Eagles vs Patriots

Interceptions

They oughta' give medals to head coaches who win Super Bowl upsets. When the New England Patriots faced the favored St. Louis Rams, for example, Pats Coach Bill Belichick had to know he had a crack at upsetting Coach Mike Martz and his fabled receivers all bullseye targets for QB Kurt Warner, he of the golden arm.

Passing efficiency stats, as a group, are typically the most important stats separating winners from losers. A few of these efficiency stats are: Yards per Pass Attempt, Percent First Downs Passing per Attempt, the Balance between Passing TDs and Intercepts and the TD Pass Percentage.

In the 2000 season Super Bowl matching Coach Bill Belichick's Patriots and Coach Mike Martz's St. Louis Rams, it looked like the Rams' many playmakers were ready to outgun the Pats' pass D.

Not so fast. Coach Belichick reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out a rarely used tool--triple covereing receivers. But not in a regular pattern.

Was it a gamble? Applied statisticians might say so. But heady Coach Belichick's pass D stole 2 INTs. The first INT kept his Patriots in a close game. The second intercept upset the favored Rams.

Each stat contributes some point value to both offense and defense. For one INT more than the opposition the value this season is almost 6 points.

Warning: main(/home/budsport/public_html//res_access/chartpg2-one-pub.php?var_num=var60&year=2004&team_num=16): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/budsport/public_html/pub/p04-sb2.php on line 79

Warning: main(): Failed opening '/home/budsport/public_html//res_access/chartpg2-one-pub.php?var_num=var60&year=2004&team_num=16' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/budsport/public_html/pub/p04-sb2.php on line 79

The stat graphic above pictures the role of the intercepted pass played in the Pats' 2004 season. In the two games they lost to PIT and MIA they did not, repeat NOT, steal one INT.

Warning: main(/home/budsport/public_html//res_access/chartpg2-one-pub.php?var_num=var19&year=2004&team_num=21): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/budsport/public_html/pub/p04-sb2.php on line 86

Warning: main(): Failed opening '/home/budsport/public_html//res_access/chartpg2-one-pub.php?var_num=var19&year=2004&team_num=21' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/budsport/public_html/pub/p04-sb2.php on line 86
In the stat graphic above, with the Eagles on offense, the one game where they really were weaker than league average, throwing 3 INTs vs the Cincinnati Bengals, is almost a guaranteed loss.

If the two teams play to statistical form this one stat favors the Eagles by about one point.

Bud Goode

Copyright 2005, BudGoodeSports.com. All rights reserved.