Wildcard weekend interesting facts

[SackMaster]

1. Dallas was the only Home Team to win this weekend.

Houston lost in Houston
Baltimore lost in Baltimore
Chicago lost in Chicago

So much for Home Field Advantage
*** Although it sounds like Dallas Fans at the game did a GREAT job of being loud at the right times ***​

2. Dak was the only "Young QB" to win during the WC Weekend.

Look at the QB match-ups, winner first:

• Luck vs Watson
• Dak vs Wilson
• Rivers vs Jackson
• Foles vs Trubisky

And of all the QBs playing, Wilson was easily the highest rated one (110.9 vs 105.5 by Rivers)
​

3. Does Defense win Championships? (I think it matters, but this weekend said otherwise)

The three Top 5 Scoring Defenses in the NFL that made the playoffs all lost:

• 1st - Bears at 17.7 ppg
• 2nd - Ravens at 17.9 ppg
• T-4th - Texans at 19.8 ppg

In case you are wondering, Dallas ranked 6th at 20.2 ppg.
​

4. So then OBVIOUSLY Offense wins Championships, right?

Every team that was the better scoring offense won, unless they played against the NFC East​

• Seattle (26.8 ppg) vs Dallas (21.2 ppg)
• Chicago (26.3 ppg) vs Philly (22.9 ppg)

None of this really matters, it just a few things I found interesting.

 

[conner01]

A stat that surprised me was we only converted 4 of 11 on 3rd down
So far this season that has meant bad news

 

[jazzcat22]

A stat that surprised me was we only converted 4 of 11 on 3rd down
So far this season that has meant bad news

Yeah they need to improve upon that. Seems the red zone TD's have went up a bit. I think 8 in their last 11 trips. But get those 3rd downs converted, all the better.

And for those that don't know. TD's count as a 1st down in the stat sheets. So a TD on a 3rd down is also a 3rd down conversion.
Unless they changed all of that for some dumb reason as they change other stuff for dumb reasons.

 

[BoysfanfromCanada]

A stat that surprised me was we only converted 4 of 11 on 3rd down
So far this season that has meant bad news

Which is why people get frustrated with Linehan. I mean, 3rd and 10+, Maybe don't risk too much. But 3rd and 7, you have so many weapons available to you, especially TEs of late, but we never use them. Or when we run, we make it obvious with jumbo package on 3rd and 1....why not keep Cooper, Beasley and Gallop in to give the Lbs and safeties something to think about?? Rather than have them all pin ears back and get after Zeke

 

[Nightman]

Yeah they need to improve upon that. Seems the red zone TD's have went up a bit. I think 8 in their last 11 trips. But get those 3rd downs converted, all the better.

And for those that don't know. TD's count as a 1st down in the stat sheets. So a TD on a 3rd down is also a 3rd down conversion.
Unless they changed all of that for some dumb reason as they change other stuff for dumb reasons.

The really important down is second down.... I see teams treat 3rd and shorts too casually and accept punting too easily......keeping the ball is the most important goal for an offense behind actually scoring and you don't score without the ball....... Field position isn't nearly as important as teams and announcers make it out to be....it isn't 1972 anymore

Teams need to be concerned when converting 2nd and short.... they aren't 'free downs'.... get the first and pick up 4-8 extra yards.... that is how you move the chains
Teams leave too many 3rd and shorts that can't all be converted
Don't base your whole offense on converting 3rds

If you have 2nd and 10 don't do the automatic running play like 90% of coaches do to get a more manageable 3rd and long...... get aggressive and try to pick up the 1st

 

[bdk76]

Also interesting...every team that won wore white jerseys lol

 

[percyhoward]

A stat that surprised me was we only converted 4 of 11 on 3rd down.

We had 23 first downs in the game, so that means we converted 19 times on 1st or 2nd down.

 

[Nightman]

Which is why people get frustrated with Linehan. I mean, 3rd and 10+, Maybe don't risk too much. But 3rd and 7, you have so many weapons available to you, especially TEs of late, but we never use them. Or when we run, we make it obvious with jumbo package on 3rd and 1....why not keep Cooper, Beasley and Gallop in to give the Lbs and safeties something to think about?? Rather than have them all pin ears back and get after Zeke

Spread them out and give Dak a Read Option..... a little hesitation from the DEs can make all the difference instead of just crashing down

 

[pansophy]

A stat that surprised me was we only converted 4 of 11 on 3rd down
So far this season that has meant bad news

That's only stat to judge Dak on as a passer IMO -- we have been no better than 19th in 3rd and long conversions since he started. Penalties and negative running plays typically kill our drives on the spot.

But I think Seattle was worse on 3rd down weren't they? They were certainly worse for most of the game. I don't know how it ended up.

 

[conner01]

That's only stat to judge Dak on as a passer IMO -- we have been no better than 19th in 3rd and long conversions since he started. Penalties and negative running plays typically kill our drives on the spot.

But I think Seattle was worse on 3rd down weren't they? They were certainly worse for most of the game. I don't know how it ended up.

They were 2-13
But 2-2 on 4th down

 

[conner01]

We had 23 first downs in the game, so that means we converted 19 times on 1st or 2nd down.

We did
It’s just odd to be so productive yet not so much on 3rd
Some of that is big plays

 

[percyhoward]

We did
It’s just odd to be so productive yet not so much on 3rd.

It happens. In 2013 Dallas ranked 5th in scoring, but 26th in 3rd down conversions. That's because that team was #2 in conversions on 1st or 2nd down -- a stat that nobody pays much attention to. It doesn't really matter what down you convert on, which is why Drive Success Rate (percentage of down series that result in a first down) is a more telling stat.

Against Seattle, 23 of Dallas' 30 down series resulted in a first down. That drive success rate of .767 would have ranked 4th over the entire season.

 

[ItzKelz]

1. Dallas was the only Home Team to win this weekend.

Houston lost in Houston
Baltimore lost in Baltimore
Chicago lost in Chicago

So much for Home Field Advantage
*** Although it sounds like Dallas Fans at the game did a GREAT job of being loud at the right times ***​

2. Dak was the only "Young QB" to win during the WC Weekend.

Look at the QB match-ups, winner first:

• Luck vs Watson
• Dak vs Wilson
• Rivers vs Jackson
• Foles vs Trubisky

And of all the QBs playing, Wilson was easily the highest rated one (110.9 vs 105.5 by Rivers)
​

3. Does Defense win Championships? (I think it matters, but this weekend said otherwise)

The three Top 5 Scoring Defenses in the NFL that made the playoffs all lost:

• 1st - Bears at 17.7 ppg
• 2nd - Ravens at 17.9 ppg
• T-4th - Texans at 19.8 ppg

In case you are wondering, Dallas ranked 6th at 20.2 ppg.
​

4. So then OBVIOUSLY Offense wins Championships, right?

Every team that was the better scoring offense won, unless they played against the NFC East​

• Seattle (26.8 ppg) vs Dallas (21.2 ppg)
• Chicago (26.3 ppg) vs Philly (22.9 ppg)

None of this really matters, it just a few things I found interesting.

Football is and always will be about matchups. Yes it matters if you have players that are not afraid of the moment but how your defense matches up against my offense an vice versa will typically be the tale of the tape.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

To be fair, the Bears had the Eagles beaten. They basically beat themselves with that whole FG thing. I don't think you can put that on the Defense, per say.

 

[Jarv]

We had 23 first downs in the game, so that means we converted 19 times on 1st or 2nd down.

I did hear Troy mention once that we were avoiding 3rd downs, we were converting 1st down a lot on 1st and 2nd down.

 

[GMO415]

Def doesn't win championships? Just ask SEA how their #1 running game got shut-the-hell down.

 

[SackMaster]

To be fair, the Bears had the Eagles beaten. They basically beat themselves with that whole FG thing. I don't think you can put that on the Defense, per say.

Oh, I'm not blaming or praising anyone specific for the results.

I'm just pointing out the results vs myths / conventional wisdom / perceived reality / random coincidences

I don't believe anything of major substance should be taken from the list I gave. I just found them interesting.

 

[SackMaster]

Football is and always will be about matchups. Yes it matters if you have players that are not afraid of the moment but how your defense matches up against my offense an vice versa will typically be the tale of the tape.

Very True.

I like the match up the Cowboys have vs the Rams more than they had vs the Seahawks, but in no way am I expecting a Win.

The Rams are the #2 Seed for a reason, and the Cowboys were #4 for a reason. But I think the Cowboys are capable of winning. It will be fun to see if the actually pull it off Saturday Night or not.

 

[pansophy]

They were 2-13
But 2-2 on 4th down

So functionally it was similar. I mean it was a close game for a reason. We have to figure out how to stop the run without giving up the big play. We held them to half their usual amount of rushing yards but gave up a lot of big plays.

It always seems like our QB, regardless of who it is, has to play amazingly for to win games and it shouldn't be that way. Dak has two bad throws, one resulting in an INT instead of TD, and we almost lose the game if not for an equally amazing play by Dak on 3 and 14.

It would be nice for our defense to just actually stop somebody at the end of the game like they had all night.

 

[zeroburrito]

the home teams lost, but the home teams were the worst team in all, but 1 game. nobody thought the ravens were better than the chargers. nobody thought houston was better than the colts.

bears and eagles was close, but eagles were better down the stretch. i honestly wanted to face the bears instead of the seahawks.