2022 Facts that May Only Interest Me

[Neophyte]

Through 5 games, Washington is:

32nd in Average Starting Field Position - Own 23.5
1st in Total Number of Drives - 62
10th in % of Drives that End in a Turnover - 12.7%
26th in Avg Length of Drive - 2:31 minutes
29th in Pts Per Drive - 1.43
3rd in Pass Attempts - 210
23rd in Rush Attempts - 115
10th in Offensive Penalties - 32 for 335 yards
32nd in Drives Ending in a Score

What we do certainly works.

 

[Chris]

The players on the other team get paid, too.

 

[MikefromOH]

1st in total number of drives let's me know why the D gets scored on. They do all they need to, but still get put right back out there almost immediately

 

[SirClintonPortis]

We haven't had less than 38 attempts a game with Wentz.


Maybe Turner just wanted a durable guy so he could call 40 passes all the time so he can get tape for his next job.

 

[Canadian Hog]

Bob,

Those statistical categories are all very telling of a season gone wrong. The one that stands out to me and really catches my attention is how we are 23rd in rushing attempts. These guys are racking their brains over why our QB is on his back the entire game and why we can't win ball games, yet they are ignoring what evidence suggests this offensive line group does best - run block. Rivera talked about it to an extent yesterday, how we need to give the big boys up front an opportunity to fire off the ball and push their man back. In so many words, he described that as being what sets the o-line up for the most success, yet we are having them pass block their entire game and be on their heels.

All they need to do is go back to last season, during that four game stretch where we looked like a team that a) deserved to be in the playoffs at the time and b) appeared as though they could maybe challenge to win a playoff game. There was a clear and definitive commitment to the run and the use of Antonio Gibson. Now, Gibson should not be a 20-25 carry guy, but if you split those carries between him, Robinson, and sprinkle in some McKissic, I think this offense (and consequently Carson) can look a hell of a lot more effective.

2021 vs. Tampa Bay - Gibson: 24 carries for 64 yards, 2 TDs (team total: 34 carries/94 yards rushing)
2021 vs. Carolina - Gibson 19 carries for 95 yards, McKissic: 7 carries for 46 yards (team total: 40 rushes/190 yards rushing)
2021 vs. Seattle - Gibson 29 carries for 111 yards, McKissic 7 carries for 30 yards) (team total: 43 rushes/152 yards rushing)
2021 vs. Vegas - Gibson 23 carries for 88 yards (team total: 30 rushes/112 yards)

We averaged 36 carries/week and not surprisingly, we went 4-0.

As for Heinicke's rating those weeks: 110.4 vs. Tampa, 141.3 vs. Carolina, 90.5 vs. Seattle, and 101.5 vs. Vegas. Go figure, a limited QB who is complemented with a solid run game and he puts in some of his best work of the year. I feel like Wentz can give us something similar; we need to insulate him with a much, much stronger commitment to the run game and make THAT the identity of your football team going forward.

There is zero commitment to the run game and we are paying a dear price this season.

 

[Lovin Cousins]

It probably won't make anyone feel better, but both the Raiders and Panthers are 1-4, and a lot of people thought they would be good this year

 

[Boone]

I think there are two issues driving most of these stats. We are struggling early and quickly finding ourselves down on the scoreboard, and we are not sustaining drives particularly struggling on third down.

The other stat not mentioned that is killing us is being at the bottom of the league in creating turnovers. In the Dallas game alone we had two turnovers negated by penalty. Eliminate those mistakes and we may well win that game. In a league where the line between winning and losing is razor thin, not being able to kill drives by forcing turnovers is going to cost you precious wins.

 

[MikefromOH]

For every opening drive touchdown we get this season I will donate $20 to a local pediatric cancer foundation.

I donate anyways, I'll just donate 20 more or however much.

 

[Neophyte]

I think there are two issues driving most of these stats. We are struggling early and quickly finding ourselves down on the scoreboard, and we are not sustaining drives particularly struggling on third down.

The other stat not mentioned that is killing us is being at the bottom of the league in creating turnovers. In the Dallas game alone we had two turnovers negated by penalty. Eliminate those mistakes and we may well win that game. In a league where the line between winning and losing is razor thin, not being able to kill drives by forcing turnovers is going to cost you precious wins.

I didn't include it in the OP because that was more geared toward the offense but yeah, we are 32nd in Takeaways w/ 1 total. The Raiders are 31st with 3.

Conversely, the Eagles are 2nd (11), the Cowboys are 14th (7), and even the Giants are 20th (6). Might be a big part of their success that Ron might want to consider next time someone asks what the differences are.

Other telling defensive stats:

18th in Defensive Penalties - 31 for 236 yards
4th in Penalties for 1st Down - 13

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

The other stat not mentioned that is killing us is being at the bottom of the league in creating turnovers. In the Dallas game alone we had two turnovers negated by penalty. Eliminate those mistakes and we may well win that game. In a league where the line between winning and losing is razor thin, not being able to kill drives by forcing turnovers is going to cost you precious wins.

The line is at best razor-thin for the have-nots (where I would include two tiers of teams). There are the haves (one tier of teams) in the league too; they get blowout wins from time to time against the other tiers of teams.
You have the best teams, you have the mediocre teams, and you have the worst teams. Right now we are looking like the worst teams; we expected to be mediocre. That is, sadly, what has riled everyone up. That is where our Snyder "best case" expectation is, and we thought we had that with Rivera. At least right now, we are looking like we are in the lowest tier. That low tier isn't winless of course; when they play other "worst teams" they may win. They may win against a mediocre team, maybe 10% of the time. They pretty much never win against the best teams; that is usually the main time you get blowouts in the league.

 

[Neophyte]

The sad part of this SkinsNumberOne is that I still expect us to put it all together for another 4-6 games so we finish outside the draft range for a generational type of talent.

 

[Boone]

If there IS a generational talent

 

[SirClintonPortis]

If there IS a generational talent

It's been a gold mine of "generational" talent at QB in recent years.

Only reason to pass up on one is because of blackmail.

Fans will eventually start talking about the opportunity cost of Dotson and Pickett come next year, if not the end of this year.

 

[SilentThreat]

I'm sorry but I think we have to get rid of the idea of generational talent being available, and start to grasp the fact that a very VERY large part of it is also how a player is developed, and an offense is built. Yes, the physical tools are a component, but if Washington drafted Tom Brady, are we celebrating the fact that we have 9 Super Bowls right now?

Detroit, New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals... had Brady gone there, do the results mirror the last 22 years? I'm sorry, I'm not buyin it. Look at what Daniel Jones is doing this year... There are MAYBE 3 or 4 truly QBs playing at an Elite level right now. There are 3 or so more guys that are CAPABLE of doing so, but for a multitude of reasons aren't... then there's a big pile of guys that you CAN win with... followed by the guys playing because the teams have no other choice.

I'm not saying we need to bank on getting a guy in the 5th round... that's such an exception to the rule it's not funny. What I am saying is that there will be talent to be had up and down the first round.

Pat Mahomes - 10
Lamar Jackson - 32
Josh Allen - 7
Aaron Rodgers - 24
Derek Carr - 36
Jalen Hurts - 53

Starting QBs are available depending on what you do with them. Yes, A LOT of top tier QBs are taken in the first 3, but that's got less to do with the player, and more to do with the evaluation process. There are coaches that routinely get the most out of the QBs (and more-so offenses). Andy Reid, Mike Tomlin, Bill Belichik, Sean McVay, John Harbaugh... guys that seem to win with a multitude of QBs... At times the QBs they have are considered to be truly elite, other times they prove the CAN change the offense (and team for that matter) to get the most of the best 22 on the roster.

OBVIOUSLY an Elite QB is the best plan, it's the easiest plan to turn the team around as quickly as possible, see Joe Burrow, but you can't always get that. You CAN get a very talented player and develop them. Something we seem to fail to do here in Washington regardless of the HC / OC. We've had young talent come through here, and the only time we've appeared to truly tailor our offense to the talent was 2012 and we all saw what happened.

 

[Neophyte]

A couple more numbers that interest me...

55/45* - pass/run ratio last year
65/35* - pass/run ratio this year

*back of the napkin approximations

 

[Boone]

Just out of curiousity, here is all times for 2021:

I don't think this exactly makes the case that running more equals success.. It's kind of all over the place which is a bit of a surprise. I think what this shows to a degree is that it's how well you DO WHAT YOU DO, as much as what it IS THAT YOU DO. Running more now is probably a good idea for us, because we cannot pass protect for **** right now. But if we had the guns to execute in the passing game (in our case, a top pass protecting OL), we could thrive with a pass heavy offense.

 

[SilentThreat]

Just out of curiousity, here is all times for 2021:



I don't think this exactly makes the case that running more equals success.. It's kind of all over the place which is a bit of a surprise. I think what this shows to a degree is that it's how well you DO WHAT YOU DO, as much as what it IS THAT YOU DO. Running more now is probably a good idea for us, because we cannot pass protect for **** right now. But if we had the guns to execute in the passing game (in our case, a top pass protecting OL), we could thrive with a pass heavy offense.

YES!

 

[SirClintonPortis]

I'm sorry but I think we have to get rid of the idea of generational talent being available, and start to grasp the fact that a very VERY large part of it is also how a player is developed, and an offense is built. Yes, the physical tools are a component, but if Washington drafted Tom Brady, are we celebrating the fact that we have 9 Super Bowls right now?

Detroit, New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals... had Brady gone there, do the results mirror the last 22 years? I'm sorry, I'm not buyin it. Look at what Daniel Jones is doing this year... There are MAYBE 3 or 4 truly QBs playing at an Elite level right now. There are 3 or so more guys that are CAPABLE of doing so, but for a multitude of reasons aren't... then there's a big pile of guys that you CAN win with... followed by the guys playing because the teams have no other choice.

I'm not saying we need to bank on getting a guy in the 5th round... that's such an exception to the rule it's not funny. What I am saying is that there will be talent to be had up and down the first round.

Pat Mahomes - 10
Lamar Jackson - 32
Josh Allen - 7
Aaron Rodgers - 24
Derek Carr - 36
Jalen Hurts - 53

Starting QBs are available depending on what you do with them. Yes, A LOT of top tier QBs are taken in the first 3, but that's got less to do with the player, and more to do with the evaluation process. There are coaches that routinely get the most out of the QBs (and more-so offenses). Andy Reid, Mike Tomlin, Bill Belichik, Sean McVay, John Harbaugh... guys that seem to win with a multitude of QBs... At times the QBs they have are considered to be truly elite, other times they prove the CAN change the offense (and team for that matter) to get the most of the best 22 on the roster.

OBVIOUSLY an Elite QB is the best plan, it's the easiest plan to turn the team around as quickly as possible, see Joe Burrow, but you can't always get that. You CAN get a very talented player and develop them. Something we seem to fail to do here in Washington regardless of the HC / OC. We've had young talent come through here, and the only time we've appeared to truly tailor our offense to the talent was 2012 and we all saw what happened.

Belichick doesn't "get the most" out of his QBs. He just happened to have one who had an internal obsessive drive to be great; not even the Pats thought Tom Brady was anything more than a draft afterthought. Said QB is basically independent of Belichick. The backups he chose are generally pretty underwhelming, with Garappolo being the most successful. Belichick actually intended to replace Brady with Garappolo.

Tomlin only has had one QB his career until this season, and that QB won his first under Cowher. Pickett is, once again, someone who is self-driven and showing signs of internal motivation to succeed.

The Ravens won a Super Bowl, but they were a slog ball team and Flacco wasn't a dynamic TD producer. He hung around 20 a year, and was highly dependent on Ray Rice's pass catching on checkdowns.

 

[SilentThreat]

Belichick doesn't "get the most" out of his QBs. He just happened to have one who had an internal obsessive drive to be great; not even the Pats thought Tom Brady was anything more than a draft afterthought. Said QB is basically independent of Belichick. The backups he chose are generally pretty underwhelming, with Garappolo being the most successful. Belichick actually intended to replace Brady with Garappolo.

Tomlin only has had one QB his career until this season, and that QB won his first under Cowher. Pickett is, once again, someone who is self-driven and showing signs of internal motivation to succeed.

The Ravens won a Super Bowl, but they were a slog ball team and Flacco wasn't a dynamic TD producer. He hung around 20 a year, and was highly dependent on Ray Rice's pass catching on checkdowns.

So you think Brady comes here and wins 6 rings? Look at the season Matt Cassel was the starting QB in New England.

I never said these coaches made all these guys elite, simply said they get the most out of them. They design the team to get the most production out of their QB. They use the offensive pieces to get as much as they can with what they got... not designing an offense and trying to manipulate players into it.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

So you think Brady comes here and wins 6 rings? Look at the season Matt Cassel was the starting QB in New England.

I never said these coaches made all these guys elite, simply said they get the most out of them. They design the team to get the most production out of their QB. They use the offensive pieces to get as much as they can with what they got... not designing an offense and trying to manipulate players into it.

Brady might have came here and toiled like Archie Manning. A good QB who had nothing around him. But Brady would still manage to prove himself successful.

Your statement is that Belichick elevated Brady. Belichick is not some offensive maestro like Bill Walsh. Belichick's strengths are gameplanning on defense and culture. And an externality in producing toxic coaches that rendered potential rival teams into losers.

Brady left NE and basically overruled his HC in Tampa to get another. Arians is the furthest thing from Belichick. Tom Brady's offensive competency is his own trade secret. Neither Belichick nor McDaniels has fielded anything comparable once he lef