The new NFL: Offense Rules; winning playoff teams allowed 30.5 points last week

[Ring 6]

Every WINNING team in the divisional round allowed at least 28 points and the average was 30.5.
Offense now rulew the NFL

 

[shakadave]

These high-scoring NFL playoffs (surpising stat)

Out of 8 teams who played in the Divisional round of the playoffs, can you guess the LOWEST score of any team? (scroll down for answer)

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28 pts.

The reasons have been much discussed. Rule changes favor the passing game, etc. etc. Does this mean that we've been overly hard on the Pats defense in recent times? Maybe all defenses face an impossible task. What does the term "Championship defense" mean these days?

 

[DarrylS]

I suspect that the NFL has this in the back of their minds, as much as many of us appreciate a good defensive battle... the NFL marketing people are enamored with offensive stars...

Fans and new fans like action...

 

[BlitzFritz]

i agree.

and those div games were HIGHLY entertaining.....

 

[lurker1965]

Meh. Pendulum swings back and forth. I remember the Rams were supposedly ushering in an age of offense. DC's adapted.

Next year we will see every team try a pistol look and every team will have an effective anti-pistol.

 

[RayClay]

I suspect that the NFL has this in the back of their minds, as much as many of us appreciate a good defensive battle... the NFL marketing people are enamored with offensive stars...

Fans and new fans like action...

Yup. Of course that's how the AFL got started.

 

[Ring 6]

Meh. Pendulum swings back and forth. I remember the Rams were supposedly ushering in an age of offense. DC's adapted.

Next year we will see every team try a pistol look and every team will have an effective anti-pistol.

Only 1 of those losing teams had anything even resembling a pistol, and only 1 of the winning teams did.
The average score of those games was 38.5-30.5. The pistol didn't affect much of that.
Its about rule changes not strategy. This is of course the highest scoring divisional round ever, and it happened in every game. That is very different than one great offense, which, by the way, the Patriots have surpassed.

 

[Triumph]

The Ravens gave up 14 points on a KO and Punt return. Those dont happen every week in the new NFL. In both the NE and SF game, those team gave up garbage points after the game was in the bag.

Nobody in their right mind thought GB or Hou had a chance to comeback and win.

Defense wins championships just like offense wins championships. It all depends on who is better that day. Just look at the last years Super Bowl as proof.

 

[Ring 6]

The Ravens gave up 14 points on a KO and Punt return. Those dont happen every week in the new NFL. In both the NE and SF game, those team gave up garbage points after the game was in the bag.

Nobody in their right mind thought GB or Hou had a chance to comeback and win.

Defense wins championships just like offense wins championships. It all depends on who is better that day. Just look at the last years Super Bowl as proof.

Oh, I guess I'm mistaken. Just point me toward all the other seasons that the average score in the division round was anything close to 38.5-30.5 and all 8 teams put up 28 or more points.

 

[Triumph]

Oh, I guess I'm mistaken. Just point me toward all the other seasons that the average score in the division round was anything close to 38.5-30.5 and all 8 teams put up 28 or more points.

I dont mind correcting you. Thats why Im here.

BTW, Kapernick threw a pick 6 on SFs first drive and Sam Shields walked in for a TD. Evidently in the new NFL, those points go on Rodgers ledger board and against the SF defense who was sitting on the bench sipping Gatorade.

Welcome to the new NFL.

 

[Deus Irae]

Wild card round, winning scores:

19
24
24
24

Wild card round, losing scores:

13
10
9
14




Another theory bites the dust.

 

[Ring 6]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyJohnson

Oh, I guess I'm mistaken. Just point me toward all the other seasons that the average score in the division round was anything close to 38.5-30.5 and all 8 teams put up 28 or more points.

I dont mind correcting you. Thats why Im here.

BTW, Kapernick threw a pick 6 on SFs first drive and Sam Shields walked in for a TD. Evidently in the new NFL, those points go on Rodgers ledger board and against the SF defense who was sitting on the bench sipping Gatorade.

Welcome to the new NFL.

I'll keep waiting for the first time you correct me

 

[Triumph]

I'll keep waiting for the first time you correct me



Your memory is good but its very short.

 

[Ring 6]

Wild card round, winning scores:

19
24
24
24

Wild card round, losing scores:

13
10
9
14




Another theory bites the dust.

The only team still alive from that round gave up 35 last week.

 

[Ring 6]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyJohnson

Oh, I guess I'm mistaken. Just point me toward all the other seasons that the average score in the division round was anything close to 38.5-30.5 and all 8 teams put up 28 or more points.

I dont mind correcting you. Thats why Im here.

BTW, Kapernick threw a pick 6 on SFs first drive and Sam Shields walked in for a TD. Evidently in the new NFL, those points go on Rodgers ledger board and against the SF defense who was sitting on the bench sipping Gatorade.

Welcome to the new NFL.

oh and thanks for proving my point with you're grand total of zero examples

 

[Deus Irae]

The only team still alive from that round gave up 35 last week.


That's irrelevant to your argument. You were pointing to this week's losing scores being high. Well, those same teams were dropping 24 and under the week before, against theoretically weaker competition, and the only team still alive from that week gave up 9 that week, while scoring only 24.

 

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

Perhaps only tangentially related:

The fate of the most prolific offenses in NFL history in the postseason?
(source)

1. 2007 New England Patriots - 589 points.
Unfortunately, we don't need to cover this topic here.

2. 2011 Green Bay Packers - 560 points.
Lost 37-20 at home in the divisional round to the NYG

3. 2012 New England Patriots - 557 points.

4. 1998 Minnesota Vikings - 556 points.
Lost the NFC Championship in OT to the Atlanta Falcons 30-27. They were up 10 points with 13 minutes left in the 4th Q, but wound up kneeling out the 4th quarter with 49 sec left, and not being able to muster a score despite 2 possessions in OT.

5. 2011 New Orleans Saints - 547 points.
Went into the post season the #3 seed (lost a tiebreaker to the 49ers), beat the Detroit Lions, and then lost in the Divisional round to the 49ers 32-36.


My quick look at these teams is that they're all prolific passing attacks.
(Regular Season #'s)

#1 - Patriots - 1849 yards rushing. 4.1 YPC
#2 - Packers - 1558 yards rushing. 3.9 YPC
#3 - Patriots - 2184 yards rushing. 4.2 YPC
#4 - Vikings - 1936 yards rushing. 4.3 YPC
#5 - Saints - 2127 yards rushing. 4.9 YPC

So, I don't have any firm results here to make a great point regarding what links all of these teams together aside from scoring a lot.

Let's hope this year's Patriots break the trend of the highest scoring offenses in NFL history falling short of a championship. It's hard to argue that this trend is nothing more than coincidental, though, given the fluke nature of some of the losses seen by these teams.

 

[Ring 6]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyJohnson

The only team still alive from that round gave up 35 last week.




That's irrelevant to your argument. You were pointing to this week's losing scores being high. Well, those same teams were dropping 24 and under the week before, against theoretically weaker competition, and the only team still alive from that week gave up 9 that week, while scoring only 24.

actually its totally relevant. the defense that was good enough to win in the wild card round got lit up in the divisional

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

Perhaps only tangentially related:

The fate of the most prolific offenses in NFL history in the postseason?
(source)

1. 2007 New England Patriots - 589 points.
Unfortunately, we don't need to cover this topic here.

2. 2011 Green Bay Packers - 560 points.
Lost 37-20 at home in the divisional round to the NYG

3. 2012 New England Patriots - 557 points.

4. 1998 Minnesota Vikings - 556 points.
Lost the NFC Championship in OT to the Atlanta Falcons 30-27. They were up 10 points with 13 minutes left in the 4th Q, but wound up kneeling out the 4th quarter with 49 sec left, and not being able to muster a score despite 2 possessions in OT.

5. 2011 New Orleans Saints - 547 points.
Went into the post season the #3 seed (lost a tiebreaker to the 49ers), beat the Detroit Lions, and then lost in the Divisional round to the 49ers 32-36.


My quick look at these teams is that they're all prolific passing attacks.
(Regular Season #'s)

#1 - Patriots - 1849 yards rushing. 4.1 YPC
#2 - Packers - 1558 yards rushing. 3.9 YPC
#3 - Patriots - 2184 yards rushing. 4.2 YPC
#4 - Vikings - 1936 yards rushing. 4.3 YPC
#5 - Saints - 2127 yards rushing. 4.9 YPC

So, I don't have any firm results here to make a great point regarding what links all of these teams together aside from scoring a lot.

Let's hope this year's Patriots break the trend of the highest scoring offenses in NFL history falling short of a championship. It's hard to argue that this trend is nothing more than coincidental, though, given the fluke nature of some of the losses seen by these teams.

Interesting info. One way it applies to this thread, 4 of the 5 highest scoring offenses are very recent. This suggests (not proves) that the "new NFL" is aiding in higher scoring offenses.
But last weekend is only one weekend. It simply is too small a sample to prove anything. We will have to see what happens in the next few years as well as compare to the previous few yeas to have a sufficient amount of instances to make a conclusion.

With that said, there exists today less intimidation of receivers through bodily harm, significant special protection for the QB in and out of the pocket, looser OL holding rules, and what some would suggest is rules making defensive PI likelier. We will have to see the long term trend to be certain but it seems very likely the results of this will be more potent offense/weakened defense.

 

[BTTA]

For the next software upgrade for this board, it would be nice to have a symbol next to the threads where two or three posters get into a back and forth argument that dominates the thread. Some kind of "early warning" that points out the lack of diversity in participation and argumentative nature of the conversation. It would save a lot of time. And it would be easy to get into the code.