Quote:
Originally Posted by Heath Shuler
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The numbers are about right, actually.
It took awhile, but I went back to the gamebooks to check them (I only tallied the count in my thought.)
However, as usual, numbers can be very misleading.
1. In the 4 losses, we had fewer 3 and outs (in all, except the Vikings game).
We also had fewer or the same number as the opponent.
2. We had drives in the fourth quarter when we were leading, and just want to kill the clock. Same thing goes for the last drive before the half ends. Same thing goes for the victory formations. They all count as 3 and outs.
3. We had drives when we were pinned deep in our end zone and didn't want to take too much risk. If we don't convert, we just punted the ball and play defense.
4. We had those 2 Overtime games. If you sort the table by number of drives, we trailed only the Cards in the most drives (with much fewer 3 and outs).
53/202 = 26.24 %
As a percentage, that alone shows that we were better than 5 teams, not 3.
5. We don't go on 4th down hardly. Opponents went for it and turned the ball over on down a whole lot more often. That's even worse than 3-and-out.
6. We have fewer turnovers before getting to third down than many other teams (thus more chance to get to third down.)
As you can see, there are a lot of variables that you have to consider instead of looking at just one number.