Patriots defense are ranked 15th in the NFL in PPG allowed

[Texxx]

I hate the way the NFL has these useless defensive rankings they do that are based off of a ton of different defensive stats. I've always looked at how many points a team gives up, because that's what matters. A great offense like what the Pats have can help out the defense by scoring a lot to where other teams have to pass, and that gives the defense the ability to predict what how teams will call their plays if they're behind, but "scoring wise" the Patriots are ranked 15th in PPG all season long. All I keep hearing is how they are ranked 31st or whatever it is from week to week, and I don't deny that they have a few holes that have been concerns all year, but points wise, they've been in the middle of the pack. Not quite as bad as some people including myself have made it out to be in the last two months.

NFL Stats: by Team Category

 

[Kid~Brady]

Yeah, I agree.

People are wayyyy to wrapped around stats and not what really happens and matters for the team. We can give up 800 YPG, as long as we keep holding teams to FGs in the red zone, thats fine with me.

 

[Texxx]

Yeah, I agree.

People are wayyyy to wrapped around stats and not what really happens and matters for the team. We can give up 800 YPG, as long as we keep holding teams to FGs in the red zone, thats fine with me.

And that makes a huge difference if teams are really really good on defense inside the 20's. I'm not trying to state that this defense doesn't have problems and that they don't scare me a lot at times, but over all they're in the middle of the pack when it comes to what they give up on the scoreboard which is "what matters." NFL rankings as far as team offense and team defense has always been a joke, because they rely on yards and other factors that don't win games at the end of the day. Give me a defense that can keep teams out of of the end zone.

 

[Ron Sellers]

Two things I don't care for are (1) the fact yards rather points are how offenses and defenses are officially ranked by the NFL, and (2) the misused 'total' offense or defense for those rankings. If they want to make a stat and term it 'total' offense or defense then do something similar to quarterback rating where it's a combination of the most relevant stats. To me that would be points, turnovers, and red zone efficiency. If you wanted to add another category perhaps consider yards per point, though the concept of the importance of that stat may be too difficult for many to grasp.

Yardage in any variation (total yardage, yards per game, yards per play) would be so far down the list of important factors I wouldn't even include it if such a new stat were to be devised.

It's no coincidence that you find a closer correlation to wins and losses when you look at the points rankings than you do with the yardage rankings.