These guys are more valuable than their defensive counterparts.

So exactly what percentage of the points scored by a team in any given game is a function of the team, and what percentage is a function of the opponent? There are several ways to look at this, but here’s what I did.

1) I looked at the number of points scored and allowed by each team in each game in the NFL from 1978 to 2012. ^[1]I removed the 1982 and 1987 seasons due to the player strike, and I also removed the 1999, 2000, and 2001 seasons. In those three years, the NFL had an odd number of teams, and therefore removing … Continue reading Since teams often rest players in week 17, I removed the 16th game for each team from the data set.

2) I then calculated the number of points scored by each team in its other 14 games. This number, which is different for each team in each game, I labeled the “Expected Points Scored” for each team in each game. I also calculated the expected number of points allowed by that team’s opponent, based upon the opponent’s average points allowed total in their other 14 games. That number can be called the Expected Points Allowed by the Opponent.

3) I performed a regression analysis on over 10,000 games using Expected Points Scored and Expected Points Allowed by the Opponent as my inputs. ^[2]For technical geeks, I also chose to make the constant zero. We don’t care what the constant is in this regression, we just want to understand the ratio between the two variables. My output was the actual number of points scored in that game.

The Result: The best measure to predict the number of points a team will score in a game is to use 58% of the team’s Expected Points Scored and 42% of Expected Points Allowed by the Opponent of the team.
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