Packers now ranked #27th on Total Defense

[Bogart]

I am still right when I said the Saints have a worse defense than ours, cause they are ranked 30th after letting Atlanta pile over 480 total yards on their "We can't tackle worth a ****, we can't stop the run, we can't stop the 2 minute offense" Defense.

Tampa Bay is ranked 29th, then Buffalo at 28th.

Sitting at the bottom is none other than New England at 31st, and Indianapolis at 32nd.

Our defense really isn't that bad after all.

It could be worse...We could have let them come back like the Saints did to Atlanta and pile up over 480 total yards on.

 

[ivo610]

why do people use total yards as a gauge on defense? I mean several teams still havent had a bye yet, so its leaves it uneven. And not all yards are equal. Why not use total points if you are looking for a general gauge on total defense? Or if you want to look at passing check YPA and if you want rushing check YPA.

ranking defenses by total yards seems completely ludicrous.

 

[Mr. StyleZ]

I think opposing passer rating is pretty good for defense. I don't know what ours is though.

 

[Jules]

The Colts should be last. It's about damn time. They were ranked way too high for a while and the passer rating against them is astoundingly high at 109.7. You can use the eye test more often then stats a lot.

A few weeks ago the passer rating vs. GB was around 79. After the SD game it was 80ish. Now it is 77.6.

NE is at 88.3 but went up from the 90's after playing the Sanchize.

Not all hope is lost.

Passer rating is actually higher vs. the Steelers then the Packers. Passer rating is quite low vs. the Ravens and Texans in the 60's.

 

[Croak]

They are 28th in total game stats, but interestingly 13th in points scored against. I think the second one matters more, doesn't it?

 

[Bogart]

They are 28th in total game stats, but interestingly 13th in points scored against. I think the second one matters more, doesn't it?

I should have posted all total stats.

Forgive me, here they are.

Total Defense - 27th

Passing Defense - 31st

Rushing Defense - 6th

3rd Down Conversions - 23rd

4th Down Conversions - 5th (Tied with 4 other teams, Dallas, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Washington, Carolina)

Sacks - 15th (Tied with Arizona and St. Louis)

Interceptions - 1st

Forced Fumbles - 22nd (Tied with Denver, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, and Carolina)

Slowly the defense is improving as the weeks go by.

 

[Helmets]

As long as it peaks during the playoffs...

 

[peteralan71]

Point differential is all that matters.

 

[Bensalama21]

I hope we have the worst statistical defense by the Super Bowl because that would mean if we won it, we couldn't not improve the next season and so we would be Super Bowl favorites again.

 

[TJV]

As I (and others) have posted before points scored and surrendered are obviously the most important stat and using just the yards surrendered stat paints the Packers' defense worse than they are. According to this site the Packers are 6th in opponent passer ratings at 77.4, just behind Dallas and ahead of the Bears. Over the past three games they're 68.1. They are 22nd in opponent yards per pass attempt at 7.2, however the trend is again our friend as over the past three games, its 6.7.

I think the Packers are +11 in turnover ratio and that too is an important stat. I heard Marv Levy on the radio this morning say teams which are +2 in TO ratio win 91% of those games.

 

[bozz_2006]

Can't find Rivers' exact quote following their game against GB. I think I remember it exactly:

"We know where #1 in yards gets you. Last year we were #1 on "O", #1 on "D" in yards. We know where #1 in yards gets you. It gets you 9-7."

 

[Kitten]

Glad to see them climbing up the ranks that will make some fans feel better. I'm not one to sit around and compare stats/ rankings as I find most of them to be slanted and sometimes even inaccurate. You're not getting the whole picture. A defense is more than just pass and run yardage. It's tackles, blocking, stopping 3rd down conversions, INTs, fumbles, sacks (glamor stat but still something to consider), and points scored against them. There is much more that I am omitting but the point is, if you took away our pass rushing stats from the 1st half of the season, you'd find on most of the other aspects, our D was pretty good. Having 400+ passing yards against us kind of killed us in the ratings. But knowing our D, can you really hold that ranking as accurate? Now that we are seeing a resurgence in pass rush, it's no surprise to see our D ranking higher. It leads me to believe that the rankings are a bit too focused on the pass rush and they fail to take into account other aspects of the D. I could be wrong, it's just an observation but it's why I don't hold too much stock in any of these stats or ratings.

 

[greenandgold]

why do people use total yards as a gauge on defense?

Not sure, I think being 9-0 is WAY more important. If you can't stop them, just outscore them.

Besides, aren't we leading the league in interceptions?

 

[GreenBayGal]

Glad to see them climbing up the ranks that will make some fans feel better. I'm not one to sit around and compare stats/ rankings as I find most of them to be slanted and sometimes even inaccurate. You're not getting the whole picture. A defense is more than just pass and run yardage. It's tackles, blocking, stopping 3rd down conversions, INTs, fumbles, sacks (glamor stat but still something to consider), and points scored against them. There is much more that I am omitting but the point is, if you took away our pass rushing stats from the 1st half of the season, you'd find on most of the other aspects, our D was pretty good. Having 400+ passing yards against us kind of killed us in the ratings. But knowing our D, can you really hold that ranking as accurate? Now that we are seeing a resurgence in pass rush, it's no surprise to see our D ranking higher. It leads me to believe that the rankings are a bit too focused on the pass rush and they fail to take into account other aspects of the D. I could be wrong, it's just an observation but it's why I don't hold too much stock in any of these stats or ratings.

I feel the same way about stats. They can be analyzed and over analyzed and twisted and misconstrued to be interpreted in any way you'd like them to be. As long as we come out with the victory, they must have done a great job, IMO. The good thing about stats is it gives us something to banter about between games.

 

[ivo610]

I should have posted all total stats.

Forgive me, here they are.

Total Defense - 27th

Passing Defense - 31st

Rushing Defense - 6th

3rd Down Conversions - 23rd

4th Down Conversions - 5th (Tied with 4 other teams, Dallas, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Washington, Carolina)

Sacks - 15th (Tied with Arizona and St. Louis)

Interceptions - 1st

Forced Fumbles - 22nd (Tied with Denver, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, and Carolina)

Slowly the defense is improving as the weeks go by.

Those numbers don't work since teams have played a different amount of games. Some teams still have bye weeks.

Try using YPA instead. It can give you a better gauge