Yards per drive vs yards per attempt

Curious what others think about this analysis...

http://www.fieldgulls.com/nfl-notebook/ ... ment_tease

I guess I'm alright with the way it was done but I keep coming back to this question: Why did the author want to use yards per drive rather than yards per attempt? I would think that YPA would give a more accurate indicator of success/failure in any of the areas mentioned.

I could see using scoring stats on a per drive basis to evaluate overall strengths and weaknesses as well but yards per drive? There are just so many other factors that come into play with stats at the drive level. Scoring percentage, field position at the start, game situation (point differential, quarter, etc)...

I dunno, just curious if I'm bat-shit crazy or if this may have been a little more sound had it been based on YPA in unison with a couple of other stats that show success/failure vs "how far did you go".

[edit] I am aware that the point of the article is to analyze how teams have addressed weaknesses so the point is not lost on me. I just don't necessarily agree with the data that's used to make the point.

No stat works in a vacuum.

Even points per game doesn't work, if it did, maybe the Bears would have lifted the Lombardi.

Yards per attempt? Useless. It looks good passing for gaudy numbers until you realise That three fifteen yard passes followed by an interception looks better than 8 5 yard runs and a 20 yard pass for a score

Yards per drive? Again, a team that consistently starts on their own 30 to 40 and drives for a td will look worse than the team that drives from redzone to redzone and settles for a FG.

Points per drive? This is one that's a little more telling, but without comparing against points allowed, it'll never be a good indicator alone.

It's all of these things combined that give you the entire picture, and particularly when you look at the Hawks D and see that they were top or close to top in every imaginable stat that you can really visualise just how good they were last year

Justin Britt is starting over Winston????
Color me surprised.

yards per drive gives a better indication of who's winning the battle for field position over the course of a game. ypa, as has been pointed out, can be skewed by a few big plays.