Stat of the Week

Week 8 - Plays per First Down

The STAT OF THE WEEK feature highlights the one stat contributing most points to the victory.

Held scoreless! What discouraging words to hear for a pro football coach. But that's what happened last week when Coach Joe Gibbs' Washington Redskins faced the New York Giants.

What happened? Redskins couldn't move the sticks. It took 7.43 plays to earn one first down. The stat graphic below pictures this puny performance relative to the Giants who with a modest 4.1 plays per first down rolled up the 36-0 score.

This huge differential contributed 29.9 points. Let's just round that to 30 points to make it understood that this Killer Stat accounted for the bulk of the loss.

In our data book this effort sets the record over the past 576 games. And note the Redskins' BEST EFFORT for the season was set the week before. Week-to-week variation follows a saw-toothed pattern. Strongest-weakest is seen every season on key stats for all teams.

Coach Gibbs, one of the good guys, really doesn't deserve it.