Facts. Not junk: No 9-7 team has ever won a Super Bowl.

[PatriotSeven]

It can be even simpler than that. The more plays needed to score, the more time is consumed. Thus, the more plays you force your opponent to take to score, the less time they have to accumulate points. Combine that with a quick strike offense and you simply can't keep up. It's simple yet brilliant.

Absolutely, you are right with that too and on the other side of the ball, the Pats offense scores quick too and does just that. Look at time of possession. Way in favor of the opponent. Does anyone honestly believe this offense couldn't control the clock if they wanted to? It's obvious they don't.

Like I tried to explain before... the Patriots don't WANT to get their defense off the field. They want their offense to score quick, and put this guy...

Out there.

Football is like anything else in life. You cannot be the best if you do what everyone else does.

How how you "wear down" a defense when your offensive players are getting the living snot beat out of them? They may get tired, but really...you're gonna wear him down with your running back? Ok....Great strategy

 

[Satchboogie3]

The Giants played badly when a number of their key players were injured/being lazy/collecting a paycheck.

The Giants played well when a number of their key players were healthy/motivated/hungry.

Considering they're at 100% health (besides the deep bone bruises that will take a week to heal courtesy of Justin Smith and Donte Whitner), I don't know if I would necessarily bet against them at this point.

All I'm saying is that two of the best teams in the NFL are going to leave it all on the field in 2 weeks. They both have experience and motivation. I swear I don't believe in God, but **** if I wasn't invoking the name of MHK last night when the ball went wide.

Facts, not junk.

Here's the NEP's YPP ranking over the 10 game win streak: 9.0
Here's the Giants YPP ranking over their 5 game win streak: 9.7

Pretty evenly matched up, especially when you factor in the fact that NE has been much much more consistent this year. It's going to be a dog fight, but there's no reason to freak out.

 

[PatriotSeven]

Here's the NEP's YPP ranking over the 10 game win streak: 9.0
Here's the Giants YPP ranking over their 5 game win streak: 9.7

Pretty evenly matched up, especially when you factor in the fact that NE has been much much more consistent this year. It's going to be a dog fight, but there's no reason to freak out.

Well what I like about ypp is that it's mainly an offensive stat. Offensive YPP alone is ~90% as accurate as net which kind of opens your eyes to how big a lie the whole "defense wins championships" cliche is.

And the Giants defensive number you posted over the past 5 games included a 125.3 YPP rating from Atlanta. LOL. 6x the normal average of the worse team in the NFL. Inflated much? The Broncos didn't play that bad in their loss to the Pats.

YPP is no different than any other stat if not placed into context. After YPP turnovers is the next biggest difference maker and 1 turnover can take you from a top 10 team in efficiency to a bottom of the league.

With that in mind:

Giants most recent game against the 49ers: 17.6(+ 2 turnover margin) This is inefficient. It's the equivalent of the 27th most inefficient offense in the league.
Pats against Baltimore: 14.3(-2) turnover margin. Equivalent of #8 team in the league.

So the 49ers on a day when they played pretty crappy gave them + 2 turnover margin, which should have made the Giants very efficient, yet they ended up 27th in the league.

The Patriots against a Ravens defense who put the Pats at -2 still ended up efficient enough to be considered the 8th most efficient offense in the league.

That is a huge difference in accomplishment. That is a huge difference in execution. That is a huge difference in scoring ability. It's black and white. YPP is about the QUALITY of your team. The QUALITY of your opposition however matters just as much.

So one of two things happened. Either 49ers played a lot more amazing than the Ravens defense, making the Giants very inefficient offensively and I am just blind or the 49ers defense screwed the pooch, Giants are average and the Pats simply did something they have done 4 times already this season in the regular season(they have won 4 games with a - turnover margin) against a good Ravens defense who played a good game.

It's one or the other and I saw nothing from the 49ers defense execution to make me believe the Giants offense is to be feared. They were average all season, and on a day when the 49ers #1 defense played average, the Giants came out 27th in the league in offensive efficiency. That doesn't scream confidence. It doesn't scream improvement.

 

[bigblue420]

Damn. All these great computer generated stats and facts. Don't think we should even bother showing up, clearly numbers are everything. Might as well forfeit.

That's why they PLAY the games. The games don't take place on paper.

The defense/offense are FINALLY getting healthy, didn't have Osi Umenyiora for a few games, didn't have Boley for a few games, didn't have Tuck for a few games. Didn't have Prince Amukamara most of the regular season. Didn't have Ahmad Bradshaw for a chunk of the season. Mario Manningham missed a few games. Don't know if your spreadsheet accounts for all of this.

I think it will be a close game and I even think the Patriots are going to win, but it's not because of your stats on your spreadsheet.

 

[PatriotSeven]

Damn. All these great computer generated stats and facts. Don't think we should even bother showing up, clearly numbers are everything. Might as well forfeit.

That's why they PLAY the games. The games don't take place on paper.

The defense/offense are FINALLY getting healthy, didn't have Osi Umenyiora for a few games, didn't have Boley for a few games, didn't have Tuck for a few games. Didn't have Prince Amukamara most of the regular season. Didn't have Ahmad Bradshaw for a chunk of the season. Mario Manningham missed a few games. Don't know if your spreadsheet accounts for all of this.

I think it will be a close game and I even think the Patriots are going to win, but it's not because of your stats on your spreadsheet.

That's great but nobody's doubting the decent Giants defense. Everyone and their mother continue to disrespect one of the best defenses in the league, not to mention a consistent winning team who execute non-stop.

Patriots deal with injuries too. All teams do.

And no, obviously no stat would ever account for what you are mentioning, but the reason I like yards per point, is because it measures execution, which is what it comes down to most of the time anyway. Not talent. The NFL is full of talent, talented players an teams who execute poorly and never have winning seasons.