Of Cause and Correlation, the Cowboys Defense 2014

kramskoi

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Fascinating article this morning with some steely math thrown in. It seems that there is a correlation between 3rd down defense percentage and points allowed, at least for the Cowboys. I checked this correlation versus a few games around the league and it breaks down under the 10 point scoring threshold. So it's special for the Cowboys only, but it is almost psychic in its predictive value. If true, then you might not need to wait until the end of the game to know how many points the Cowboys will give up, unless of course a deluge of turnovers just totally swamp the correlation. Excellent read:

http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2014/11/24/7275351/the-cowboys-defensive-challenge-in-chart-form

Also, a disturbing trend has slowly reared its head since the Seahawks game, namely an increasing snap count for the defense, with a commensurate reduction by the offense. A season low 54 snaps but a "very" high point per snap rate (.57). It looks like Dallas will be tested again versus the up-tempo Eagles offense, so we will see if the trend continues.
 
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