SF 49ers vs Tampa Bay Bucs
This week the 49ers transport their west coast offense from San Francisco Bay to Tampa Bay
where they face the league-leading Bucaneer pass D.
The Bucs don't just sit quietly atop the pass defense stats,
they've distanced themselves from the pack.
On our Killer Stat-Defense, yards per pass attempt, they allow opponents a mere 4.56 yards per toss.
The 2nd-ranked Giants allow 5.33. This huge difference is pictured in the
Killer Stat-Defense Percentile Rank chart.
Look at the center graph and observe the great difference between
Tampa Bay (at the top) and the rest of the league.
And note the percentile ranks: Bucs, 100 and Giants, 72.
The Bucs are like the student that killed the curve on the final exam.
They get the only A.
And the second best Giants get a B-.
Huge gap between the first and second ranked teams.
This points up a major problem with typical TV commentary that describes stat performance by rank alone.
In this example there is a great difference between the 1st-ranked Bucs and 2nd-ranked Giants. And almost no difference between
the 2nd-ranked Giants down through the 9th-ranked Steelers.
In the 49ers win last week vs the 2nd-ranked-pass-D Giants, QB Garcia and company earned an impressive 7.9 yards per pass attempt.
But the top-ranked Bucs' pass D is a horse of a different color.
Tampa Bay also leads the league on INTs, stealing 1.94 per game.
Again they are an outlier--off the chart.
There is huge gap to the 2nd-ranked Ravens that grab 1.56 intercepts for percentile rank 73.
The chart below pictures Bucs' weekly performance on INTs. The dark blue moving average line shows the
Bucs were much stronger than league average (light blue line) all season.
The Bucs' 4 losses stand out as low INT games.
Losing to Saints, Eagles, Saints again and Steelers they grabbed 1, 1, 0, 0 INTs.
Can the Bucs win without defensive intercepts?
Opp Passes Intercepted
Tampa Bay Bucs
2002 through Week 17
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