Where do we currently rank?

[dkmightyhammer]

Just to give an update where we are at so far:

Passing Defense: 3rd with 200 yds/gm
Running Defense: 6th with 94.1 yds/gm
Points per game: 5th at 18.3 pts/gm allowed

Now the ugly,

Passing yards per game: 28th with 214.1 yds/game
Rushing yards per game: 2nd with 143.3 yds/game
Points per game: 19th with 22 pts/game

Sidenotes:

8th in kick return yards average
Field goals 2nd in attempts (16 attempts), First in accuracy (16 for 16). Go Hauschka!
10th in punting average (47.5 yds)
Give away/take away: tied for 19th at -1 (first is NYG at +9)
We are 26th in getting INT's and tied for 9th at recovering fumbles.
We are tied for 18th in throwing INT's and tied for 12th in losing fumbles.

The stuff in Bold is clearly where the team needs work. Our give away/take away is the the biggest difference in this years defense compared to the past two defenses. Our rush and pass D is actually very good, but we aren't forcing turnovers like we used too.

 

[Screamin12th]

Passing yards per game should be ignored on a team that is a run first. I mean not totally ignored but if you get over 210 per game you are sitting pretty good but the more important stat would be Yards per Attempt.

As far as Yards per pass attempt the hawks are ranked 6th in the NFL. Meaning if they threw more they would be way better than 28th in passing.

They are also #2 in completion percentage.

the big red flag is the 33.3% success rate in the redzone, that needs to change and they should be closer to 70%

 

[Protagonist12]

We'll be ranking FIRST in the NFL when we take home #2 in Santa Clara this winter. The rest of the stats really don't matter.

 

[blstoker]

Passing yards per game should be ignored on a team that is a run first. I mean not totally ignored but if you get over 210 per game you are sitting pretty good but the more important stat would be Yards per Attempt.

As far as Yards per pass attempt the hawks are ranked 6th in the NFL. Meaning if they threw more they would be way better than 28th in passing.

They are also #2 in completion percentage.

the big red flag is the 33.3% success rate in the redzone, that needs to change and they should be closer to 70%

Exactly. Despite being ranked #28 (which is lower than the 27, 26, 27 that we have been the last 3 years) it is significantly higher than what we've had the last 3 seasons. Since Wilson has gotten here the Hawks have had 189.4 (2012), 202.3 (2013), 203.1 (2014) and now 214.4. Not really concerned about passing ypg, as they have increased that number every year.

As for red zone - I'd be happy getting back to 53%. Russell hasn't been very good inside the red zone. You can blame that on whatever you want, but he just hasn't been able to capitalize on our opportunities inside the 20. Hopefully, with the chemistry with Graham seeming to be getting better, this will change going forward.

 

[Screamin12th]

Exactly. Despite being ranked #28 (which is lower than the 27, 26, 27 that we have been the last 3 years) it is significantly higher than what we've had the last 3 seasons. Since Wilson has gotten here the Hawks have had 189.4 (2012), 202.3 (2013), 203.1 (2014) and now 214.4. Not really concerned about passing ypg, as they have increased that number every year.

As for red zone - I'd be happy getting back to 53%. Russell hasn't been very good inside the red zone. You can blame that on whatever you want, but he just hasn't been able to capitalize on our opportunities inside the 20. Hopefully, with the chemistry with Graham seeming to be getting better, this will change going forward.

I feel the play calling inside the 20 has been real lack luster. I think they are trying to be to cute, last week when they just ran Marshawn over and over i was fine with. They do need to start working more with Willson ( TE ) and Graham with Lockette/Kearse and Mathews, those guys are all 6 foot 2 and over. Run those 4 guys out there and stack the WR behind the TE, this will cause some miss-matches and sucks people out of the middle for Lynch.

 

[jakedog56]

We'll be ranking FIRST in the NFL when we take home #2 in Santa Clara this winter. The rest of the stats really don't matter.

I like the positive attitude! It seems to be lacking around here lately.

 

[JMR]

The passing ypg must be net, meaning sack yards are taken away; RW is averaging 238 a game.

Of all the stats listed, the points per game is where I'm most disappointed. It's tied to red zone effeciency, of course, an area that was supposed to be boosted by adding Graham. I still think we'll get there in the back half of the season, especially if Lynch from here on out is closer to what we saw in SF than in the other games.

Those stats are really just symptoms. The problem is the OL. That's the input. We took a bit of a risk letting Unger go (via trade), moving Britt to a new position, and going with a no-name at center, and so far it's backfired even if some marginal improvement has been made. Will be interesting to see if the front office resists the temptation to over-correct next off-season.

 

[gohusk]

Passing yards per game should not be ignored. They need to be taken with a grain of salt but disregarding the stat isn't a good idea. And we aren't a run first team anymore. It's more than 50% pass as far as play calling goes when you factor in Wilson scrambling. The problem is we're eating a lot of sacks and aren't efficient enough. GB had their bye week but they wouldn't be top 15 passing yards if you projected their average #'s for that week. You think they're a run first team? Their thing is that they're efficient as hell and like to burn clock on offense like we do. We need to get better in the red zone and bring the big play back into the offense. Lockett's getting their, Graham and Wilson are finally getting on the same page, and we're finally going to power sets that we can play action out of and get Wilson a little more time. Hopefully that will help things improve.

 

[Uhsplit]

Passing yards per game should not be ignored. They need to be taken with a grain of salt but disregarding the stat isn't a good idea. And we aren't a run first team anymore. It's more than 50% pass as far as play calling goes when you factor in Wilson scrambling. The problem is we're eating a lot of sacks and aren't efficient enough. GB had their bye week but they wouldn't be top 15 passing yards if you projected their average #'s for that week. You think they're a run first team? Their thing is that they're efficient as hell and like to burn clock on offense like we do. We need to get better in the red zone and bring the big play back into the offense. Lockett's getting their, Graham and Wilson are finally getting on the same page, and we're finally going to power sets that we can play action out of and get Wilson a little more time. Hopefully that will help things improve.

I'm not sure you are correct in what I highlighted.
Last week at SF (granted-it's SF), we probably played the best game of the season. We ran roughly 60% of the time. That is exactly how Pete wants to do it. It limits costly TO's, which Pete hates more than anything.
Did you hear what Pete had to say about RW's INTs from last game? He was quite irritated over the pick in the end zone. Pete even bus tossed RW a little regarding those ints.
Everyone agrees that our OL is our biggest problem, just as it was last year. After losing Unger and a marginally effective Carp, a drop off should be expected. It happened. It is my hope that the OL improves as the season moves on.

 

[gohusk]

I'm not sure you are correct in what I highlighted.
Last week at SF (granted-it's SF), we probably played the best game of the season. We ran roughly 60% of the time. That is exactly how Pete wants to do it. It limits costly TO's, which Pete hates more than anything.
Did you hear what Pete had to say about RW's INTs from last game? He was quite irritated over the pick in the end zone. Pete even bus tossed RW a little regarding those ints.
Everyone agrees that our OL is our biggest problem, just as it was last year. After losing Unger and a marginally effective Carp, a drop off should be expected. It happened. It is my hope that the OL improves as the season moves on.

We run more passing plays than we do running plays. Wilson scrambles out of quite a few of them. And the 49ers aren't a measuring stick for what an offense is. What's the point of trying to pass when you're ripping off all the yards you need just handing it off? They're the exception because that team is a complete train wreck. If Pete wants to go back to the same old song and dance then whatever. We'll be a mediocre team that can't score points because the defense isn't what it used to be.

 

[Uhsplit]

It is hard to maintain the #1 D rating in the league year after year. It is still the primary feature of this team.
The same old song and dance got this team to back to back SB's. It isn't as fancy as throwing for 350 yards a game, but that is how this team is built and that is how it will roll.
I also think that as long as we have Pete and Russell, we will always be above average.

 

[WizardHawk]

NFL Football Stats - NFL Team Passing Play Percentage on TeamRankings.com
Only 3 teams have more percentage of run than we do. I'd say that makes us a run first offense. This is the era of big passing and we are still built in the old mold of at least a solid mix, if not looking to run before the pass.

The scrambling adding to running totals is a part of the game plan. It leads to more sacks and hits on Wilson, but it forces defenses to account for him and his run production very much counts as part of our overall running game because of it. Whether or not the actual play was called as a pass.

As Graham and Wilson keep growing their understanding of each other and Richardson works his way back as well as the further development of Lockett, we should expect to see the completions and yards per pass play increase, but as long as Lynch is back there I wouldn't expect to see more pass plays called.

In fact, in the last 3 games we have averaged 52% run. That suggests the reason our season total is under 50% has more to do with Lynch missing action than anything else.

 

[JMR]

We'll keep running it a lot as long we have leads, and we've had the lead in the 4th quarter in every game so far. Once we no longer are able to do that, we'll pass more because that's how you catch up in a short amount of time. It's as simple as that.