Passing success helped the Green Bay Packers win the Super Bowl in the 2010 season.

However, success through the air didnt always lead to winning football. Seven teams threw for more than 4,000 yards last season. Four of those teams didnt make the playoffs.

Denver and San Diego were among the four teams that didnt qualify for the playoffs despite having top-flight passing games. According to NFL.coms official statistics, San Diego had 4,519 net yards. It was the second most in the NFL. Denver was seventh with 4,038 yards.

San Diego was 9-7 and Denver was 4-12. Green Bay, which won the Super Bowl last month, was fifth with 4,124 passing yards. Green Bay was the only team of the group to win a playoff game.

While it worked for Green Bay, both San Diego and Denver missed balance to their offensive attacks at times. In Denvers case, it was often playing from behind and got a lot of passing yards in garbage time.

In 2009, passing success produced greater overall success. Nine of the 12 teams to pass for more than 4,000 yards made the playoffs, including Super Bowl champion New Orleans. The chart shows teams that tossed for 4,000 or more yards in 2010.

4,000-YARD CLUB

Team             Yards      Playoffs? 
Indianapolis     4,609      Yes 
San Diego        4,519       No 
New Orleans      4,441      Yes 
Houston          4,144       No 
Green Bay        4,124      Yes 
Dallas           4,042       No 
Denver           4,038       No 

ESPN.com wrote:

Passing AND Defense. The top 2 teams were the top Ds in the NFL.

"Dexter_Sinister" wrote:

Packers kind of got a running game in the playoffs that was to be reckoned with.

"Zero2Cool" wrote:

Definitely D, as Zombie frequently points out.

edit: Zombie's quicker on the keyboard than I am...

edit: note--Zombie's "running is irrelevant" comments relate to his extensive John Madden video game background, so take it with a grain of salt... :crazy:

I would note that even though most of the 4000 passing club did NOT make the playoffs, the 2010 Super Bowl Champions WERE on the list... :)

"macbob" wrote:

After all when you pass the ball 3 things can happen and 2 of them are bad.

"yooperfan" wrote:

When it's Rodgers, those two things are unlikely.


Here are the top 16 qb ratings from last year:

# QB Rat Playoffs
1 Tom Brady 110.0 Y
2 Philip Rivers 101.8 N
3 Aaron Rodgers 101.2 Y Super Bowl Winner
4 Michael Vick 100.2 Y
5 Ben Roethlisberger 97.0 Y Super Bowl
6 Josh Freeman 95.9 N 10-6
7 Joe Flacco 93.6 Y
8 Matt Cassel 93.0 Y
9 Matt Schaub 92.0 N
10 Peyton Manning 91.9 Y
11 Matt Ryan 91.0 Y
12 Drew Brees 90.9 Y
13 David Garrard 90.8 N
14 Jon Kitna 88.9 N
15 Kyle Orton 87.5 N
16 Jay Cutler 86.3 Y


10 of the 12 playoff teams had their starting qb in the top half of the league. The two exceptions to this rule were Mark Sanchez of the Jets and Matt Hasselback of the Seahawks. Mark Sanchez was blessed with a powerful 2 back running game and the number 6 scoring defense in the league. The Seahawks were 7-9 and would probably have been remembered as the worst playoff team ever had the Saints not choked spectacularly against them.

Only 1 team in the top 5 did not make the playoffs. Both Super Bowl participants were in the top 5, with the number 3 team winning.

Even though qb rating is not the greatest statistic ever created I'd say the above suggests the passing game is pretty damn important to winning and making the playoffs.


Conversely, I could look at the team rushing yardage and say only 8 teams broke 2,000 yards with only 3 of those making the playoffs (Kansas City, New York Jets, and Philadelphia Eagles who were helped massively by Vick). That's even worse than the top passing yardage teams.

Even if we look at the whole distribution 9 of the playoff teams were in the top half of team passing yards. Whereas only 7 of the playoff teams were in the top half of rushing yards. Green Bay finished 24th and Carolina finished 13th in rushing yards. That's right, the worst team finished 11 places better than the best team in this category. 3 playoff teams had even worse running games than Green Bay (the Saints and Colts, last years Super Bowl contestants, and the admittedly awful Seahawks).

Essentially, if you're going to argue that passing is not that important for making the playoffs then rushing is all but irrelevant. If that's the case then offense means absolutely nothing in terms of determining playoffs and winning. While other threads on this board have shown defense is more important, offense was still clearly a good indicator of success.



In short, it's a shit article.


Sources:
http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?season=2010&seasonType=REG&d-447263-o=2&conference=null&tabSeq=0&statisticCategory=PASSING&d-447263-p=1&d-447263-s=PASSING_PASSER_RATING&d-447263-n=1 
http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?offensiveStatisticCategory=RUSHING&season=2010&seasonType=REG&d-447263-o=2&conference=ALL&tabSeq=2&role=TM&d-447263-p=1&d-447263-s=RUSHING_YARDS&d-447263-n=1 
http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?archive=false&conference=null&role=TM&offensiveStatisticCategory=TEAM_PASSING&defensiveStatisticCategory=null&season=2010&seasonType=REG&tabSeq=2&qualified=true&Submit=Go 

"mi_keys" wrote: