Again though, what dictates passing efficiency more, defense or QB's or WR's or O-Line etc etc etc. Well, if you delve a little further into this very generalized stat, you will find that it's defense. Just looking at passing efficiency and not looking into the factors that equal efficiency won't bring us to any conclusions.
no one ever said you have to be good at everything. go back and actually read the posts. you are making another straw man argument. you have been making the argument here and in other threads over time that the only things that really matter are passing and defending the pass because statistics tell you so. I and others have been telling you that the statistics lie. In football the all eleven players are interrelated to the success of the offense. Having a high passer efficiency is usually the result of an all around good offense and not just a passing game in isolation. The 72/73 Dolphins are a great example. They had the #2 passing efficiency but that wasnt based on having the second best passing team in the NFL. That was based on having the best running game in the NFL. If it wasnt for Zonk, Kiick and Morris their passing efficiency wouldve plummeted and their passing game would have middle of the road at best. Passing efficiency can be the byproduct of having a great QB or great WRs or great RBs or a great Oline but just looking at the numbers will tell you nothing. You actually have to watch the game to determine what is causing that passing efficiency
But not every time, that's the point. You could be less proficient at stopping the pass if you have a great QB, b/c you have more margin for error. That is a fact b/c there have been less than stellar defenses that have won, but those teams had great QBs. So, you can't just say its the defense. Just like most teams that won have had great QBs, but not all of them were great. Some teams got by with lesser QBs, b/c they had great pass defense. And even saying great defense is too broad b/c many teams have had poor running defense.
That was your exact quote. You didn't say everything, but you cited several things that have been proven to not be necessary. It doesn't matter what caused the passing efficiency dominance. There are several ways to get there. You could support it with a great running game like the Dolphins did. Or you could have a great QB like the Colts did. Or you could have a combination of factors. The point is that no matter what you have to get there. And if you don't it won't matter what other things you have b/c you more than likely won't win. So if I were building a team I would use whatever combination of factors I preferred (or could find), but I would make sure that I was able to pass more efficiently than my opponents.
I've used a combination of TOs and YPA (offensive and defensive) in the past. Basically I found that if you had a positive TO ratio, passed for better than 7.0 YPA and allowed less than 7.0 YPA you won something like 95% of the time. That percentage was much better than any other combination of stats. But the article I referenced here: http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.co...:_A_brief_history_of_NFL_air_superiority.html uses quarterback (passer) rating. That formula includes TDs, INTs, completion %, yards in one formula. And their calculations found that every single champion since 1940 had a better passer rating than their opponents during either the regular season or their playoff run. Some had elite QB and/or elite pass defenses, but in every case the champions passed more efficiently than their opponents. BTW 3 of the 4 teams left in the running this year meet that criteria. The one exception would be your Jets, although they are close during their playoff run. Their offensive passer rating during the playoffs has been 76.5 and their defensive passer rating was 77.1. Obviously, if they have a good game against the Steelers they could still end up meeting the criteria since its so close.
