Stat of the Week
Week 18--
The STAT OF THE WEEK feature highlights the one stat contributing most points
to the victory.
Washington Commanders--Tampa Bay Bucs
Points per Pass Att (1.1 vs 0.3) contributed
21.5
points to the
7-point win.
The Stat of the Week contributing most points to Coach Joe Gibbs'
Redskins was Points per Pass (PPP). The 'Skins overwhelmed Coach
John Gruden's Bucs earning 1.1 PPP vs an insignificant 0.3 points per toss.
The 'Skins were almost four times more powerful on balance than the
Bucs on our most important Killer Stat. This large performance
differential contributed a big 21.5 Points per Game to the Redskins' 7-point victory.
This stat suggests the 'Skins coulda' or shoulda' won by more.
How did they do it? With a very efficient passing attack and a
pounding running game: With only 1 intercept vs 2 for the Bucs, the
'Skins raked in a 5-point advantage. And with 2 QB sacks vs 3
for the Bucs they added 2.9 poiints more. Together these two stats
made up 7.9 points, fully accounting for the 7-point victory.
Question? How many passes did Coach Joe Gibbs call? How about 16?
That is a modest number indeed.
But when you don't pass you aren't sacked or intercepted (simple mistakes that cost 3 points for
the sack and 5 points for the INT).
They are costly errors.
Go back in history for a moment and check the Miami Dolphins'
average number of pass attempts per game for their entire
championship season. How about 18 passes per game (lo for the league).
The Dolphins' RBs Larry Csonka, Jim Kick and Mercury Morris took the lead
held it with a ball-control running game.
This Redskins-Bucs playoff game had other interesting stat performances.
Neither team did well on Yards per Pass, a key measure of efficiency. The Bucs
bettered the 'Skins with 4.1 yards per toss vs only 1.4 yards for the
winning Redskins.
These are puny passing efficiency performance values.
Coach Gibbs did it on the ground with 80% of his total yards
earned by running the ball, running the ball, running the ball.
Just as RB Riggins did when Coach Gibbs took the Redskins to the Super Bowl.
Bud Goode
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