Boogeymen (2019 defense) vs Brady Bunch (2007 offense)

[InRodWeRust]

As much as I love this defense I don't see it being able to contain Welker. 1st downs all day.

[Deadpulse]

Seems like this belongs here. Pulled from an ESPN Article:

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/27910887/barnwell-nfl-stat-comparisons-shock-14-blind-items

 

Quote

Team A: 2.94 standard deviations above the mean, 36.4 points per game

Team B: 3.05 standard deviations below the mean, 37.1 points per game

Let's finish with more of an indirect comparison of greatness. Team A is the 2007 Patriots offense and its points scored (excluding defensive and special-teams scores) through the first seven games of the season, when they laid waste to the NFL. Teams eventually caught up in the second half and began to slow down the Pats, but after a 49-28 dismantling of the Dolphins in Week 7, the Pats had scored 255 points, 39 more than any other team and nearly 120 more than the league average.

By standardizing the Pats' performance, we can compare them across eras. Three standard deviations above the mean is the simple definition of an outlier, so the 2007 Patriots come very close to that standard.

As you can probably guess, Team B is the 2019 Patriots. By the same measure, they've allowed a total of 30 points across touchdowns scored by the opposing offense, field goals and extra points. The second-placed 49ers have allowed 58 points in six games; prorating that to seven games gets them to 67.7 points. I've gone through the other teams who have had a bye and similarly adjusted their totals.

 

The Patriots' defense is 3.05 standard deviations below the mean in terms of points allowed. The cool thing about standardizing scores is that you can easily translate them across different measures, so given that the Pats' defense is 3.05 standard deviations below the mean in 2019, we can figure out what an offense that is 3.05 standard deviations above the mean would have looked like in 2007. As it turns out, if an offense were 3.05 standard deviations above the mean over the first seven games of 2007, it would have scored 37.1 points per game, a little under one point per contest more than the Patriots actually did during their incredible start to the season.

If all of that's too math-y for you, let me put it as simply as I can: The 2019 Patriots defense has been more dominant than the 2007 Patriots offense through seven weeks.