Street Talk

BEHIND THE NUMBERS: Ravens fighting for No. 6 Playoff Seed

by Scot Kleinfeld

December 17, 2009
4:00 am

Reading Time: < 1 minute

With the Ravens in a dogfight for the 6th seed in the AFC, I decided it was time to see how their passing game compared to the other teams standing at 7-6. This article assumes Denver will lock up the 5th seed. Based on the passing game statistics and remaining strength of schedule, you have to like the Ravens chances compared to the other contending teams.

Check BTN next week to see where Joe Flacco and the passing game stand.

AFC Wildcard Contenders Passing Game Comparison

Statistic	Ravens Avg / Rank	Jacksonville Avg / Rank	Miami Avg / Rank	NY Jets Avg / Rank
Yards per game	227.6 / 14^th	213.5 / 18^th	178.2 / 26^th	154.7 / 30^th
Comp. %	63.3% / 11^th	60.5% / 18^th	59.7% / 20^th	52.8% / 29^th
Yards per comp.	7.2 / T-13^th	7.2 / T-13^th	6.0 / 26^th	6.8 / 17^th
Att. Per game	33.3 / T-17^th	31.9 / 23^rd	31.8 / 24^th	25.1 / 32^nd
Total Completions	274 / T-13^th	251 / 22^nd	247 / 23^rd	172 / 32^nd
Touchdowns	15 / T-20^th	10 / T-28^th	11 / T-26^th	11 / T-26^th
Interceptions	11 / T-11^th	6 / T-1^st	12 / T-16^th	18 / 28^th
Sacks	26 / T-11^th	37 / T-26^th	27 / T-14^th	26 / T-11^th
QB Rating	86.3 / 16^th	84.9 / 17^th	74.9 / 23^rd	63.7 / 28^th

Remaining 3 Games Strength of Schedule

Team	Opponents	Combined Records
Ravens	Chi / Pitts / Oakland	15 – 24 (.385)
Miami	Tenn / Hou / Pitts	18 – 21 (.461)
Jacksonville	Indy / New Eng / Cle	23 – 16 (.589)
NY Jets	Atl / Indy / Cinn	28 – 11 (.717)

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.