Len Pasquarelli writes embarassing article about new Cowboys defense

[21Savage]

How do you overcome this kind of career blunder?

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/NFP-Sunday-Blitz-1730.html

Those results might not show up in Dallas’ league-wide ranking versus the run and the pass, but most notably in scoring defense. Kiffin’s units have traditionally been more about points surrendered (or, more accurately, lack of) than standing against the run and pass. In his 15 seasons as an NFL coordinator, Kiffin units have ranked just once in the top 10 in total defense, and that was way back in 1995, with the New Orleans Saints. Somewhat stunningly, in his celebrated 13 seasons in Tampa Bay, the Bucs never statistically ranked higher than 16th in yards allowed and 11 times were 20th or worse. Yet the Bucs were in the top 10 in fewest points allowed in all but one of Kiffin’s seasons there, and never gave up more than 22.1 points per outing. Dallas, by comparison, allowed 25.0 points per game in 2012, ranking No. 24 in the league.

Said Kiffin, whose defenses permitted an average of only 17.8 points per game during his NFL tenure: “Those (points) are the numbers that count the most.”




Then a rebuttal to the article from a Bucs website:

http://www.bucsnation.com/2013/7/7/4500614/len-pasquarelli-buccaneers-monte-kiffin


Actually, the 1995 New Orleans Saints ranked 22nd in total defense. But that's not even the biggest mess in that first sentence, and it's just one sentence mind you. Here are the rankings, in order, for the Bucs' total yards allowed from 1996 to 2008 -- Monte Kiffin's tenure: 11th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 9th, 6th, 1st, 5th, 5th, 1st, 17th, 2nd, 9th.

Kiffin's defenses have ranked in the top 10 in yards allowed in all but three seasons, and one of those seasons was cited by Pasquarelli as a top 10 defense. In fact, the Bucs allowed the fewest yards in the entire league twice during Kiffin's tenure. Twice!
.........................

I know what Pasquarelli did, though. He reversed the rankings for total defense, somewhere. I don't know where or how, but he did. He thought that being ranked 1st meant allowing more yards than the rest of the NFL. Because, fun fact, if you simply reverse Pasquarelli's numbers for league rankings, everything he says is true. Of course, we don't live in opposite world, so everything he says and his conclusions are a bunch of ignorant wankery instead of an interesting column

 

[Doomsday101]

Only 2 stats I'm even concerned about points allowed and turnovers. If the defense can do well in both then we will win more than we lose. Yards allowed really is a meaningless stat.

 

[speedkilz88]

Bizarro Pasquarelli.

 

[Idgit]

Lol.

 

[Future]

Only 2 stats I'm even concerned about points allowed and turnovers. If the defense can do well in both then we will win more than we lose. Yards allowed really is a meaningless stat.

As evidenced by the Cowboys offense circa 2007-2012 lol

 

[21Savage]

Speaking of embarrassing, a mod can correct the spelling in the title for me if anyone even cares

 

[Supercowboy1986]

wow this entire article is just wrong lol

 

[Nav22]

Ugh, poor Len. I always feel for people who royally screw the pooch in their respective professions because we've (almost) all been ther before.

This is about as bad as it gets for a journalist.

 

[Idgit]

Ugh, poor Len. I always feel for people who royally screw the pooch in their respective professions because we've (almost) all been ther before.

This is about as bad as it gets for a journalist.

Good news is, it was just for the National Football Post. Bad news, look at the comments he's getting. Ouch.

 

[pancakeman]

Paging @Pittman4Two !

 

[burmafrd]

and he gets paid pretty well for that. Really sad to what level all journalism has fallen to

 

[Yakuza Rich]

When I think of Pasquarelli I think 'insert Todd Pinkston joke here.'






YR

 

[Yakuza Rich]

It never ceases to amaze me how so many writers who pose as ‘experts’ do not understand the basics behind the numbers of the game. I’m not going to even get into how inept the ‘yards allowed’ metric is when it comes to determining defense. But Pasquarelli should have been able to put 2+2 together and see that something doesn’t make sense. Teams really don’t give up tons of yards and allow very few points. There’s a correlation between the two. For Pasquarelli to not sit there and think ‘gee, that’s really odd, I better check the stats again’ is a shining example of the laziness and ineptitude of professional football media. And the fact that his editor never bothered to check this either would be alarming if this didn’t happen all of the time with editors across the nation.



YR

 

[EchoBrain22]

This is the kind of insight we get from SI, just plain ridiculous.

 

[Galian Beast]

The amendment in the comments section was so milquetoast. Not quite a double down by certainly damage control. In reality the entire case he presented was off base. And if he didn't just stat mine to do his articles, he would understand that the tampa 2 defense is a very bend but don't break style of defense. It gives up a lot of yards underneath to the passing game, but doesn't give up anything deep. This forces the offense to have to pass constantly in order to convert first downs. This means the defense has more chances at turning the ball over, especially if they're predominantly in zone coverage. The zone coverage also makes them better against the run.

Normally the weakness of zone coverage is that the quarterback has all day to pass, but that is why in the Tampa 2 that kiffen runs, you want the best 4 pass rushers you can find for your defensive line. That defensive line has to be able to get after the quarterback.

Ware no longer has much responsibility in the running game, and none in coverage. He is now a full time pass rusher. The responsibility to shut down the run belongs to Bruce Carter now. Which is why the weakside linebacker is such a key position.

I would fire him over this. He barely would make it as a forum poster let alone a journalist... I'm not sure what they're paying him for.

 

[DallasDW00ds0n]

Poor Pastabelly... I wonder what went through his mind after actually getting facts thrown in his face

 

[SportsGuru80]

Pasqabelli never fails LMAO

 

[CyberB0b]

Wait, there are actually Bucs fans out there?

 

[TonyRomo09]

what is upsetting is that her acknowledges the error, and apologizes(sorta, since he claims the point is still valid, even though it isn't)..
8 hours have gone by since his acknowledgement of the errors and the Article is still up.. miss-informing any who would read it and not look at the comments.

 

[Galian Beast]

what is upsetting is that her acknowledges the error, and apologizes(sorta, since he claims the point is still valid, even though it isn't)..
8 hours have gone by since his acknowledgement of the errors and the Article is still up.. miss-informing any who would read it and not look at the comments.

That's the thing that really irritates me. We have a lot of misinformation going on, and it continues to spread because dispelling it takes an extremely long time. Sometimes it's impossible. By leaving it up there, he is doing Cowboys fans a major disservice.