they were outgained by 1410 yards in the air and 1599 yards overall during 2008. What is a shock, considering the perception of Denver's high powered offense and the weapons within it's 2008 make up, is that Chicago actually scored more points.

The Cincinnati Bengals were bereft of quality QB play due to injury and only failed to settle on a RB when Cedric Benson became the starter late in the season. Despite this, there is simply no excuse for their pitiful 12.75 points per game and just 4 yards per play. Their QB's combined for a dismal 48.8% Pass Completion.

It might not be too difficult to pick 4 of the top 6 offensive teams in terms of total yards from 2008; New Orleans, Denver, Houston and Arizona all had explosive passing attacks and were poor defensively, the hallmarks of high gainers. The other 2? New England with no Tom Brady and everyone and their mother at tailback and Atlanta, rookie QB and all.

A sign of quite how good Kurt Warner was last year; Drew Brees nearly broke the all-time passing mark with 5,069 yards but Arizona had more completions in less attempts than New Orleans (and nearly double of Oakland).

Proof that Carolina fell back in love with the run game (and didn't want to expose Jake Delhomme unduly); they trailed the entire league in passing attempts.St. Louis, Cincinnati and Cleveland just had 11 passing TD's each. The Skins and therefore Jason Campbell, only had 6 picks and at just 1.2% of Passes Attempted, less than any other team.

How on earth did the Pats have the 5th most rushing attacks? Did anyone tell Laurence Maroney? And the most rushing 1st downs! what was I watching all year? Basically, don't want to give anything away here, but for all you Defensive Coordinators out there, watch out for draw plays on 3rd down.

Carolina had 30, yes 30, rushing Touchdowns (and had the least fumbles, 12, despite the 6th most attempts). Cleveland and Cincinnati had 6. Yes. 6. As much as the Saints love, 28th in rushing yards, were 5th in Touchdowns.

The Giants had the highest average yard per carry (I was surprised it was just 5.0, it seemed far more during the season) and Carolina (4.8 ypc) slip in at 4th. The two teams that are sandwiched in between are, incredibly, Denver with their 7 RB's on IR and Kansas freaking City! Neither team ran the ball too often (28th and 29th respectively) but perhaps a few times more would have been smart.

It should be no revelation to anybody that the Colts drafted a RB in the 1st round of the draft; they averaged only 3.4 ypc and struggled in the run game all year.

I can guarantee they won't lead the league in this stat next year under Mike Singletary; San Fran lost 35 turnovers, just ahead of Dallas (33) and Houston (32). The Vikings, who acquired the profligate Sage Rosenfels from turnover-happy Houston and signed free agent gun-slinger-avec-wild-abandon Brett Favre (his Jets led the league in passing interceptions with 23, 4.3% of Pass Attempts, and he joins a fumble happy, 31 last year, group of Running Backs), had 31. Great.

The Giants and Dolphins only gave the ball away 13 times. In fact, if ever there were a signal of playoff intention or a reason to worship Bill Parcells slightly more, 9 of the top 10 teams in terms of Turnovers made the playoffs. The one exception? the Redskins who could be an interesting outside bet this year. Don’t quote me on that. Only about 1 in 5 teams that lost the Turnover battle won in the NFL last year.

The masters of pass protection (aided by some smart, experienced QB's); Denver (12), Tennessee (12), New Orleans (13) and Indianapolis (14) allowed the fewest sacks. That's all about 1 in 40 Pass Attempts or less. The 49ers allowed 55 sacks at a rate of almost 1 in 10 Pass Attempts. The Steelers, Patriots and Vikings were not much better, all averaging about 1 in 12 Pass Attempts.

Breaking News! The Raiders aren't all bad! They returned the most kicks/punts for TD's (5) and and the second highest Punt Return Average. Jonny Lee Higgins shared the league lead with Reggie Bush with 3 Return TD’s.

Breaking News! The Lions aren't all bad! They scored all 8 of their field goals from over 50 yards. Too bad they only had 14 other shots at three points, a league low total of 22 attempts.

The Packers will be debuting a new 3-4 defence under Dom Capers in 2009 but one aspect they shouldn't have to worry about on D is their nose for the end-zone. The Pack led the NFL with 6 Interceptions Returned for scores and added another from a Fumble Recovery. The Ravens (who also added a joint leading 3 Safeties), Jets, Colts and Eagles were close behind.

I'm not sure how many ways there are to measure the futility of the Rams, Browns and Bengals so I'll leave it at this; each of them managed just 20 Total TD's. New Orleans had 57.

Defence wins Championships eh? It certainly gives you a chance. All 12 Playoff teams were in the top-15 in terms of Points Allowed, the Chargers (8-8) at the rear and the Bills, Skins and Bucs crashing the party. The Steelers, Titans, Ravens, Eagles and Giants were the top-5. Weren't they the favourites in the post-season before the Cardinals decided to prompt hell to freeze over?

The Lions allowed the most Yards (6470), Points (517), 1st Downs (350), the highest Yards per Play (6.4) and the highest opponent QB Rating (110.9). Of course.

The Steelers let opponents gain just 3.9 Yards per Play.

The Chargers (411), Bears (383), Jets (368), Seahawks (366) gave up the most passing completions and the four also gave up the most Yards. The Raiders (266), Ravens (276), Bucs (276) and Rams (278) gave up the least completions but it was the defiant Steelers that gave up the fewest Yards. Just 2551 (5.4 Yards per Play, 156.9 Yards per Game), 366 better than their closest rivals, the Ravens (5.9 Yards per Play).

The Ravens limited opposing QB’s to just a 52.3% pass completion rate (and 60.6 QB Rating). The Lions and Colts - at 68.4% - allowed the highest.

The Colts D’s mentality has always been to bend but don’t break and this was evident in the last season. They let opposing QB’s complete 68.4% of passes (a league high) but only 6.7 yards per attempt and just 6 scores (a league low and just 1.2% of all passes attempted). Tony Dungy, the mastermind of so much about that franchise, will be sorely missed. Arizona allowed 36 Passing TD’s (that‘s 7% of all Passes Attempted), 9 more than anyone else.

The Rams allowed 57 Punt Returns. The Pats just 11, and yet 2 of those for touchdowns.

Wondered why Defensive Ends are so highly valued? The Cowboys, lead by Demarcus Ware, sacked the opposing QB 59 times to lead the league. All the top 6 teams in this category made the playoffs. The Chiefs managed just a paltry 10 and none of the bottom 8 teams made the playoffs.

The Lions (4, just 0.9% of all Passes Thrown), Broncos (6), Cowboys (8), Seahawks (9) had the fewest interceptions. The Ravens had the most takeaways with 26, followed by the Browns (23, a league best at 5.2% of Passes Thrown), Bears (22), Packers (22) and Bucs (22).

The Raiders (542), Browns (541), Lions (536), Chiefs (509) and Rams (501) were victims to the most rushing plays. The 5 teams also allowed the most yards. The Vikes, Ravens, Steelers, Eagles and bears were the best teams across the board in defending the Run while the Falcons and Colts were the only 2 playoff teams to rank over the league average in Yards and TD’s conceded.

The Lions opponents ran in 31 scores against them. The Ravens opponents only reached the end-zone on 4 occasions on running plays (and just 58 1st Downs). The Steelers, Eagles, Bucs and Pats were the only other teams that held opponents to under 10 Rushing TD’s.

The Lions adversaries gained 5.1 Yards per Carry, the worst in the NFL, the Chiefs and Broncos predictably followed. In 4th, the Falcons at 4.9 Yards per Carry. The Vikings and Steelers were the most stingy at just 3.3 Yards per Carry. The Bears (3.4), Jets (3.7), 49ers (3.8), Redskins (3.8) and Bengals (3.9) had the lowest ypc amongst non-playoff teams.

Aaron Rodgers and Matt Cassel were the only 2 players to be in the top-10 of times sacked and QB Rating.

Jake Delhomme, derided for his performance in the Playoff loss to the Cardinals, led the league in yards per pass completion, effectively stretching the field better than anybody. I’m sure Smash and Dash version 2.0 as well as a Mr Smith had a part to play. Second on the list? Rookie Matt Ryan. Very Un-rookie like stat that one.

Ryan Grant (1203) was 9th in rushing yards. Never figured that one myself.

Wonder what the odds were on Le’Ron McClain (82) and Lendale White (80), combined weight of about 13,000lbs (approx.), having the 2 longest rushes of the season?

Need a reason to believe that DeAngelo Williams is for real? 1515 Yards, 18 TD’s (plus 2 more receiving) and a whopping 5.5 Yards per Carry.

Eddie Royal had 91 Receptions as a Rookie WR. Can’t imagine he’s in line for quite as many without Jay Cutler.

Calvin Johnson, on an all-time worst Lions team, shared a league best 12 Receiving TD’s with Larry Fitzgerald. Lance Moore had 10, Kevin Walter had 8.

Devery Henderson = fast. 24.8 yards per catch! Bernard Berrian (20.1), Vincent Jackson (18.6), Steve Smith (18.2) and Calvin Johnson (17.1) may have expected to be in the top 6, but at no.2 in the list is…answers on a postcard please…Justin Gage with 19.1 Yards per Catch. Ok, so Kerry Collins can throw the long ball and a lot of teams cheat up against the Titans run game but Justin Gage? Again, didn’t see it coming.

Adrian Peterson (1901) was only 5th on the list of all-purpose yards. The top 4;
Leon Washington (2337), Darren Sproles (2297), Jerious Norwood (2138) and Steve Breaston (1918). A few new contracts there I think.

The curse of 370? Michael Turner has been downgraded in fantasy-land for the upcoming season due to his 376 carries last year but he trailed Adrian Peterson in total touches (385).

Devin Hester may no longer be the best returner in the league, or on his own team. Danieal Manning of the Bears lead the NFL in Yards per Kick Return (29.7).

Garrett Hartley of New Orleans was the only player to score every Field Goal he attempted; the 23 year old went 13 of 13.

The Rams had plenty of opportunity to practice Punts last year and it seemed to pay dividends for Donnie Jones; he lead the league with a 50.0 Yard per Punt Average.

Jay Cutler was only sacked 1.75% of drop backs. Kerry Collins was second at just 1.89%, with Brees (2.01%), Manning (2.46%) and Matty Ice (3.77%) behind.

The Most Yards in a Game in 2008 - Houston Texans (549) v Green Bay Packers.

The Least Yards in a Game in 2008 - Oakland Raiders (77) v Atlanta Falcons.

Most Points in a Game in 2008 - New York Jets (56) - Arizona Cardinals (35)

Drew Brees has completed 883 passes in the last 2 years. 2nd on the list? Brett Favre with 669.

In the last 2 seasons; Drew Brees has thrown 35 INT’s, Ben Roethlisberger has been sacked 93 times, Clinton Portis Portis has rushed 667 times, Adrian Peterson has rushed for 3101 yards, LaDanian Tomlinso has run in 26 TD’s, Wes Welker has 223 receptions, Larry Fitzgerald has 2840 yards receiving, Randy Moss has 24 receiving TD’s, Stephen Gostkowski has kicked 285 points, Jerious Norwood has 4345 total yards, Kurt Warner, Tony Romo and Big Ben have had 23 fumbles, Ed Reed has 16 INT’s, DeMarcus Ware has 34 sacks and New England have a league best 37 wins, despite failing to make the playoffs last year.

And finally...only 3 of last year's 12 playoff teams lost in week 1. None of them lost in week 9. Spooky.