Question about how defenses are rated

[Reverend Conehead]

Are defenses rated based just on yards given up? If so, that's not a very good system. If you're such a good team that you blow teams out, defenses go into a prevent mode that's designed to burn up as much time as possible while allowing some yards. Thus if your team is really good, it could skew your defensive ranking -- that's if it's ranked by just yardage. Hugely important is how many takeaways a defense gets. I remember the Thurman's Thieves defense of the '81 team. It was not ranked well against the run, but it was a takeaway machine, and that was a team that made it to the NFC Championship and nearly won. Obviously, points allowed is big, as is how well it stops teams in the red zone, forcing field goals instead of allowing TDs. I'm just wondering if they have some formula that takes all these important things into account or if it's just a plain old yards allowed comparison.

 

[Techsass]

Actually I don't think points allowed weighs that heavily. I was looking up D stats & they had Chicago @ 18 & us @ 24 even though they give up almost 8 more points per game.

 

[conner01]

Most stats on offense or defense don't translate to success in themselves
On offense yards are great but if those yards don't lead to points the what's the point?
On defense yards do keep field position but points allowed is really huge. Take always are huge because they give you opportunities for points and take away an opportunity for them to score
Sacks are great but takeaways are really a bigger deal to me
But if I look at any one stat, to me it's about points. If any one stat is the biggest it's points and that's on either side of the ball. Score more points than you give up and you win every week

 

[gmoney112]

The defensive "rankings" usually used is yards, total yards. And I think we can all agree that's pretty dumb.

Per drive statistics are much better. Points Per Drive, TO's forced per drive, and yards allowed per drive is how I look at it. Best way, in my opinion, to see which defenses are actually doing their jobs.

 

[StylisticS]

I honestly like yards per play or yards per carry for rushing and yards per attempt for passing. But I guess you can make an argument that if one team goes into prevent, that will be inflated as well. I look at that as more of a better gauge than just yards, though. For instance, last year, they have Dallas as the 5th best pass defense in the league. I don't think any of us would say that we had the 5th best passing defense in the year but by yards, that's exactly what we were. We were better than Carolina, Arizona, and the Cheifs. But if you change it to yards per attempt, Dallas falls to 23rd.

 

[Billy Bullocks]

It's typically yards. Sometimes it's accurate. Sometimes its Parcells 10-6 season with the #1 defense.

As other posters have said, there's better measures (per possession stats, points, turnovers, etc.)

 

[jchap]

It's hard to put accurate metrics on our "pray they screw up on the way to the endzone" defense.

 

[DandyDon52]

Most stats on offense or defense don't translate to success in themselves
On offense yards are great but if those yards don't lead to points the what's the point?
On defense yards do keep field position but points allowed is really huge. Take always are huge because they give you opportunities for points and take away an opportunity for them to score
Sacks are great but takeaways are really a bigger deal to me
But if I look at any one stat, to me it's about points. If any one stat is the biggest it's points and that's on either side of the ball. Score more points than you give up and you win every week

yeah I look at points allowed, and it is usually a good gauge.
I wish they would break that into categorys, because a pick 6, fumble 6, and short field like a turnover in red zone, all are included in one PA total.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Its yards. I checked ESPN today to see where we ranked in points....we actually rank 10th in points. So it depends on how you feel. Do you consider giving up a bunch of yards a bad thing if you only give up 20 points a game? Or are you ok with holding a teams yardage low but giving up more points?

I don't think there is a true defensive stat out there. Its always been by yardage when reality points is what matter the most. Especially when you are whooping on a team and they are getting garbage yards while you're in a prevent.

 

[JDSmith]

Are defenses rated based just on yards given up? If so, that's not a very good system. If you're such a good team that you blow teams out, defenses go into a prevent mode that's designed to burn up as much time as possible while allowing some yards. Thus if your team is really good, it could skew your defensive ranking -- that's if it's ranked by just yardage. Hugely important is how many takeaways a defense gets. I remember the Thurman's Thieves defense of the '81 team. It was not ranked well against the run, but it was a takeaway machine, and that was a team that made it to the NFC Championship and nearly won. Obviously, points allowed is big, as is how well it stops teams in the red zone, forcing field goals instead of allowing TDs. I'm just wondering if they have some formula that takes all these important things into account or if it's just a plain old yards allowed comparison.

It's just yards. I like the Aikman Efficiency Ratings because they includes things like red zone efficiency and turnovers.

 

[DandyDon52]

It's just yards. I like the Aikman Efficiency Ratings because they includes things like red zone efficiency and turnovers.

http://www.aikman.com/AikmanEfficie...man-Efficiency-Ratings-2016-As-of-Week-3.aspx
I looked at these and cowboys are # 3 on offense # 18 on defense
Falcons and raiders are 1 and 2 on offense.
Eagles # 1 on defense.