Erebus
Active member
I've been lurking on the boards of the other NFC playoff teams and noticed one trend in regard to their fans' perceptions of the Seahawks: we have an "anemic" or "mediocre" offense. I think it's tacky to post on their boards (although I don't mind them posting here), so I'll leave this here for opposing fans to read.
Per Football Outsiders' DVOA, our offense is #5. For comparison, New England is 6th, Baltimore is 9th, Indy is 17th, Cincinnati is 18th, Detroit is 19th, and Carolina is 20th. Of the teams still in the playoffs, only Green Bay (1), Denver (3), and Dallas (4) are ahead of us. Dallas is only ahead by 0.3%. We're a run-first offense, and our rush offense DVOA is 1st by a mile and one of the best of all time, nearly 3 times as good as the #2 team.
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamoff
If you don't like fancy advanced stats, then lets judge by yards and points. We're #9 in yards and #10 in points, ahead of other playoff teams such as Baltimore (12th in yards, 8th in points), Cincinnati (15th, 15th), Carolina (16th, 19th), Detroit (19th, 22nd), and Arizona (24th, 24th). If you look at rushing yards, we're #1 with 172 ypg, well ahead of #2 Dallas (147 ypg). Any way you look at it, we have a top ten offense, and I don't see how that can be considered anemic or mediocre. The way to beat us, I keep hearing, is to stuff Lynch and contain Wilson to the pocket. Even if that were true, its much easier said than done.
Only Detroit with their #1 ranked rush defense matches up well against our running game. The Panthers (22nd in rush defense DVOA), Cowboys (23rd), and Packers (24th) don't match up well against our rush offense.
We don't throw it a lot because, simply put, we don't have to. But when we do, we rank 10th in passing DVOA, 6th in yards per attempt (7.7), and 8th in passer rating. The NFC playoff teams with a higher ranking in pass defense DVOA than our pass offense are Detroit (8th) and Carolina (9th), although their rankings aren't much higher than our pass offense.
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamdef
Furthermore, our offense improved when we got rid of our cancer. With Harvin, we averaged 335 yards per game, and 394 yards without him. I don't know how to find our weekly DVOA ratings (maybe that's premium content).
The bottom line is that we have a top ten offense by any metric except total passing yards, and best-in-the-league at what we try to do.
Per Football Outsiders' DVOA, our offense is #5. For comparison, New England is 6th, Baltimore is 9th, Indy is 17th, Cincinnati is 18th, Detroit is 19th, and Carolina is 20th. Of the teams still in the playoffs, only Green Bay (1), Denver (3), and Dallas (4) are ahead of us. Dallas is only ahead by 0.3%. We're a run-first offense, and our rush offense DVOA is 1st by a mile and one of the best of all time, nearly 3 times as good as the #2 team.
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamoff
If you don't like fancy advanced stats, then lets judge by yards and points. We're #9 in yards and #10 in points, ahead of other playoff teams such as Baltimore (12th in yards, 8th in points), Cincinnati (15th, 15th), Carolina (16th, 19th), Detroit (19th, 22nd), and Arizona (24th, 24th). If you look at rushing yards, we're #1 with 172 ypg, well ahead of #2 Dallas (147 ypg). Any way you look at it, we have a top ten offense, and I don't see how that can be considered anemic or mediocre. The way to beat us, I keep hearing, is to stuff Lynch and contain Wilson to the pocket. Even if that were true, its much easier said than done.
Only Detroit with their #1 ranked rush defense matches up well against our running game. The Panthers (22nd in rush defense DVOA), Cowboys (23rd), and Packers (24th) don't match up well against our rush offense.
We don't throw it a lot because, simply put, we don't have to. But when we do, we rank 10th in passing DVOA, 6th in yards per attempt (7.7), and 8th in passer rating. The NFC playoff teams with a higher ranking in pass defense DVOA than our pass offense are Detroit (8th) and Carolina (9th), although their rankings aren't much higher than our pass offense.
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamdef
Furthermore, our offense improved when we got rid of our cancer. With Harvin, we averaged 335 yards per game, and 394 yards without him. I don't know how to find our weekly DVOA ratings (maybe that's premium content).
The bottom line is that we have a top ten offense by any metric except total passing yards, and best-in-the-league at what we try to do.