It’s been an all around weird football season. We talked about it how strangely things have gone for the Baltimore Ravens on the BSR Podcast this week (around 1:08:20).
At 6-2, Baltimore is first place in the AFC North. However their opponents have outgained them by 322 yards (3,090 to 2,768) on the season.
When examined a bit closer, this statistic says more about how little the Ravens offense has been on the field than it does about how poorly the defense has played (though that’s ben an issue too). The Ravens offense has run 89 less plays than their defense has allowed (579 to 490). They’re gaining 5.6 yards per play, while allowing 5.3.
Not surprising, the run has killed the Ravens — on both sides of the ball. They have already allowed 1,116 yards rushing in eight games (4.0 yards per attempt) and only gained 866 yards on offense. Ravens running backs have found the end zone nine times, but have only been handed the ball 192 times this season.
Teams facing the Ravens have handed off 277 times.
Perhaps these numbers are the NFL’s version of run differential. We talked about that stat throughout all of the Orioles season.
