Tedy Bruschi designs his own defensive metric
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| Photo Courtesy of Patriots.com |
Tedy Bruschi, who is now an analyst for ESPN, has done away with conventional defensive statistics and invented his own way of measuring the play of a defense. The "Bruschi Defensive Index", as it has been named, is an average of a team's league rank in 4 important defensive categories.
The 4 categories used by the index are as follows:
1. Points allowed per game by the defense. Points against a team that result from a safety or an interception returned for a touchdown are not included. Points allowed on special teams are also left out of this statistic.
2. Red Zone Defense. This is simply a percentage of the total touchdowns allowed by a defense once the opposing offense enters the red zone.
3. Third down percentage, or the percentage of the time the defense is successful in stoping the offense from converting on third down.
4. Turnovers created by the defense. Special teams turnovers are not included in this total.
Headed into this week the Patriots rank 7th in points per game, 7th in red zone defense, 24th in third down percentage, and 7th in turnovers created.
So: 7+7+24+7= 45 ===> 45/4 categories = 11.25
The Patriots' Bruschi defensive rating is 11.25. Obviously the lower this number, the better a team's defense has performed in these 4 categories. A score of 11.25 puts the Patriots among the league's best, as they landed the 5th best score, behind only the Chiefs, Panthers, Seahawks and Ravens.
The Panthers sit at number 2 with an impressive 3.13 Bruschi defensive rating. Monday night's matchup between the Pats and Panthers will be the only game this weekend that pits 2 teams from inside the top 5 of this index against each other. Points should be at a premium in this game which means now more than ever ball security and field position will be of the utmost importance. Lets all pray that Stevan Ridley doesn't lose the football this week or we might never see him again.
Source: ESPNBoston.com
-Ryan Cereola
-@ryancereola
