Interesting stuff.
I can't help but wonder however, if Baltimore's defensive ranking is a bit skewed by their level of competition.
I know you can only play who the NFL puts in front of you, but Cleveland x2, Cincinnati x2, Detroit, Oakland, Steelers w/o Ben, Chicago. That's 8 garbage offenses right there that any even halfway decent defense should hold in check, or half the season of facing literally no one!!
Toss out KC putting up 24 in week 1 cause wacky **** happens in week 1 and some of those points in believe were in garbage time, but other than holding Indy to 17, the decent/good opposing offenses they have played have put up numbers, and points, against them.
SD 26
NE 27
MIN 33
GB 27
PIT 23 w/Ben
Those hardly look like numbers a championship caliber defense allows, no matter who they're playing, even if some of those points were scored as a result of their own offense causing bad spots for the defense.
Not saying they are bad, but just that possibly their defensive numbers are a bit skewed. I mean who couldn't stop the run and create turnovers against the Browns and whoever they had at QB then, or the Raiders and crappy Jamarcus Russell, or the Lions and whatever ****ty QB they played that week, or Chicago and turnover machine Cutler, even Cincinnati who didn't have much offense all season, or Pittsburgh w/Dennis Dixon at QB.
Just something to think about before blindly playing stats.....
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