The Defense

[Bemular]

all writers need to "jazz it up" a little?

but ok, Grant Cohn does seem to go further and why it borders on 'unreadable'. not blaming others mind you, just wondering if some are taking it too seriously?

I suppose that depends on how you are defining seriously. Are you suggesting his column be read for the same reasons one might choose to read a comic strip?

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Figured this was as good a thread to post this as any, though it doesn't concern just the D. I've been reading through some of Pro Football Focus' recent stuff (not going to link to it, but just go to their website if you're interested) and am struck - though not terribly surprised - by some of the results. They've been looking at things like tackling efficiency on D and drops on O.

It seems like every D list has at least one Niner per position group among the leaders. Whitner, Willis, and Brooks are all top-10 for tackling efficiency, though McDonald makes an appearance in the bottom-10 and Smith curiously does not appear. And every bottom-10 on offense seems to have at least one Niner. This was particularly striking in drops, where Crabtree, Moss, Manningham, Gore, and Davis were all bottom-10 (sometimes they do 13 or 15) at their positions. They have now down yards per route run, which I think is a very interesting statistic, and Ted Ginn, Jr. checks in at just over 1 yard (to be fair, 2.5 is elite). Just found it interesting, though, as said, not all that surprising.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Davis does make the top-10 for TEs, though not to break the streak, Justin Peelle is in the bottom.