Statistical Misunderstandings That Analysts/Announcers/Fans Perpetuate

[PhoenixEagles1]

The only thing that ever bothered me in the NBA is when they say, “The ball didn’t have enough arch”. It’s “arc” but I shouldn’t even comment. I still don’t know my “then” and “than”.

 

[Thruthefog]

_______ is 40-1 when leading by more than 14 points in the 4th quarter.

 

[eaglesnut]

I'll start with my biggest pet peeve by a mile and use it in a way that used to drive me crazy with my own team as an example.

For instance, in the unwatchable post-Lovie/Trestman era of 2013 and 2014 when the Bears went 8-8 and 5-11. You would hear this in every broadcast.

"You know, people talk about how the Bears have fallen off. But look at this, when the Bears hand the ball off to Matt Forte 20+ times over the past two seasons they're (insert really good record here) and when they hand it to him less than that? They're (insert really bad record here)!!! Also, look at how many carries had under Lovie Smith in 2010 through 2012!!! And what do you know? They were 10 games over .500 during that time. Amazing! Hand the ball off to Matt Forte! It's not that hard!"

Oh my gosh, you mean to tell me that when you're losing in the 2nd half of football games (often by multiple scores during that time) that you don't run the ball near as much as when you are winning!? Weird! That's like... so weird. I wonder why that could be happening. Hmm... It's almost like when you're losing in the 4th quarter that there's a REASON you have to pass. Crazy that all of these teams are doing that.

I swear, you see this stat every week with one team or another. "When they win, they run a lot and when they lose? They don't run a lot. This clearly = run more and we should not examine any other possible reasons as to why we've been saying this about football teams for decades."

I'll take "conflating correlation with causation" for 500, Alex. Holy shit. When will they figure this out?

This is a good one. Winning causes more runs, not the other way around.

Eagle fans have been really stupid about the pass-run ratio for 20 years now. No, the issue is mcnabb fucking sucked and Andy Reid squeezed all the juice he could out of that turd.

Once no coach cared about hurting mcnabb's delicate little feelings anymore, Mcnabb was benched for Rex Grossman to run the 2-minute drill because mcnabb was too stupid to run the 2-minute drill.

 

[jarntt]

I'll start with my biggest pet peeve by a mile and use it in a way that used to drive me crazy with my own team as an example.

For instance, in the unwatchable post-Lovie/Trestman era of 2013 and 2014 when the Bears went 8-8 and 5-11. You would hear this in every broadcast.

"You know, people talk about how the Bears have fallen off. But look at this, when the Bears hand the ball off to Matt Forte 20+ times over the past two seasons they're (insert really good record here) and when they hand it to him less than that? They're (insert really bad record here)!!! Also, look at how many carries had under Lovie Smith in 2010 through 2012!!! And what do you know? They were 10 games over .500 during that time. Amazing! Hand the ball off to Matt Forte! It's not that hard!"

Oh my gosh, you mean to tell me that when you're losing in the 2nd half of football games (often by multiple scores during that time) that you don't run the ball near as much as when you are winning!? Weird! That's like... so weird. I wonder why that could be happening. Hmm... It's almost like when you're losing in the 4th quarter that there's a REASON you have to pass. Crazy that all of these teams are doing that.

I swear, you see this stat every week with one team or another. "When they win, they run a lot and when they lose? They don't run a lot. This clearly = run more and we should not examine any other possible reasons as to why we've been saying this about football teams for decades."

I'll take "conflating correlation with causation" for 500, Alex. Holy shit. When will they figure this out?

Totally agree with this. It's like this on the Cowboy board after a win when Zeke gets 20 plus carries vs after a loss when he gets less. So hard to explain to people the "chicken or the egg" version of Football games when they focus on one thing and ignore all else and mistake a correlation for a cause and effect...

 

[Robotech]

Nothing will ever top this nugget of knowledge:

Dilfer was possibly worse as an NFL analyst than he was as an NFL QB.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Dilfer was possibly worse as an NFL analyst than he was as an NFL QB.

Oh yeah he was really bad. So bad that merely using mute wasn't enough, I'd change the channel or turn off the TV.

 

[Lake Shore Drive]

I continue to hold the radical theory that if you score more points than the other team, you win. But hey, that's just the revolutionary in me.

 

[PhoenixEagles1]

This is a good one. Winning causes more runs, not the other way around.

Eagle fans have been really stupid about the pass-run ratio for 20 years now. No, the issue is mcnabb fucking sucked and Andy Reid squeezed all the juice he could out of that turd.

Once no coach cared about hurting mcnabb's delicate little feelings anymore, Mcnabb was benched for Rex Grossman to run the 2-minute drill because mcnabb was too stupid to run the 2-minute drill.

McNabb was a good to very good QB for many year. Definitely had his flaws but he had a great deep ball and made a lot of magical plays with his feet. He isn’t a HOFer but won way too many games and double digit playoff wins for you to say he sucked. He had nothing to throw to most of his career and the one year he did he put up great numbers and was the first QB ever to put up more than 30 TDs and less then 10 Ints. Great? No. Sucky? Absolutely not.

 

[Dude]

Statistical misunderstandings? Well, all statistics have a start and stop period. So it all depends on the date of start and stop. That is what makes statistics so confusing.

 

[kburjr]

Scoring more points means you win the game. It does not mean you are a better team.

 

[SteelersPride]

Scoring more points means you win the game. It does not mean you are a better team.

Not always but it will play out that way more often than not.

 

[broncosmitty]

This is a good one. Winning causes more runs, not the other way around.

Eagle fans have been really stupid about the pass-run ratio for 20 years now. No, the issue is mcnabb fucking sucked and Andy Reid squeezed all the juice he could out of that turd.

Once no coach cared about hurting mcnabb's delicate little feelings anymore, Mcnabb was benched for Rex Grossman to run the 2-minute drill because mcnabb was too stupid to run the 2-minute drill.

I remember that exact thing happening against the Lions. When Fat Don was innacurate for the Skins at the end, good times.