which phases OF the game ARE the most important?
 

I recently made a thread that compared skill at different positions to the number of wins that team had in a season: http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=262213 Some results were surprising, some weren't. I realized, however, that the comparison isn't completely valid, because many teams will use a player at a certain position much differently than other teams will. Some teams rely almost exclusively on their WRs for the passing game, some utilize their TEs and RB/FBs more. Some teams use their FBs in the passing game, some use them in the running game, and some go an entire season without anyone lining up as a FB at all. Hardly any teams rely on a 4-3 OLB to rush the passer the way Denver does with Miller.

So, I decided to do the same thing but using a team's combined rating for a phase rather than a single player's rating. The phases are:

Pass O
Run O
Pass Block
Run Block
Pass Rush
Run D
Pass Coverage

Rank them, 1 being the most important, 7 being the least important. I'll post the order that each phase correlated with wins later.

This is a simple game.
You throw the ball.
You hit the ball.
You catch the ball.

Got it?





Oh sorry, wrong sport.

I think it's awfully silly to put the respective types of offense and their blocking in different categories. Isn't pass blocking a part of the passing offense?

With today's rules?

1 - QB.

Put me down for a 6 on everybody else.

In a way, but the job of an OL and the job of a WR almost never overlap. The job of a DL and the job of a CB can overlap on any running play. It's cleaner to look at them seperately, and they actually have much different effects on wins.

What about cheer leading and crowd factor .Those are important too.

I don't think you're going to deduce much from this poll because we fans aren't really very smart for the most part.

That said, I think it all starts in the trenches. Without run blocking, Eric Dickerson looks like ass. Without pass blocking, Tom Brady doesn't have time to find a target. So I placed a premium on the line play for the purposes of this poll. I think lots of RB could look good behind a great run blocking line and Denver has proven that many times.

Tailgaiting is pretty ****ing important

I'm not using the poll to deduce the answer, I've already compared the skill at each position (using PFF ratings) to team wins to determine which areas have the highest correlation between skill and wins. I'm just curious to see what everyone values the most.

The order that each area correlated with wins:

1) Pass O
2) Pass Coverage
3) Run O
4) Run D
5) Run Block
6) Pass Block
7) Pass Rush

It's not a "phase" of the game but I think you have to carry a 1.5 possession lead and getting the ball back to start the second half.

I'm pretty shocked that pass rush is last. What were the methods used to create this list?

I took PFF's ratings for each team in each area, and tried to correlate it with wins over the past 4 years. The strongest correlation was for passing offense. I am also surprised that passrushing seems to be rather unimportant. If you look at the raw data from last year though, it seems to hold up.

The #1 passrushing team: Eagles - 8 wins
#3 passrushing team: Cowboys - 8 wins

Absolute worst passrushing team: Saints - 13 wins
4th worst passrushing team: Packers - 15 wins

The willy nilly nature of the capitalization of letters in the thread subject leaves me no choice but to not participate.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ml_5DrPnbk...innessPint.JPG
Guinness on tap and pass rush -- everything else is #2:D