A couple of years ago, I composed a 2007 Appreciation Thread. Two things truly stand out about them
1)
Brady had authored one of the finest seasons ever enjoyed by an NFL quarterback, completing 68.9% of his passes, accumulating a 6.25:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and topping Manning’s single-season touchdown record (50). “To bring some clarity and perspective to Brady's season,” wrote Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN, “think of it this way: He has more touchdown passes than the rest of the AFC East (31), more than the combined totals of Brett Favre and Drew Brees (44), and the exact combined totals of Peyton and Eli Manning. He also has just five interceptions in 476 pass attempts. Dallas 'Tony Romo threw that many picks in a single game this season” These were out-of-this-world numbers that defied description.
Manning’s 2013-14 season came about during a more prolific offensive climate than Brady’s 2007 gem, his increased offensive output doesn't move the needle as much as Brady’s did when yards and points were at more of a premium. Furthermore, the numbers show that Brady would likely have had better numbers if given more opportunities. Any fantasy owner can attest to the sheer volume of Manning’s 2013 stats. His 55 touchdowns in 2013 trumps Brady’s ’07 total by five, and his 5,477 yards gives him a 671-yard advantage. Manning also threw 16 more touchdowns than the next closest quarterback this season, while Brady eclipsed the field by 14 scores in 2007. Yet while Manning threw five more touchdowns in 2014 than Brady did in 07', he also attempted 81 more passes. So, while he edges Brady in sheer volume, Brady actually threw touchdowns at a higher clip in 2007. It’s close, but Brady’s touchdown percentage beats Manning’s, 8.7 to 8.3. In other words, if Brady threw the football as often as Manning, he would have heaved 57 touchdowns passes and his record would still stand.
In 2013, teams surrendered 43 percent more yards to Manning than the average quarterback and more than twice as many touchdowns than against every other quarterback they faced. Yet Brady’s 2007 ratios are even more impressive as he averaged 48 percent more yards than defenses had otherwise allowed and a mind-blowing 150 percent more touchdowns than his opponents yielded, on average to their other opponents. That means when Brady came to town, however many touchdowns you expected to give up, you could count on doubling that number, then adding half of it again! And he did so against tougher defenses than Manning.
In 2013, the Broncos faced only two top-10 ranked pass defenses across the NFL and just one of the top five, whereas Brady and the 2007 Patriots went toe-to-toe with a top-10 defense six times, including four showdowns against top-five units. The Broncos also squared off against one of the league’s 10 worst pass defenses nine times, including an astonishing six matchups against a team ranked in the bottom five in defense. The Brady and the Pats had no such luck, only netting four games against teams ranked among the 10 worst in defense and just two matchups—both vs. the Bills —against a bottom-five unit.
2)
Title or not, though, for a solid 18 weeks, New England was home to what was literally the most prolific offense the NFL had ever seen, whose + 315 point differential was 127 more than that year’s second place Indianapolis Colt’s (+ 188). I was inspired by
a Reddit post of an image from the Patriots 2007 season, which stated that the Patriots had the fewest drives in the league (102), yet had produced the greatest number of touchdown drives (51). By the end of the season, the Patriots had increased their drive total to the third fewest in the league (170) ahead of only the Colts (166) and the Jaguars (169), but the point stood: the Patriots 2007 offense was the most ruthlessly efficient ever witnessed in NFL history, with over 40% of their drives resulting in a touchdown. Combining the 21 field goals with the 75 offensive touchdowns means that the 2007 scored on 88 out of 167 offensive possessions, giving them and astonishing scoring percentage of 52.7%. While the 2013 Broncos might have scored more points than the 07 Pats, they did so on 32 additional drives.
Reddit user 2037764943 decided to look at
Points per Drive statistics since 1991 to see which teams scored the most consistently over the course of their seasons. It's no surprise that the 2007 Patriots scored highest for PPD and set the gold standard for offenses. The 2007 New England Patriots scored 3.53 points per drive, which clearly cements them as the best offense in the history of the game. To put these statistics in perspective, the 2011 Packers scored 3.05 points per drive. The '99 Greatest Show on Turf scored 2.85 points per drive. The 1998 Cunningham-to-Moss Vikings scored 2.92 points per drive. The 2013 Denver Broncos scored 2.98 points per drive, which is still impressive, but New England’s offense was playing on a whole other level in 2007. Again, the '07 Patriots scored
3.53 points per drive! That's insane!
