Interesting Patriot Statistics

I figure it would be neat to have a thread for interesting or surprising statistics - anything that gives you a bit of a surprise when you first see it.

So here's one I saw today - the surprising James White joins the unsurprising Deon Lewis as one of the hardest RBs to tackle:

Patriots' Dion Lewis, James White are 2 of NFL's hardest RBs to tackle

Or this weird statistic that claims Brady was nowhere near the quickest in time-to-throw in 2016, when in fact he ranked 21st, well behind both Brissett (9th) and Garoppolo (6th):

Next Gen Stats Leaders

Not sure how that fits with the many years where Brady was generally the quickest:

Signature Stat Snapshot: Time To Throw | PFF

(Different sources, so I don't know if they are measuring differently or not).

Anyhow, please post any surprising stats you come across, whether for the team as a whole or for individual players.

Here's one that I like to throw out there because it's fun to say even though we all understand the circumstances................

The Patriots have a WIDE RECEIVER who has more Pro Bowl nominations (6) than career receptions (1).


That's right......Matthew Slater

SlowGettingUp said:

I figure it would be neat to have a thread for interesting or surprising statistics - anything that gives you a bit of a surprise when you first see it.

So here's one I saw today - the surprising James White joins the unsurprising Deon Lewis as one of the hardest RBs to tackle:

Patriots' Dion Lewis, James White are 2 of NFL's hardest RBs to tackle

Or this weird statistic that claims Brady was nowhere near the quickest in time-to-throw in 2016, when in fact he ranked 21st, well behind both Brissett (9th) and Garoppolo (6th):

Next Gen Stats Leaders

Not sure how that fits with the many years where Brady was generally the quickest:

Signature Stat Snapshot: Time To Throw | PFF

(Different sources, so I don't know if they are measuring differently or not).

Anyhow, please post any surprising stats you come across, whether for the team as a whole or for individual players.

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Brady had more time in the pocket and the offense seemed to incorporate longer routes this season so maybe that's what effected his release time. Not necessarily the worst thing. Release time is crucial when you have a crumbling oline.

Edit: Also it makes sense Brisset and JG had quicker release times due to less games. Also, the Patriots seemed to think quick routes depending on the skill positions strength instead of relying on the complexity of developing routes of which Brady has the best pocket presence and field vision. JG and Brisset don't have the discipline to allow for that, so why not rely on your small receiver's best quality.

brdmaverick said:

Here's one that I like to throw out there because it's fun to say even though we all understand the circumstances................

The Patriots have a WIDE RECEIVER who has more Pro Bowl nominations (6) than career receptions (1).


That's right......Matthew Slater

Click to expand...

And they have a quarterback who also has a 6:1 ratio, 12 Pro Bowl nominations and 2 receptions, Brady...

I believe that we are undefeated when Lewis is active for the game.

brdmaverick said:

Here's one that I like to throw out there because it's fun to say even though we all understand the circumstances................

The Patriots have a WIDE RECEIVER who has more Pro Bowl nominations (6) than career receptions (1).


That's right......Matthew Slater

Click to expand...

Didn't the Pats have to put Slater into the 2015 AFCCG when the they were decimated with injuries but Manning was healthy due to the HGH mysteriously being mailed to his house?

HGH-gate has a nice ring to it, but BSPN "deflated" that story as quickly as they could. After all its not the Donkeys who are constantly kicking their favorite football teams ass.... nope, it's the big bad Patriots who are kicking the Jets ass year in and year out. BSPN "journalists" consist of a large % of employees from New York, Long Island to be specific. Coincidence?? I think not.

Sorry, I digress. Cool stat - I would have thought he would have more catches.

mgteich said:

I believe that we are undefeated when Lewis is active for the game.

Click to expand...

David Andrews is also something like 25-1 with Brady. Interestingly the one loss is the Seattle game where Lewis was healthy but sat out.

SlowGettingUp said:

I figure it would be neat to have a thread for interesting or surprising statistics - anything that gives you a bit of a surprise when you first see it.

So here's one I saw today - the surprising James White joins the unsurprising Deon Lewis as one of the hardest RBs to tackle:

Patriots' Dion Lewis, James White are 2 of NFL's hardest RBs to tackle

Or this weird statistic that claims Brady was nowhere near the quickest in time-to-throw in 2016, when in fact he ranked 21st, well behind both Brissett (9th) and Garoppolo (6th):

Next Gen Stats Leaders

Not sure how that fits with the many years where Brady was generally the quickest:

Signature Stat Snapshot: Time To Throw | PFF

(Different sources, so I don't know if they are measuring differently or not).

Anyhow, please post any surprising stats you come across, whether for the team as a whole or for individual players.

Click to expand...

Just my thoughts.

Re Time to Throw. I didn't expect that but after thinking about it I think that says a lot about the O line improvement because the rest of Brady's stats in that chart are some of the best in the league. So he wasn't under any significant pressure because he was getting rid of the ball late.

Other accompanying stats for Brady:

*(Adjusted Brady's stats out for 16 games for comparison purposes)

Completion percentage - 67.3 ranked 7th
QB Rating ----------------- 112.2 ranked 3rd
QB Sacks ------------------ 20* ranked 6th (Filtered out QB's with less than 200 attempts)
QB Passing yards -------- 4739* ranked 4th
QB Touchdowns --------- 37* ranked 3rd
QB Interceptions -------- 3 ranked 2nd (Bryan Hoyer ranked first with 0 but only had 200 attempts)


Further adding to the time (assuming both Time-to-Throw charts are measured identically) is the Big Passing Play and Passing Yards per attempt increase. IOW, Brady threw more deep balls this year than in the recent past which takes longer.

Passing Yards per Attempt:
Team Passing Yards Per Attempt: 2016 NFL Season

2016 - 8.10 ranked 3rd
2015 - 7.65 ranked 9th
2014 - 7.05 ranked 20th
2013 - 6.51 ranked 15th

Big Passing Plays: 25+ Yards
Team Big Play Statistics: 2013 NFL Season

2016 - 42 ranked 3rd
2015 - 39 ranked 4th
2014 - 27 ranked 19th
2013 - 26 ranked 24th

SlowGettingUp said:

Tom Brady and his insane Super Bowl stats

Click to expand...

Probably never equalled are his 25 & 9 win loss record(74% wins) in the post season, the closest active player to this record is Roethlisberger with 13 wins... the closest retired player is Joe Montana with 16....

Tony2046 said:

Big Passing Plays: 25+ Yards
Team Big Play Statistics: 2013 NFL Season

2016 - 42 ranked 3rd
2015 - 39 ranked 4th
2014 - 27 ranked 19th
2013 - 26 ranked 24th

Click to expand...

Wouldn't this stat be better at showing that Brady held the ball longer if you subtract YAC? With YAC in there, it doesn't always indicate a long throw.

bresna said:

Wouldn't this stat be better at showing that Brady held the ball longer if you subtract YAC? With YAC in there, it doesn't always indicate a long throw.

Click to expand...

Yes, I think this does muddle things. One the one hand we have articles like this:

Tom Brady has been one of the best deep ball quarterbacks in the NFL

And on the other, an analysis of long throws that suggests Brady is very much middle-of-the-pack, with Sam Bradford the best:

The 2016-17 Deep Ball Project (Part 3/3)

(See charts at end - the actual Brady analysis is in part I).

bresna said:

Wouldn't this stat be better at showing that Brady held the ball longer if you subtract YAC? With YAC in there, it doesn't always indicate a long throw.

Click to expand...

Yes. It was one or two in the morning and I just wanted to point out that his yards per pass etc.... were increasing which may explain the increase in his Time to Throw stat.

But if I can find a database that charts his actual pass distance year by year it would be much better.

Here's one I always thought was crazy. Just did some research on pro-football-reference to confirm.

When passing 50+ times in the playoffs, all QBs in NFL history except Tom Brady have a cumulative record of 3-28. However, Brady's record in the playoffs when passing 50+ times is 5-2. That is insane.

Some tidbits on that:
Brady's losses were to Balt. in 2013 and Den. in 2016
Jay Schroeder threw 50 times in a playoff game 1991 and scored no points.
Dan Fouts beat the Dolphins in 1982
Eli Manning beat SF in 2012
Bernie Kosar beat the Jets in 1987

zoostation said:

Didn't the Pats have to put Slater into the 2015 AFCCG when the they were decimated with injuries but Manning was healthy due to the HGH mysteriously being mailed to his house?

HGH-gate has a nice ring to it, but BSPN "deflated" that story as quickly as they could. After all its not the Donkeys who are constantly kicking their favorite football teams ass.... nope, it's the big bad Patriots who are kicking the Jets ass year in and year out. BSPN "journalists" consist of a large % of employees from New York, Long Island to be specific. Coincidence?? I think not.

Sorry, I digress. Cool stat - I would have thought he would have more catches.

Click to expand...

Yup, just the one. 8 career regular season targets, only 1 catch (2011 opener vs Miami). I forget the exact wording, but his catch was a long one and Gruden (on MNF) commented something like "When Slater is on the field you have to know where he is at all times."......um, right, so the guy who had 0 career receptions just moments prior, ya, let's focus all of our attention on him.

I haven't done any research to confirm this stat, but I suspect the 2016 Patriots are (if not the only one then) one of only a few Super Bowl winning teams in which three different quarterbacks (Brady, Garrapolo, Brisset) were credited with wins.

This is OT but I ran into this looking for some stats for my previous post and thought it was interesting.

There have been 15,741 various scores in all NFL games. A score of 20-17 has been the result more often than any other score.
All Game Scores in Pro Football History | Pro-Football-Reference.com

The top ten NFL game final scores:


The Patriots have participated in 11 games in which the score of the game was the only time that score had been the result in NFL history.

FWIW: There have been 254 NFL games in which the score of the game has only been a final result once.




Top twentyfive scores that have never been a result of an NFL game:

FWIW: There have been 407 scores (capped at 50-50) that have never happened.
Missing Game Scores in Pro Football History | Pro-Football-Reference.com



Believe or not a team can be awarded 1 point during a FG attempt if a safety occurs. Highly unlikely but possible.

It has happened at the college level. The NFL has the same rule.



There has only been four games with a point total of more than 100

Top twenty point totals in NFL history:


And finally:

Top twenty largest Point Differential in NFL history:

Usually PFF disses Brady - too many "easy" throws for their ranking system, but in 2016 he actually came out on top - Ryan got dinged for his four TDs off screen passes:

Comparing PFF QB grades to traditional passer rating | PFF

wow, that one point safety still puzzles me. I'm not sure why they wouldn't make the rule a 2 point safety. Oh well

Kevin Faulk>Russ Francis
Danny Amendola > Andrew Hawkins