Time For a Defense "QBR"

     Well, I couldn’t just say time for a new “DR”.  No one would have a clue as to what I was talking about, nor would anyone continue reading this article.  Thus all my efforts writing this would be for not.  Seriously though, is anyone else sick of hearing sportscasters refer to the “best defense” in the league by referring to the FEWEST YARDS ALLOWED ranking?!?  I’ve never understood why the NFL (who I’m assuming is the responsible party) has chosen to use this category as their sort-able stat in ranking defenses.  This makes as much sense as ranking Quarterbacks by HIGHEST COMPLETIONS PER GAME.  Or to use a different sport analogy, ranking the best Defensive players in the NBA by FEWEST POINTS SCORED ON per game.  While having a high completion percentage or allowing the fewest points per game contributes to the success of each position, this is not, nor should it be, the only stat to take into consideration when ranking said positions.

        Let’s look at the current rankings as of the end of week 8, basically half way through the NFL season.   Here are you’re Top 10 Defenses, according to the current ranking system, of FEWEST YARDS ALLOWED:  #1 Houston, #2 Carolina, #3 Pittsburg, #4 Seattle, #5 Oakland, #6 Green Bay, #7 New Orleans, #8 Tennessee, #9 Tampa Bay, and #10 Baltimore.   Man, they nailed it!  That’s exactly who I would have guessed to be the top 10 defenses!  (Insert sarcastic remark #3 here.)     I mean, c’mon.  Houston #1? Oakland #4? The Bucs #9?!?!  Now, once again, I’m not saying this stat isn’t a contributing factor in determining who is the best defense.  Obviously teams like Carolina and Seattle are very good and it’s not surprising that they are in the top 4 in this category.   What I am saying is that we can’t be using a commodore 64 when compiling stats and only using the fewest yards allowed category when ranking defenses.  Even if we just look at Points Allowed per game, this would give us a better indication of who truly is the better defense(s) in the league.  Here are the Top 10 in this category:  #1 Kansas City, #2 Carolina, #3 Seattle, #4 New Orleans, #5 New England, #6 San Francisco, #7 Cincinnati, #8 Indianapolis, #9 San Diego, #10 Tennessee.  Now that’s starting to shape up more like a Top 10 ranking.  

       I would submit that points per game, opponents average starting field position, sacks, hurries, pressures, forced fumbles, interceptions, 4^th down stops, and strength of opponent are all statistics that should be taken into consideration when ranking a defense.  Allowing points and yards during garbage time in a blowout should be weighed less than allowing the same points and yardage during a game that is a close fought battle. 

       This is the very reason why ESPN, the brilliant people that they are, developed the new QBR or Quarterback Ranking system.  First, they realized that the old rating system where the max score was a weird random number of 158.3 just didn’t make any sense to any human being, not named Ingleburt Pointdexter.  So the first thing they did was simplified the new QBR by making the scoring from 1 – 100 with 100 being the best.  Ahhhhh……clear/concise/logic at last.  But that is where the simplicity ends my friends, as well it should.  They then chose to incorporate into their ranking formula anything and everything a QB does during a game and even WHEN he does those actions.  So just like I requested in my for-mentioned example, a 15 yard first down completion is weighted more when done in the 4^th quarter with 2 minutes remaining versus when done in the 1^st quarter.  Make sense?  I’m not going to pretend I know every nuance of the formula, but it incorporates pretty much every aspect of the game that would determine a true ability ranking of all QBs.   This is exactly what we need for Defenses.