Breaking Down the Super Bowl

If this isn't the simplest chart to read of all time. The moral of this story is that the Offenses of both of these teams carried them into the Super Bowl (that and a little handy turnover trickeration for the Saints). Both offenses this weekend are vastly superior to their opposing defenses.

Colts Pass O vs. Saints Pass D
The Colts ranked second in the league in passing offense (yards per game) and the reality of it is that they truly have the #1 passing attack in the league. Meanwhile the Saints Pass D is pretty much poor, at best. The Saints Pass D ranked in the bottom 25% of the NFL. So on one side you have Peyton Manning, who just absolutely torched the #1 Passing D in the league, and on the other side you have a defense that gives up a ton of yardage. Obviously a major advantage to the Colts.

Colts Rush O vs. Saints Rush D
The Colts have a shitty rushing offense mostly because it really doesn't matter to them. The Saints have done a meh job stopping the run this season, but really does this matchup matter much? How often are the Colts actually going to rush the ball? 15 times?

Colts Pass D vs. Saints Pass O
The Colts Pass D has been decent this season and postseason, but part of that has to do with the presenece of Dwight Freeney and the fact that they faced Flacco/Sanchez in the first two rounds, and even Sanchez dropped an 80 yard td on the Colts. If the Colts can't get pressure on Brees he is going to pick them apart and rival Manning's numbers.

Colts Rush D vs. Saints Rush O
The Colts routinely have a soft rushing defense but overall they played very very well against the Jets in the AFC Title game. A lot of that likely had to do with daring Sanchez to beat them, something they won't be able to afford to do in this weekends game. The Saints should look to take advantage of the Bush/Pierre combo advantage they have and pound to rock some, but to wear down the Colts front seven and to keep Manning off the field.

Summation
So quickly the Saints look to have the "overall balance edge" but the Colts have Peyton Manning and the Saints look like they will have zero success in stopping him. This game should be a flat shootout.

Numbers On Steroids: Mickey Mantle

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you. This week it's throwing a curve ball and looking at All Time Great Yankees. Players that we know did not take steroids to see if this gives a defense to any of the players 'convicted' by Numbers on Steroids. Time to look at my dad's favorite athlete of all time, Mickey Mantle. Averages Say: What's with the mysterious dip at 27 and then the uptick? At Bats Per Home Run Says: That's a mighty jump from 22 to 24 Explaining As If It Was the 90s If you take a look at the numbers there are two time frames which in the 1990s would be questioned. First would be the incredible leap he took from his first year in the big leagues to his first MVP season in 1956. His batting average jumped 50 points. His slugging percentage jumped 90 points and he hit 15 more homers than his previous high. This wouldn't merrit a conviction nowadays though because the young age he...

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This Is Why the New York Mets Can't Win Anymore

It's pretty simple why the Mets can't win games anymore and are morphing into the second worst team in the National League, they can't score runs. The below chart shows exactly whats happenned to their offensive output since each of the major devastating injuries. The blue line shows runs scored for each game through out the season. The pink line shows the average runs the Mets scored when they had everyone, the yellow when they were missing Delgado, the light blue when they were missing Delgado and Reyes, and finally the purple when they were missing Delgado, Reyes and Beltran. In the abscence of Reyes, Delgado and Beltran the Mets are averaging barely over 3 runs per game. In stark contrast, with everyone on the roster the Mets were scoring just over 5 runs per game. That's a wholesale difference and why their roster now equals a lot of losses and a day by day progression further out of a playoff spot.

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