December 2012

Season in review: AFC and NFC East

December 31, 2012 Review

This season, I published power rankings after each week where I stated my updated projected number of wins for each team. The point of those posts was to put in writing my thoughts at that time, so that once the season was over, I could look back and see how I did. Over the next [...]

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Checkdowns: Broncos complete 4th largest improvement ever

December 30, 2012 History

In 2011, the Broncos scored 309 points and allowed 390 points. Despite being outscored by 81 points, the Tim Tebow express still made it into the post-season. In June, I speculated that the 2012 Broncos might set the record for the largest increase in pass completions in one year, and they did just that on [...]

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Checkdowns: Career rushing stats in wins and losses

December 30, 2012 History

Yesterday, I noted that Adrian Peterson is averaging nearly two more yards per rush in losses than wins. He’s also averaging a nearly identical number of rushing yards per game in wins and losses. As you’re about to see, that’s pretty rare. We all know that wins are correlated with rushing yards, so it should [...]

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Adrian Peterson’s amazing, except when the Vikings win

December 29, 2012 Rushing

Adrian Peterson is having an incredible season. He’s likely to hit the 2,000-yard mark on Sunday, and he’s also chasing Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record. But his splits this year are…interesting. The table below shows Adrian Peterson’s game logs. These display his traditional statistics, along with his Win Probability added, Expected Points Added, and Success [...]

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Week 16 Power Rankings

December 28, 2012 Power Rankings

What’s the point of power rankings now that there is just one week left in the regular season? If you’ve asked that question, you are implicitly saying that power rankings serve a purpose earlier in the year! If you want to see the playoff picture, I laid that out earlier this week, so I’ll assume [...]

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Seattle’s HFA

December 27, 2012 Statistics

As usual, Aaron Schatz provided some interesting information in his weekly DVOA recap. He was looking into Seattle’s home/road splits, and found that the data support what you already know: [W]hen you look closer at home-field advantage over a period of several years, almost every team generally has the same home-field advantage, which in DVOA [...]

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Who should win Coach of the Year in the NFL?

December 26, 2012 Coaches

Let’s get this out of the way. Bruce Arians, or an Arians/Pagano ballot, is going to win Coach of the Year. Period. But who should win it? Coach of the Year is one of the most difficult awards to predict each year. The award often goes to the coach who most outperforms expectations rather than [...]

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NYT Fifth Down: Post-week 16

December 25, 2012 NYT

This week at the New York Times I looked at some record-breaking performances from week 16. Sunday was a record-setting day in the N.F.L. In case you missed it … The rookie Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh connected on a 56-yard field goal in the second quarter against the Texans, making him the first kicker [...]

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Merry Christmas

December 25, 2012 Trivia

Merry Christmas from Football Perspective! Most people know that Jay Cutler is from Santa Claus, Indiana, but did you know that that Arizona offensive lineman Daryn Colledge is from the North Pole? Well, at least from the one in Alaska. Former Oregon State lineman Johan Asiata had a cup of coffee with the Bears two [...]

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Playoff Picture: Who needs what in week 17

December 24, 2012 Current Events

With week 16 in the books, it’s time to take a look at the playoff picture. In the AFC, it’s simple: we know the six teams that will be in the post-season. In the NFC, there are two spots still remaining and five teams trying to claim them. In both conferences, there will be battles [...]

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