Dolphins lead league in fewest penalties, 5th in time-of-possession

Not bad, these are good stats. If we can continue this and increase our takeaway-turnover ratio we'll be sure to finish the season strong.

 

That can't be right, most people on here think that the officials and the league hates us.

 

Being 5th in TOP leads to barely a 3-2 record? Reconfirmation that the stat is meaningless, IMO.

 

Now those are some stats I can get behind...

 

And that is with the running game not functioning as well as it could be.

 

interesting, we have been passing a ton, but have good time of possesion, meaning we've had some long sustaining drives.

bad news, we arent scoring touchdowns. we start finishing drives, we'll be deadly.

 

The Dolphins are clearly a good team. They have the talent to play with anyone and they do more things well than not well. But they have had some some areas where they have failed spectacularly. The easy example is the STs. If they had played just average on STs and exactly the same as they have in every other phase, they arguably could be 5-0. There would be a great deal of unwarranted optimism on the board, but the team would be roughly as good as they are now.

 

If we didn't have the special teams meltdown vs New England and win that game and end up with a 4-1 record, would you still sing the same tune? I know you would, but your argument against it would be weaker.

 

Well said.

 

I disagree, but I think rhese stats stand alone either.
The Special Teams and turnovers have killed us.
If we can start getting some good numbers there while keeping these, THEN we will start seeing a really good team IMO.

 

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Timing is much more significant than quantity.

 

San Diego has the number 1 offense and defense in the AFC. They're 2-4.

Explain that

 

Norv Turner is the coach.

 

Post of the day.

 

NFL.com’s use of total yardage for and against as the sole metric of determining the best offenses and defenses is wrong. I don’t know how you can cite the Chargers’ 2-4 record and not agree with this.

I’d respond, except lmeister already did it for me.

By the way, the 1-4 Cowboys are #1 in the NFL with 33:47 TOP. The Chargers are 4th with 32:55. Good teams and bad teams are scattered throughout the entire list. I don’t know how anyone pulls any sort of consistent win-loss data from TOP. It’s a meaningless stat.

 

Gotta put the ball in the endzone... 2008, we win the division, partly because of efficiency in the red zone. I have faith though that the second part of the season we're gonna see ONE HELL OF A TEAM in the DOLPHINS!!! Sooooooooo Close!

 

Did anyone see that? That was an argument with facts. And it has no place here.

 

I don't think its meaningless but it is not what it is made out to be. I know this is dropping to a lower level but look at Minnesota in NCAA football. They have like the second highest TOP per game in the NCAA and they suck, unfortunately.

 

An efficient offense can hold the ball 15 minutes and win. An inefficient offense can hold the ball 45 minutes and lose. Where have we seen that before?

Seriously, I don’t see any meaning at all in TOP. Give me measures of offensive efficiency any day. The more efficient team is likely the winning team.

 

Efficiency is part of TOP. If you can get something out of all that time you spend on the field, then the statistic has meaning to it because you're probably going to win the majority of your games, no?

 

Well, more so it shows you points off Special Teams (just seconds off the clock) that cost you a game play tricks on ToP as well.

Penalities is the big one (although doesnt take into account declined ones I think) to the NOT BEATING YOURSELF mantra.....protect the ball, win the turnover battle, and no ST points allowed would go along way to a winning record historically speaking.

 

Efficiency is the opposite of TOP. TOP implies that you need to hold on to the ball to win. Efficiency is a measure of how little you need to hold the ball to win.

 

Not necessarily. I think they are tied together.

 

Makes sense... But you can't put that on the offense either. If your offense is scoring TD's every time they have the ball with a 10-minute drive it won't matter if the defense let's the other team go right down the field. So there would have to be some sort of defensive adjustment in order to assign this stat to W's and L's.

 

IMO getting something out of it is the key. We have had some TOs that have wasted long drives. In fact, one stat that I think most people agree is important is our TO differential. NFL.com lists ours as -3. I think the fact that we have a negative TO differential and still have a winning record speaks to the fact that there many other things we are doing well. BTW does anybody know if the blocked punts and kicks are counted as TOs?

 

They’re pretty much inverse measurements, IMO. For example, if you have a passing YPA of 8.0, then you don’t need to throw the ball as often in order to score. Less plays mean less time off the clock which means lower TOP.

 

In a vacuum, most stats are meaningless. Turnovers being the lone exception.

 

True if this can be corrected, we will stop being the 3-point machine we are now and turn into a deadly 7 point scoring deamon.

 

In the entire history of the NFL that has only happened once.

 

I somehow doubt it.

But you’re free to attack the example rather than the underlying point. I can probably point to any game we played in 2009 at random and be proven right.

 

Remember how easily we marched down the field on our GW drive in OT? Thats because their defense was worn to ****. TOP definitely has meaning, given proper context. You can't hold the ball if you don't get first downs.

 

But, you only need 7:31 ticks of the clock to win ToP per QTR. So if D gets takeway, you increase your chance to add two 3 min plus drives together to have a lead and win ToP.

Right now, since we are -3 on differential, our longer style drives are making up for things on ToP side.....sadly, our ST mistakes give them points with no need for clock usage.

If we correct ST gaffs.....we can still dominate scoreboard and ToP, and few penalties will not allow us to beat ourselves.

We are very close to seeing all 3 phases of the game click.....will it happen this week?

 

If we were scoring TD's at the end of these long drives then that would be another story. But yeah.....that stat alone is useless.

 

I don't think an inefficient offense can hold the ball for 45 minutes. An efficient offense can hold the ball for 45 minutes and lose though.

 

In the history of the NFL only once did a team with under 15 minutes of possession win the game.

 

An inefficient offense leads long, slow drives and usually either settles for a field goal or somehow fails to finish the drive. Which is pretty much our problem this year, but that’s a separate thread.

Let me know when you address the underlying point. Examples are examples.

 

Chad Henne and third down conversions

That is a really good sign , things can get better significantly if we finish better of course.

 

yup, ben volin posted on twitter henne on 3rd downs....

112.9 QB rating, 357 yards, 4 tds and 0 int's

2nd in the nfl behind drew brees. damn impressive.