Okay so I know the Patriots Pass defense is not good by any measure but in doing some research on their performances it does not seem as bad as most people say. Hear me out.
The eyeball test as well as the analysts incessantly mentioning they are historically bad seemed to indicate the pass defense is terrible. I wanted to see how better opposing teams passed against the Patriots relative to the rest of the league so I crunched some numbers and the result was surprising okay.
I started out by totaling the QB performances against the Patriots. Here are the numbers:
Season total: 310-485 (63.9%) 3,894yds, 8.03YPA, 18TD, 17INT 86.57 rating
Per game avg: 25.8-40.4, 324.5yds, 1.5TD, 1.42INT
I then compiled the totals for the QBs against the rest of the league and here are the numbers:
Season total: 1,838-3,010 (61.1%), 22,060yds, 7.33YPA, 138TD, 90INT 86.33 rating
*Per game avg: 24.2-39.7, 291.4yds, 1.84TD, 1.17INT
*For the sake of simplicity, to calculate a per game average, I omitted partial games and their corresponding stats.
Take a look at the QB rating.. Basically the QBs that played against the Patriots have put up the same numbers as they put up against the rest of the league in terms of efficiency! Against the Patriots, the volume yardage is obviously way up but is achieved at the expense of a much lower TD-INT ratio. The 0.7YPA increase is rather alarming but the extra 33yards per game extra seems worth it since the trade off is less TD passes and more INTs. When you factor the large amount of garbage time stats accrued, it explains a lot where a fair amount of those yards are coming from.
The eyeball test as well as the analysts incessantly mentioning they are historically bad seemed to indicate the pass defense is terrible. I wanted to see how better opposing teams passed against the Patriots relative to the rest of the league so I crunched some numbers and the result was surprising okay.
I started out by totaling the QB performances against the Patriots. Here are the numbers:
Season total: 310-485 (63.9%) 3,894yds, 8.03YPA, 18TD, 17INT 86.57 rating
Per game avg: 25.8-40.4, 324.5yds, 1.5TD, 1.42INT
I then compiled the totals for the QBs against the rest of the league and here are the numbers:
Season total: 1,838-3,010 (61.1%), 22,060yds, 7.33YPA, 138TD, 90INT 86.33 rating
*Per game avg: 24.2-39.7, 291.4yds, 1.84TD, 1.17INT
*For the sake of simplicity, to calculate a per game average, I omitted partial games and their corresponding stats.
Take a look at the QB rating.. Basically the QBs that played against the Patriots have put up the same numbers as they put up against the rest of the league in terms of efficiency! Against the Patriots, the volume yardage is obviously way up but is achieved at the expense of a much lower TD-INT ratio. The 0.7YPA increase is rather alarming but the extra 33yards per game extra seems worth it since the trade off is less TD passes and more INTs. When you factor the large amount of garbage time stats accrued, it explains a lot where a fair amount of those yards are coming from.
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