NFL Playoffs 2008 Season - True Worth Studies

Mr. J.V. Presogna
Presogna Productions

www.go2jvp.com/

NFL Playoffs 2008 Season

Welcome to the True Worth Studies Capsule View of the 2008 NFL Playoffs.
The charts below represent the playoff teams, their strength of schedules,
and how they did against each portion of those schedules.

Explanation of the Charts

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2008 NFL Season Averages

	YP	DU	rDU	pDU	Pass	Rush
AFC 2008	24.58	192.92	101.55	91.37	34.9	3.266
NFC 2008	22.89	187.32	99.58	87.74	36.1	3.287
NFL 2008	23.73	190.12	100.56	89.56	35.5	3.276
Historical	15.00	170.00	85.00	85.00	30.00	2.500

AFC Playoff Teams
= Positive Relation

	Baltimore	Indianapolis	Miami	Pittsburgh	San Diego	Tennessee
YP in	19.46	22.30	26.06	23.23	26.80	21.50
YP out	6.23	24.18	21.69	6.09	25.52	7.82
DU in	168.30	182.64	207.34	170.85	212.68	193.32
DU out	191.99	222.73	241.97	148.15	234.84	220.05
rDU in	93.61	92.68	104.68	88.85	119.76	100.71
rDU out	127.20	58.83	110.41	81.61	90.45	133.99
pDU in	74.69	89.97	102.67	82.00	92.93	92.61
pDU out	64.79	163.90	131.57	66.54	144.39	86.07
Pass in	32.1	33.2	35.0	34.0	37.7	32.0
Pass out	19.3	21.9	27.0	14.8	39.7	17.1
Rush in	3.068	3.223	3.384	3.255	3.508	2.981
Rush out	1.930	3.412	2.818	1.761	2.750	2.333

NFC Playoff Teams
= Positive Relation

	Arizona	Atlanta	Carolina	Minnesota	NY Giants	Philadelphia
YP in	21.72	24.86	27.81	25.77	17.94	19.98
YP out	30.30	22.13	16.61	12.00	14.62	7.85
DU in	181.52	208.14	212.14	202.12	159.10	172.10
DU out	214.84	249.53	257.58	175.11	270.39	201.32
rDU in	92.46	114.80	114.62	109.17	84.03	90.56
rDU out	49.02	145.22	167.30	124.98	170.88	85.30
pDU in	89.06	93.34	97.52	92.94	75.07	81.54
pDU out	165.82	104.31	90.28	50.13	99.51	116.02
Pass in	33.3	36.6	39.9	37.6	32.4	34.0
Pass out	48.1	37.9	29.4	28.5	26.0	25.7
Rush in	3.503	3.314	3.346	3.127	3.151	3.324
Rush out	2.914	4.178	3.526	1.699	2.537	2.156

Explanation of the Charts

The strength of schedule for any team depends on the matchups that the team confronts, and therefore there are six (6) basic strength of schedule marks. Keep in mind, it is not as important to view how tough each strength of schedule is, but rather to see how the team performed against that particular strength.

The star

in each portion of the charts denotes successful performance against the strength.

To define the portions, YP = "Total Offense," and DU = "Total Defense." These are the two most important strengths to review. The other portions denote the underpinnings of those two major portions, and they can show the team's vulnerabilities.

rDU = "Rush Defense," pDU = "Pass Defense," Pass = "Team Passing," and Rush = "Team Rushing."

Each team faces 16 opponents during a season, and therefore you can figure the "average opponent coming in." That "average opponent coming in" is the "in" portion of the chart. This means, the chart shows the six (6) strengths individually as they come in to play your team.

However, each opponent plays against your team face-to-face, and therefore this face-to-face can be calculated as the "actual opponent performance" against your team. The "out" portion of the chart denotes this actual performance.

Thus, you have success or failure, based on what the team gave up, as opposed to what came in.

For example, Pittsburgh was not so successful on offense as it was on defense. In DU "in" and DU "out" they had a Negative Relation of -22.7, which means the Pittsburgh offense was not pushing the defenses it faced as far as the rest of the league was pushing them. By contrast, the Pittsburgh defense was great, taking a YP "in" of 23.23 YP and turning it into a loss of 17.14 to 6.09 YP for YP "out."

You can easily see where there are some outstanding performances with a Positive Relation, and some poorer ones. But, keep in mind that you must examine the strength of schedule upon which these results were cast.

In that light, which team faced the most difficult schedule of any team in the playoffs overall is many times a difficult question. The offense might face a tough schedule of defenses, while the defense might face an easier schedule of offenses.

In the end, it is the matchups that count, one team against the other. In the playoffs, a good set of matchups can mean the difference between winning and losing. If you are a poor team at defending the pass, you could have difficulty against a good passing team.