Okay, so today I decided to mess around with some NFL data, specifically looking at defensive rankings. It all started because I was arguing with a buddy about which team had the best defense this past season.
First, I needed to find the data. I figured there were tons of sites out there with this kind of stuff, and I wasn’t wrong. I just did a simple search and landed on a few sports stats websites. It was a little overwhelming at first, honestly, with all the numbers and tables.
I grabbed the data for total yards allowed, points allowed, takeaways – you know, the usual stats that people yell about when talking football. I copied and pasted all of that into a spreadsheet. My plan, at least initially, was just to sort of eyeball it and see what jumped out.
Cleaning Up the Mess
Of course, the data wasn’t perfectly clean. Different sites presented things in slightly different ways. Some had extra columns I didn’t care about, some were missing a few stats I wanted. So, I spent a good chunk of time cleaning it all up. That meant deleting extra columns, making sure the team names were consistent, and generally just getting it all into a format I could work with.
Making Sense of It All
Once I had a reasonably clean spreadsheet, I started playing around with it. I sorted the data by different stats, trying to see which teams consistently ranked near the top. For example, I looked at yards allowed per game, then points per game, and then I tried to factor in things like sacks and interceptions.
- Total Yards Allowed
- Points Allowed
- Takeaways (Interceptions + Fumbles Recovered)
- Sacks
- Rushing Yards Allowed
- Passing Yards Allowed
It quickly became clear that there’s no single, perfect way to rank defenses. One team might be great at stopping the run but terrible against the pass. Another might give up a lot of yards but be really good at forcing turnovers. It’s all a balancing act, and it really depends on what you value most in a defense.
In the end, I didn’t come up with some magical formula for ranking NFL defenses. But I did get a much better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different teams. And, most importantly, I have some solid ammo for my next argument with my buddy about who’s got the best D!