Mounds of entertaining analysis for this Saturday's matchup between the Seahawks and Redskins abounds here and here and here (latter two are from our Seahawks blog Field Gulls, which is a great site that I believe some of you have already found). I'm going to be looking at the past four weeks for both teams to identify any trends that have emerged towards the end of the season. Is there any reason I selected four games? No, it has nothing at all to do with the fact that the Redskins have played the best football of the year in the past four games. I am not a partisan at all. I wouldn't do that.
But we're going with the past four weeks just the same, because I'm shameless.
Redskins 4-0:
- 26.25 points per game scored
- 13.25 points per game allowed
- 343.75 yards per game on offense
- 277.25 yards per game allowed
- Turnover margin +6
- 40.67% 3rd down conversion
- 24.56% 3rd down on defense
- 105.25 rushing yards per game
- 71.75 rushing yards allowed per game
- Opponents W-L: 38-26
Seattle Seahawks 2-2:
- 30 points per game scored
- 21 points per game allowed
- 367 yards per game on offense
- 333.5 yards per game on defense
- Turnover Margin +2
- 33.3% 3rd down conversion
- 38.18% 3rd down on defense
- 108.75 rushing yards per game
- 98.5 rushing yards allowed per game
- Opponents W-L: 24-40
These are easily consumable stats that were selected by me for partisan reasons, so there isn't any need to read too deeply into them. However, they do reflect just a few of the important numbers from two teams that will play each other this coming Saturday. They represent 25% of the total sample size for these two teams and some would argue the most important quarter for prediction since recent weeks are probably a better indication of where a team is at today than their statistics from, say, week one. As you know, I'm a huge fan of the work done at Football Outsiders. Here's what they say,
Redskins:
- Total DVOA 7.7% (T-12th)
- Weighted DVOA (explained below) 10.1% (10th)
- Offensive DVOA 1.0% (17th)
- Defensive DVOA -7.2% (6th)
- Total DVOA 11.7% (9th)
- Weighted DVOA 13.8% (8th)
- Offensive DVOA 5.6% (14th)
- Defensive DVOA -5.4% (11th)
Prepare yourselves for a blowout because: Todd Collins. Incidentally, that's been largely true for the past four weeks, though the other way.