The Most Important Stat You Have Never Heard Of

[Dadraftnick]

About 6 to 8 games into the season I was surfing the web and I ran into a stat(National Football Post) that I had never seen before and I have not seen since.

It was SACK DIFFERENTIAL , the numners of sacks you cause vs the numner of sacks you give up.

It was amazing, the teams that were at the top of Sack Differential were the teams that were winning the divisions and the teams that were at the bottom of the Sack Differential were the loosing teams at the bottom of their divisions.

While I have always maintainted that teams that sack the other teams QB and and protect their own from being sacked are most the likely to win, I have never seen it all there in one stat in black and white.

If you think of it, teams that sack the other teams QB are most likely to cause turnovers and affect the play of the other teams QB so, this correlates to turnovers.

If you think of it, it also goes along with the addage that running the ball and a good deffense is one of the best paths to winning.

A team that runs succesfuly and often is less likely to pass and therefore give up sacks.

A team with a good deffense should produce more sacks and in turn cause more interceptions and fumbles.

I have no idea why I have only seen this stat just once, it is a new stat and it takes a while for new things like this to catch on.

Or, maybe the league office doesnt like the idea of a stat dealing with sacking the other teams QB having so much to with winning.

While, I do not know what the final Sack Differential was for the year or if the Saints and Colts had the best Sack Differential or if teams win 95% of games that they win the Sack Differential in , it certainly has alot more to do with winning than some of the stats that are in the main stream such as time of possession.

[bwillycuse]

Sack differential, I would think, would be more of an indicator of who is winning the game as opposed to it determining the game.

Teams losing will be forced to pass allowing the defense to go after the QB. Teams in the lead will run to eliminate the clock.

Sacks are huge but turnover differential is one of the main stats that I will look at for a good team. And this year the Bengals were about even. If they can start forcing more turnovers and catching more interceptions then i see good things for this team.

Just not ball hawks yet.

But Im looking forward to get Odom back and really giving QBs fits next year.

[HairOnFire]

Sack differential has been around for awhile, I think. Regardless, isn't that website known for developing it's own unique statistical categories and rankings?

At the risk of derailing the thread... ...late in the season someone here posted a link to that website showing WR rankings. I no longer remember the topic at hand, but I do recall bouncing around the site for awhile looking at other position rankings...including DE rankings. Long story short, at the time NFP had ranked Justin Smith as the #1 DE in the entire NFL, based largely on the number of snaps he was giving the 49'ers. In fact, Smith's total of snaps played had already topped 350 and as a result nearly matched the snap totals of the next THREE highest ranked DE's, each of whom had barely played 100 snaps.

[HAPPYJAQ]

Sack differential has been around for awhile, I think. Regardless, isn't that website known for developing it's own unique statistical categories and rankings?

At the risk of derailing the thread... ...late in the season someone here posted a link to that website showing WR rankings. I no longer remember the topic at hand, but I do recall bouncing around the site for awhile looking at other position rankings...including DE rankings. Long story short, at the time NFP had ranked Justin Smith as the #1 DE in the entire NFL, based largely on the number of snaps he was giving the 49'ers. In fact, Smith's total of snaps played had already topped 350 and as a result nearly matched the snap totals of the next THREE highest ranked DE's, each of whom had barely played 100 snaps.

Speaking of Justin, anyone notice that he made the Pro Bowl this year for the Niners? Even more noteworthy is that he made it at DT!

I really enjoy reading some of the stats at the Post, although it's all pretty much subjective. Not to hijack this thread even further, but have you guys seen South Florida WR Carlton Mitchell? I know they love him at the NFP, and this dude is an ABSOLUTE CLONE of Chris Henry. There's some stuff on YouTube on him, and you'd be impressed. Depending on how fast he is in Indy, I'd love to see us take him in the second round. Bonafide deep threat in addition to being 6'4'', 212, and just what the Bengals need.

[Kazkal]

Well Almost every team for past 11-12 Years had Great Dlines or were able attack the QB,With that being said really think we need upgrade our Passrush Need a Robert Mathis or Elvis Dumervill to pair with MJ

[cincyhokie]

Sack differential has been around for awhile, I think. Regardless, isn't that website known for developing it's own unique statistical categories and rankings?

At the risk of derailing the thread... ...late in the season someone here posted a link to that website showing WR rankings. I no longer remember the topic at hand, but I do recall bouncing around the site for awhile looking at other position rankings...including DE rankings. Long story short, at the time NFP had ranked Justin Smith as the #1 DE in the entire NFL, based largely on the number of snaps he was giving the 49'ers. In fact, Smith's total of snaps played had already topped 350 and as a result nearly matched the snap totals of the next THREE highest ranked DE's, each of whom had barely played 100 snaps.

Speaking of Justin, anyone notice that he made the Pro Bowl this year for the Niners? Even more noteworthy is that he made it at DT!

I really enjoy reading some of the stats at the Post, although it's all pretty much subjective. Not to hijack this thread even further, but have you guys seen South Florida WR Carlton Mitchell? I know they love him at the NFP, and this dude is an ABSOLUTE CLONE of Chris Henry. There's some stuff on YouTube on him, and you'd be impressed. Depending on how fast he is in Indy, I'd love to see us take him in the second round. Bonafide deep threat in addition to being 6'4'', 212, and just what the Bengals need.

Sounds interesting but I'll be more impressed if he's a good route runner and can catch. Troy Williamson is a classic example of wasted speed. Unfortunately a guy I have been "pimping" since he got here, Simpson, has yet to show anything but an occasional circus catch.

[Kazkal]

Speaking of Justin, anyone notice that he made the Pro Bowl this year for the Niners? Even more noteworthy is that he made it at DT!

He plays 3-4 End for Niners no?

[HAPPYJAQ]

Speaking of Justin, anyone notice that he made the Pro Bowl this year for the Niners? Even more noteworthy is that he made it at DT!

He plays 3-4 End for Niners no?

I watched their prime time game late in the season in which he was virtually unblockable, and he seemed to be playing the strong end. He replaced Kevin Williams of the Vikes at DT, so maybe that wasn't the norm for where he played this season in their base D. It's even more interesting if you consider the initial reports out of San Fran when they signed him, in noting that the plan was to play him at OLB in the 3-4.

SIDE NOTE: Ahmad Brooks looked pretty damned good in that same game, exclusely playing DE in the Nickle. Factor in Mark Roman (who's still around a decade later, now playing S), and the 49ers are the Cincinnati Bengals West.

[Ickey44]

With that being said really think we need upgrade our Passrush Need a Robert Mathis or Elvis Dumervill to pair with MJ

Hate to be a bubble burster....But Dumervil plays OLB in Denver's 3-4 Defense....At 5'11" 248 lbs, he is waaaay too small to play DE. He just doesn't have the size, and Long Arms needed to break free from the Offensive Tackles he would be lined up with at DE.

Exactly who's bubble did you burst? Dumervil plays OLB in a 3-4 defense. It IS offensive tackles that try to block him.

That said, since we run a 4-3, he wouldn't be a good fit here.

[JoePong]

Wow!

You mean giving up a lot of sacks makes it less likely that you will win, and getting a lot of sacks increases your chances of winning???

Who woulda thunk?

Next thing you know they will come up with some crazy stat claiming that turnover differential influences a team's ability to win games too.

Or how about this...POINT DIFFERENTIAL!

That would be INSANE!

[BengalPimp]

With that being said really think we need upgrade our Passrush Need a Robert Mathis or Elvis Dumervill to pair with MJ

Hate to be a bubble burster....But Dumervil plays OLB in Denver's 3-4 Defense....At 5'11" 248 lbs, he is waaaay too small to play DE. He just doesn't have the size, and Long Arms needed to break free from the Offensive Tackles he would be lined up with at DE.

[Kazkal]

Hate to be a bubble burster....But Dumervil plays OLB in Denver's 3-4 Defense....At 5'11" 248 lbs, he is waaaay too small to play DE. He just doesn't have the size, and Long Arms needed to break free from the Offensive Tackles he would be lined up with at DE.

Um I hate to burst your Bubble but Dumervill was drafted as a 4-3 End and played one as a passrush specialist "Until" the Broncos switched to the 3-4 Defense in 2009.My point is we need a Speedy guy who's sole purpose is to attack the QB. Elvis is 5'11 248 Robert Mathis 6'2 245 Hell MJ probably would weigh 245lbs if he was 5 inches shorter...We Have Plenty of Elephant DE's in Geathers,Odom,Rucker & Fanene we need some speed to pair with MJ

PS,My Bubble wasn't popped

[BlainThePain]

We are a run heavy team, so this stat is going to be skewed for us.

A better stat to look at would be to compare the number of sacks you give up per pass, compared to the number of sacks your defense gets per pass play.

[Kazkal]

We are a run heavy team, so this stat is going to be skewed for us.

A better stat to look at would be to compare the number of sacks you give up per pass, compared to the number of sacks your defense gets per pass play.

Percentage wise we only threw the ball we only threw the ball like 2% less then we did in the past so shouldn't be thast far off...Throw I think big reason our sack count was down was carson getting rid of the ball early/ throwing under pressure when D players were unblocked.