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DVOA Analysis Time
First off, a legal note, all of the following information was compiled by Football Outsiders. I just created the charts. I have access to this information because I subscribe to the FO.com premium content service. You should too because it'll help you ball chicks left and right. Broads love DVOA, DPAR, and Adjusted Line Yards conversation. If you don't know what DVOA is, go here to bone up. Just a note - for the sake of the following charts superior defensive DVOA was ascribed a positive value (superior defensive DVOA is usually represented by a negative number) to better illustrate which units have been playing better/worse from week to week. League DVOA average is 0%.
First up, your Philadelphia Eagles:
The first trend that jumps out at me here is the consistency of the defense following the Week 5 debacle against the Redskins. The Birds defense has played twelve straight above average games since the breakdown against Washington. The Arizona through Dallas playoff push illustrates how well the defense has been playing of late with DVOA consistently above 20% (-20% actual). In fact, as measured by DVOA, the Birds defense has only played two sub par defensive games all season - Week 2 against Dallas and Week 5 against Washington. However, I don't really understand how the Birds registered a good DVOA number in week 10 against the Giants. The Giants put up 30 points and 401 net yards, yet DVOA shows an above average defensive performance.
The week to week performance of the offense has been far from consistent, however, the group has made steady progress following the Baltimore game. Five is the number of below average games DVOA credits the Birds' offense with this season. The above chart just illustrates the strength of this Eagle squad, the defense.
Where you can point to inconsistency with the Eagle offense, the Giant offense has been just the opposite. DVOA points to only one below average game for the unit (Dallas, Week 16) during the entire season. On the surface this makes sense, given the reliability of the Giant rushing attack, and the steadiness of Eli Manning, who had the best season of his five year career (likely due to such a reliance on the rush). The highly touted Giant defense is far from a picture of stability as DVOA shows a unit that has underperformed ever since the Week 10 clash with the Birds. Just judging by numbers, the defensive unit looks mediocre at best for the second half of 2008. An underperforming defense does not bode well for playoff survival.
Previous to their final two games (Minnesota is a throwaway because the starters barely played) the Giants were a team in DVOA freefall. This could be due to the tough NFC East road (Skins, Birds, Cowboys). Here's to the continuation of the NY Giant DVOA freefall against NFC East opponents.
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