New York Giants: Don’t Go to Ben McAdoo with Pro Football Focus Stats
New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo isn’t a fan of statistical data. Does he have a point when saying stats are for losers?
During Friday’s question-answer session with local reporters, New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo revealed a theory that floats around his team’s locker room.
“Stats are for losers,” McAdoo said when asked about defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul’s sack number. The Giants defensive end has 1.5 sacks through seven games. For reporters and writers, it’s an easy statistic to look at and question pocket pressure.
Clearly, McAdoo doesn’t equate numbers with production or the lack thereof. In fairness to the Giants head coach, though he wouldn’t want to hear this, Pro Football Focus grades Pierre-Paul 80 overall and No. 26 among all edge-rushers. The favorable rating indicates the defensive end pressured opposing quarterbacks. However, he’s simply a step or two slow to drop the signal-caller for a sack.
Sometimes, you should give credit to the quarterback for releasing the ball before defenders can wrap up the sack. When measuring an edge-rusher’s impact, it’s fine to lean on stats to verify what you’re seeing on the field. However, it takes more than a sack total to formulate an accurate assessment.
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Take a look at how many times the defender caused the quarterback to throw a premature pass, which results in an incompletion or an interception. It’s also important to understand the player’s role in defending the run. Defensive end Olivier Vernon lists in the top-10 in run defense among players at his position.
These grades fit under the subjective category like most listings and rankings. Nonetheless, when viewing the film, it’s obvious Vernon sets a hard edge against the run and stops ball-carriers.
As expected, players don’t search through Pro Football Focus or Pro-Football-Reference. They’re too engrossed with playing the actual game to crunch numbers into meaningful stats.
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Nonetheless, to those outside the game, it provides some understanding based on concrete statistics such as touchdowns, interceptions and yards per carry. The diligent writers take those face-value numbers and advance their investigations further as to the why certain trends happen. At this point, the players and coaches have the upper hand because they know the play calls. It’s impossible to tell what broke down in specific situations from your couch at home unless it’s blatantly obvious like a missed block or a fumble.
On the other hand, when quarterback Eli Manning throws an interception, did he throw an inaccurate pass or did the wide receiver run the wrong route? It’s difficult to say unless you’re in the huddle.
While statistics don’t tell the entire story and often times can be manipulated to support a conclusion, they’re helpful to those outside the locker room in absorbing a basic understanding of the game.