Street Talk

Behind The Numbers: Comparing the Ravens to the Steelers

by Scot Kleinfeld

January 14, 2009
4:00 am

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Behind The Numbers: Comparing the Ravens to the Steelers

By: Scot Kleinfeld –
1/13/2009

It’s round three against those hated Steelers. Here’s a chart that compares the two offenses during the regular season. As you can see, not only have these teams measured closely on the scoreboard (with the outcome of both games being decided by 7 points in total), they are also very, very close statistically. If anything, these numbers favor the Ravens slightly. Let’s hope that the final score suggests the same at around 9:45PM Sunday night when the game clock reaches 0:00.

Statistic	Ravens	Steelers
Offense (team)
Points per game	24.1	21.7
Total yards per game	324.0	311.9
Pass yards per game	175.5	206.3
Rush yards per game	148.5	105.6
3^rd down conversion %	40.9%	41.1%
4^th down conversion %	63.6%	25.0%
Time of possession	33:22	31:41
Red Zone TD %	47.1%	55.1%
Turnover ratio	+13	+4
Sacks allowed	33	49
Field goals	28/35	27/31
Touchdowns	42	38
Offense (player)
QB rating	Flacco: 80.3	Roethlisberger: 80.1
Comp. %	60.0	59.9
Total passing yards	2971	3301
Pass yards per game	185.7	206.3
Touchdowns	14	17
Interceptions	12	15
Rush yards / TD	McClain: 902 / 10	Parker: 791 / 5
Rush yards / TD	McGahee: 671 / 7	Moore: 588 / 5
Rec. / yards / TD	Mason: 80 / 1037 / 5	Ward: 81 / 1043 / 7
Rec. / yards / TD	Clayton: 41 / 695 / 3	Holmes: 55 / 821 / 5
Rec. / yards / TD	Heap: 35 / 405 / 3	Miller: 48 / 514 / 3
Special Teams
Field Goals	Stover: 28/35	Reed: 27/31
Punt Avg.	Koch: 45.0	Berger: 41.3
Inside 20	34	19
Blocked	0	0
Punt return avg. (team) / TD	8.6 / 0	6.0 / 0
Kick return avg. (team) / TD	20.1 / 0	20.3 / 0
Defense (team)
Points per game	15.3	13.9
Total yards per game	261.1	237.2
Pass yards per game	179.7	156.9
Rush yards per game	81.4	80.3
Interceptions	26	20
Forced fumbles	13	12
Sacks	34	51
3^rd down conversion %	33.5%	31.4%

Scot Kleinfeld

Scot is a Baltimore native, a Towson University graduate, and has followed sports since the early 1980's. Scot likes to go inside the numbers and get the real "411" on the wins and losses, hence his Behind The Numbers column. Besides being an avid sports fan, Scot has been involved with televison sports production as an Associate Producer since 1993 for WMAR, ESPN, ESPNU,ESPN2, and the former Home Team Sports network. In addition to his television work Scot has written articles for Baltimore Magazine, Lacrosse Magazine and Patuxent Publishing. These experiences make him a natural as the creator of the Media Watchdog, another of SK's fine contributions.