Here are some stats to fill your hump day before getting into the matchup between your Pittsburgh Steelers and the hated Baltimore Ravens. Football Outsiders released their DVOA stats for week 8 yesterday. They don't have player stats updated yet but it should be some time today and if there is anything that jumps out at me I'll update this story. It should be interesting to see if FWP and Hines jump a couple of spots after a both guys had good games against Cincy. I also found another stat category that these guys chart very well called Drive Charts. They track every thing from yards per drive, points per drive, TO per drive, and average starting position per drive for both offense and defense. Interesting stuff to say the least:
Pittsburgh Overall: 4th (29.9)
Offense: 7th (13.3)
Defense: 2nd (-18.2)
Special Teams: 19th (-1.6)
Drive Charts - Offense
Total Number of Drives: 70
Yards per drive: 4th (34.74)
Points per drive: 4th (2.43)
TDs per drive: 4th (.286)
Punts per drive: 8th (.357)
Turnovers per drive: 11th (.129)
Interceptions per drive: 16th (.086)
Fumbles per drive: 9th (.043)
Average starting position: 13th (31.06)
Drive success rate: 3rd (.741)
DSR - measures the percentage of drives that result in a first down or touchdown
Drive Charts - Defense
Total Number of Drives: 68
Yards per drive: 7th (25.68)
Points per drive: 1st (1.13)
TDs per drive: 3rd (.118)
Punts per drive: 1st (.515)
Turnovers per drive: 10th (.176)
Interceptions per drive: 17th (.088)
Fumbles per drive: 3rd (.088)
Average starting position: 2nd (26.04)
Drive success rate: 5th (.632)
For what it's worth here are a couple of key Baltimore stats:
Overall: 14th (.05)
Offense: 26th (-13.0)
Defense: 4th (-15.1)
Offense DSR: 20th (.654)
Defense DSR: 1st (.577)
A couple of things that surprised me about these drive stats:
- I would have thought the Steelers starting field position would have been better than 13th, but looking at the #1 team (TEN), they're starting position is just over 3 yards better at 34.14.
- I was also surprised that the defense starting position was second. Watching the games I would have thought we ranked somewhere closer to middle of the pack, but I also don't think this includes returns for touchdowns which has happened once. If anything though this should show how valuable Robo Punter has been with so many of his punts downed inside the 20. I'd love to see stats on the starting field position after a punt versus after a kickoff.