Examining the Stats

By Jeanne McPartland

All football aficionados know the stats, and true football fans always know the year-end stats… or so they say.

These numbers follow the teams and players into the next season especially new records that were set.

Peyton Manning threw for 3747 yards but Carson Palmer beat him at 3836 yards and so did Tom Brady at 4110 yards and Trent Green at 4041 yards. No one beat any of these Quarterbacks in the NFC. Maybe that explains the dominance of the AFC during the season and maybe it doesn’t.

Let’s examine the rushing yards. The NFC won that one with Sean Alexander at 1880 yards and Tiki Barber at 1860 yards. The AFC only managed to produce Larry Johnson at 1750 yards. Maybe rushing yards don’t affect the dominance. Then there are the receiving yards. There the lead went to the NFC again with Steve Smith at 1563 total yards. So why was everyone raving about the AFC?

After watching the first round of the playoffs I was impressed with the Wildcard Teams. Chris Simms and Eli Manning, although progeny of great men seemed to get playoff jitters and couldn’t win the big one.

In the AFC the favored one, New England won out over the wildcard Jaguars but the wildcard won in game two when Pittsburgh beat Cincinnati.

The stats in week one didn’t tell us much. So much for stats!

Lets stay posted for week two of the playoffs.

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