The Best Team in the NFL ?

rick301 · Post by **rick301** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:51 pm

This is a good summary of how the Skins compare against everyone else that I thought I's share. It's from http://bleacherreport.com/articles/6600 ... n-football

Are the Washington Redskins the Best Team in Football?

Rather than simply dissecting Week Five's NFC East matchup between the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles, I have chosen to respond to a sentiment that seems to be prevalent around the NFL...
by Craig Garrison Sr (Columnist)

Editorial
October 07, 2008

That sentiment being that, somehow, someway, the Redskins have not won four in a row based on their quality play, but rather on some form of luck or "happenstance."

I'll start with the simplest point: They are 4-1, going 2-1 in road games, involving three of the four teams that make up what many believe is the best division in football.

The one loss was on opening night, where the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants had the emotion of a ring ceremony and fiery speech from the retired Michael Strahan on their side to start the game. They ran into a buzzsaw and couldn't quite recover from it.

I would argue that NO team could have done better in the early stages of that game. Their ability to recover was hindered by the fact that it was the first game for a rookie head coach, the first game for a new offense as a whole, and the first game for a young quarterback in his third new offense in his four years in the NFL.

Things are different now after Week Five. And I contend that if that game were played in Week Six, the results would be different, too.

In five weeks of football, the Redskins have not taken over the league's statistical rankings in many categories. Defensively, the Redskins are only ranked 13th in yards allowed, 11th in points allowed, 20th against the pass, and ninth against the run.

But those numbers don't tell the whole story.

The Redskins have faced five of the NFL's top nine offenses during this stretch (based on current rankings, the Eagles were sixth entering Week Five). In each game, the Redskins' defense held the opposition to its lowest yardage total and its lowest point total of the season.

The Redskins' defense has only allowed 10 fourth-quarter points all season. This while facing five of the top 10 scoring offenses in the NFL, including three of the top five.

Four of the five opposing quarterbacks are currently ranked in the top FIVE in yardage in the NFL, and the fifth, Eli Manning, is a respectable 12th. Four of the five are also in the top seven in quarterback rating as of now (following Week Five) and the fifth (Donovan McNabb) is 13th (before facing the Redskins, he was eighth).

Three of the five opposing quarterbacks experienced their worst quarterback rating of the season against the Redskins. The other two, Drew Brees and Tony Romo, had their second-worst ratings, by a very small margin, 68.2-69.8 for Brees and 82.6-90.7 for Romo.

The Redskins' defense has only six sacks on the season. That ranks 26th in the NFL. But consider the quarterbacks they have faced.

Brees - tied for third in the NFL with four sacks all season, one sack for every 37 attempts
Romo - tied for third in the NFL with four sacks all season, one sack for every 40.5 attempts
Eli M - tied for fifth in the NFL with five sacks all season, one sack for every 26.4 attempts
McNabb - tied for 20th in the NFL with 10 sacks all season, one sack for every 17.5 attempts
Warner - 28th in the NFL with 12 sacks all season, one sack for every 15.25 attempts

Three of these five QBs are among the very best at getting rid of the ball, and the other two are pretty good as well, when one considers the sacks per attempt. As a point of comparison, the worst quarterbacks in sacks per attempt are Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Cassel, with 6.8 and 6.93 sacks per attempt respectively.

The best? Kerry Collins and Jay Cutler, with one sack in 115 attempts and two sacks in 191 attempts.

Is it a surprise the Redskins weren't able to sack these quarterbacks? No.

The Redskins' defense has caused a turnover in four of the five games, the exception being Week Five against the Eagles. The Redskins' offense is THE ONLY OFFENSE IN THE NFL WITN NO TURNOVERS ALL SEASON. The lone turnover from the team as a whole was a fumble during a punt return.

Quarterback Jason Campbell is the only starting quarterback with NO INTERCEPTIONS OR FUMBLES ALL SEASON. His 96.7 quarterback rating is currently eighth in the NFL, and he has completed nearly 64 percent of his passes.

He has faced some of the leagues best defenses, all but one (New Orleans Saints) are in the top 14 overall. All but one (New Orleans Saints) are in the top 17 in pass defense.

The Redskins have run the ball as well as any team in the league, currently ranked fifth in average per game. The Redskins are the only team to rush for more than 100 yards against the Cowboys and Eagles this season, two teams in the top 10 in rushing yards allowed.

The Redskins' offense ranks fourth in time of possession (TOP) in the NFL, with a large disparity in TOP during the fourth quarter:

Eight minutes 31 seconds
Six minutes 30 seconds (the only game in which they did NOT win TOP in the fourth quarter, against the New Orleans Saints the Redskins overcame a nine point deficit in the fourth quarter to win)
10 minutes 32 seconds
13 minutes
Nine minutes 11 seconds

The Redskins had the league's most difficult schedule through the first five weeks of football, and have a 4-1 record in that span. Their opponents have a combined 12-7 record, by far the most of any other team's opponents in the NFL.

By strength of schedule (from Jeff Sagarin), the Redskins have opened the season better than any team the NFL. The Redskins are No. 1 in schedule difficulty, the New York Giants are 32nd (the easiest schedule in the NFL), and the Tennessee Titans are 30th (third easiest schedule).

The second most difficult schedule? The Cincinnati Bengals. And they haven't done very well, 0-5.

All of this points to the Redskins being THE BEST TEAM IN FOOTBALL after Week Five of the 2008 NFL season.

The Washington Redskins don't have the best collection of talent. They don't have the most Pro Bowlers, the most star players, or the best player in the NFL at any position.

But the championships are not won by talent collectors, nor by any one player, no matter how good he happens to be.

Championships are won by good TEAMS. And as of now, the Redskins are just that, a good TEAM.

Will they be able to keep this pace for the rest of the season? Maybe.

Will they make the playoffs? Maybe.

Will they win the division? Maybe.

Will they win the Super Bowl? Maybe.

Can they do all of the above?

Definitely.

TeeterSalad · Post by **TeeterSalad** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 4:24 pm

Nice find. I agree 100%

oneman56 · Post by **oneman56** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 4:54 pm

great read. I just hope we can say the same after week 17 and then again a few weeks later!

SkinsJock · Post by **SkinsJock** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

I don't know that I'd be making that claim just yet. We are a good team but I don't think we are the best team.

I know we just beat the pukes and the iggles in succesive weeks and that is really very good on our part - I also do not think we played as well as we should against the giants but it certainly had nothing to do with any speeches that were made by Strahan or the emotion of getting the rings - that stuff is bogus. We just did not play as well as we have since and that loss was more our fault than the play of the giants offense or defense or any emotions that their players felt.

I do know that the giants are not as good without Strahan and Osi - that's a fact - I really still think that they will end up 4th in this division, maybe if Westbrook is hurt (by our defense incidently) they might get over the iggles but they are certainly not the best team in the NFC East.

We are a good team that could just surprise a lot of other teams but there are a lot of games to be played and a lot of these other so called very good teams are not playing like we all expected, so if they start to get it together and we continue to improve as I think we will then it could be very interesting.

Right now we are one of the better teams but that is as much because we are not making mistakes that cost our team games and a lot of other good teams are just not playing well.

HAIL

RedskinsRule56 · Post by **RedskinsRule56** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:47 pm

I think as of right now we are the 3rd best, behind both the undefeated Giants and Titans.

chiefhog44 · Post by **chiefhog44** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:53 pm

We'll see how good of a team we are through the next three games. Good teams win games that they ought to win...period.

Countertrey · Post by **Countertrey** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:04 pm

RedskinsRule56 wrote:I think as of right now we are the 3rd best, behind both the undefeated Giants and Titans.

Yes, let the Giants claim to be the best, for now... I think that the reality will be borne out soon enough... with just a little luck on the injury front.

jmooney · Post by **jmooney** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 8:54 pm

Hey, the Patriots were the best team in football all year last year, #2,#3 works for me!

SkinsFreak · Post by **SkinsFreak** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 8:54 pm

Countertrey wrote:
RedskinsRule56 wrote:I think as of right now we are the 3rd best, behind both the undefeated Giants and Titans.

Yes, let the Giants claim to be the best, for now... I think that the reality will be borne out soon enough... with just a little luck on the injury front.

Agreed, and also, NY has a tough schedule coming up, I can see them losing a few of these...

@ Cleveland
San Francisco
@ Pittsburgh
Dallas
@ Philadelphia
Baltimore
@ Arizona
@ Washington
Philadelphia
@ Dallas
Carolina
@ Minnesota

SkinsJock · Post by **SkinsJock** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:22 pm

- Agreed, and also, NY has a tough schedule coming up, I can see them losing a few of these...

@ Cleveland
San Francisco
@ Pittsburgh
Dallas
@ Philadelphia
Baltimore
@ Arizona
@ Washington
Philadelphia
@ Dallas
Carolina
@ Minnesota

ok - lets hognosticate!!!

I see 3 fairly easy games - Browns, 49ers and at Cardinals but the last 5 games look really interesting and the last 10 are going to show everyone what happens when a team loses Strahan and Osi from a pretty good defense and cannot replace them :lol:

If I was a giant fan I would be very concerned because this coach cannot keep this group together and lately they have lost some pretty good leaders in both Barber and Strahan.

PMG12569 · Post by **PMG12569** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:39 pm

Countertrey wrote:
RedskinsRule56 wrote:I think as of right now we are the 3rd best, behind both the undefeated Giants and Titans.

Yes, let the Giants claim to be the best, for now... I think that the reality will be borne out soon enough... with just a little luck on the injury front.

This seems to be a pretty steady view throughout the analysts and everyone but who's 4 wins are more impressive? I guess you could say that they beat us but everyone knows this is not the same team. I think our wins are FAR more impressive than what they have done.

NYG
WAS 7 @ NYG 16
NYG 41 @ STL 13
CIN 23 @ NYG 26 (OT)
SEA 6 @ NYG 44

WAS

NO 25@ WAS 29
ARI 17 @ WAS 24
WAS 26 @ DAL 24
WAS 23 @ PHI 17

And don't get me wrong I actually want to be under the radar all though it looks likes that wont happen anymore unless we start losing! Oh well you have to take the good with the great. You know what is going to be interesting is if we beat St. Louis and the Browns can somehow beat the Giants we are going to be Number 1 on almost eveyone's list and all the worthless rankings and what not. I really want the Browns to win so we take them a lil more seriously the following week and to put as at the top of the division of course. The rest of the season is going to be a wild ride......GO SKINS!!!!! Oh as for being the best team in the NFL.....HELL YEA BOY!!! I am a fan so I can have relentless passion/optimism and dont have to rely on being realistic and humble.(Hopefully the actual team stays realistic and humble)

RedskinsFreak · Post by **RedskinsFreak** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:11 pm

chiefhog44 wrote:We'll see how good of a team we are through the next three games. Good teams win games that they ought to win...period.

The true gauge will be how many free toppings they give out at Papa John's in the next three weeks (1 for each touchdown, double if Redskins win).

I'm putting the over/under at 17.5.

RedskinsRule56 · Post by **RedskinsRule56** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:15 pm

I think we go over 17.5.

PMG12569 · Post by **PMG12569** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:34 pm

RedskinsFreak wrote:
chiefhog44 wrote:We'll see how good of a team we are through the next three games. Good teams win games that they ought to win...period.
The true gauge will be how many free toppings they give out at Papa John's in the next three weeks (1 for each touchdown, double if Redskins win).

I'm putting the over/under at 17.5.

Is there a prop bet for that on Sportsbook? I want to take some action on those toppings.

Skinna Mob · Post by **Skinna Mob** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:42 pm

Brilliant!!!

cvillehog · Post by **cvillehog** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:56 pm

PMG12569 wrote:Is there a prop bet for that on Sportsbook? I want to take some action on those toppings.

That just sounds gross.

PMG12569 · Post by **PMG12569** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 12:01 am

cvillehog wrote:
PMG12569 wrote:Is there a prop bet for that on Sportsbook? I want to take some action on those toppings.

That just sounds gross.

Oh...yeah didnt see it they way let me rephrase "Is there a prop bet for that on sportsbook? I want to make a bet on that over under of how many free toppings Papa Johns's will give away during the next 3 weeks of the Redskins season. (Think I took away all risk of sounding gross)

skinfaninla20 · Post by **skinfaninla20** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 1:56 am

Chills all over.... it says everything I've been thinking...

SkinsJock · Post by **SkinsJock** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 7:40 am

I am as high on how well this team is playing as anyone - I also am very cogniscant of the reality of the NFL.

Last year the giants won a bunch of games on the road and yet in December in a game at their house that they would have loved to win, we made them look very ordinary.

The giants won the most important game of the year but they were definetly not the best team in the NFL - they were not even in the top 3 in the NFC in my opinion.

The NE team won every game last season but they were not considered the best team (by most fans) because they were beat in the most important game of the year.

I guess that my point is that I think we should be considered one of the best if not the best team in the NFL right now but that means very little to anyone who is not a Redskins fan. I feel a lot of that is not so much due to the fact that we are playing so well - (we are!) BUT that so many good teams are not playing as well as they can and while every game counts - if you get in the playoffs and get very lucky, like the giants did, you are then comsidered the best team in the NFL even though you are not in the top 5 :wink:

VetSkinsFan · Post by **VetSkinsFan** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 7:45 am

The Giants strength last year throughout the playoffs is the same strength we have right now. TEAM COHESION. They are playing very unselfishly and working together as one unit. That's the most important factor in football IMO. The skill of the player can vary (to a degree), but the cohesion cannot.

HighOnTheHogs · Post by **HighOnTheHogs** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 8:13 am

Being called "The Best Team In The NFL" doesn't mean much coming from people who don't play, coach, manage, or otherwise work in the field. What the Washington Redskins, and any other NFL franchise for that matter, wants is to be called the best team in the NFL by their peers, not by the press.

What we Redskins faithful should be hoping is that the Redskins players are ignoring the media entirely. This is, after all, the same media who gave the Redskins 5th place in a four team division all preseason and for the first few weeks of the regular season, writing as though the Redskins don't belong in the toughest division in professional football, that is until Dallas and Philadelphia were no longer remotely spinnable as the Beasts Of The East. It looks like the media at large is backpeddaling since most sports writers also had the Giants finishing 3rd in the division.

Ultimately, who cares who ranks what team where five weeks into the season? The New England Patriots were the best team in the NFL last season for 75 quarters of football. Then, they weren't. In this contest, only the last team standing counts, and there are still 11 regular season games and three playoff games to be played.

During the next 15 weeks, the media will shift positions on the Redskins at least 15 times. The Washington Redskins faithful, excluding the rediculously large number of fair weather 'fans', won't. We know our team is the best team in the NFL, and we don't need some pinhead with a blog or a column to tell us what we knew five weeks ago, what we know now, and what we will know in 15 weeks when the Redskins are hoisting the Lombardi Trophy once again.

BossHog · Post by **BossHog** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:12 am

Personally, I think we stink and I think that every team should continue to look at us as bottom feeders that have been lucky until now.

Our running back stinks most of all. He doesn't deserve a moment of game-planning.

Our coach hasn't got a clue what he's doing.

We're not even worth worrying about.

Fios · Post by **Fios** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:22 am

BossHog wrote:Personally, I think we stink and I think that every team should continue to look at us as bottom feeders that have been lucky until now.

Our running back stinks most of all. He doesn't deserve a moment of game-planning.

Our coach hasn't got a clue what he's doing.

We're not even worth worrying about.

Frankly, we've been very lucky each week

Bob 0119 · Post by **Bob 0119** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:32 am

HighOnTheHogs wrote:Being called "The Best Team In The NFL" doesn't mean much coming from people who don't play, coach, manage, or otherwise work in the field. What the Washington Redskins, and any other NFL franchise for that matter, wants is to be called the best team in the NFL by their peers, not by the press.

What we Redskins faithful should be hoping is that the Redskins players are ignoring the media entirely. This is, after all, the same media who gave the Redskins 5th place in a four team division all preseason and for the first few weeks of the regular season, writing as though the Redskins don't belong in the toughest division in professional football, that is until Dallas and Philadelphia were no longer remotely spinnable as the Beasts Of The East. It looks like the media at large is backpeddaling since most sports writers also had the Giants finishing 3rd in the division.

Ultimately, who cares who ranks what team where five weeks into the season? The New England Patriots were the best team in the NFL last season for 75 quarters of football. Then, they weren't. In this contest, only the last team standing counts, and there are still 11 regular season games and three playoff games to be played.

During the next 15 weeks, the media will shift positions on the Redskins at least 15 times. The Washington Redskins faithful, excluding the rediculously large number of fair weather 'fans', won't. We know our team is the best team in the NFL, and we don't need some pinhead with a blog or a column to tell us what we knew five weeks ago, what we know now, and what we will know in 15 weeks when the Redskins are hoisting the Lombardi Trophy once again.

Welcome to the site HighOnTheHogs! If you haven't already, please check out the site rules here and also the main site.

PMG12569 · Post by **PMG12569** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:21 am

ahh a few good wins, we arent that good. I still think we finish 4th in the East we suck! 32nd on the Power Rankings if you ask me. No one should take this team seriously. MWAHAHAHA :twisted: