NFL Statistics help
 

Can somebody point me to a good place to find average statistics for NFL games, such as number of plays run, pass yardage, run yardage, sacks, ints, fumbles, etc., on a per-game basis. I am trying to perfect my Madden sliders for the most realistic results possible, while also making sure the cpu and I are on as level a playing field as possible.

And, yes, Virginia, I am a geek.

Jim could probably give you that information. :)

I don't have that info (yet), but if you don't mind doing a little work, just start up a spreadsheet, go to NFL.com and get the box scores from all the games and input them in. Then get the average.

Alas, Jim and I are not on speaking terms because of his steadfast refusal to implement the Super-Smart Monkeys option in the FOF series. :(

I stopped reading after the "if you don't mind doing a little work" part.

did you say please?

I understand. :)

My fiance can tell you that I never please.

"I stopped reading after the "if you don't mind doing a little work" part."

hehe, you lazy bum.

My fantasy can tell you that I never please.

So, fantasty boy, is it true then?

behind you! Bigfoot!

Profootball-reference.com?

That sounds promising!

That site didn't seem to have what I was after in terms of team averages per game.

I don't think you're going to find pre compiled stats like you are looking for Kodos. When Jim gathered that stuff for research for FOF he had to compile it all from box scores himself. I suspect if you really want that information you will have to do the same.

Now if you don't want to be real exact you can just take all the boxscores for on team from last year and just total them up in a spreadsheet real quick. That will be close, wouldn't be much work, and should be good for what you are looking for.

I may even write a little perl script to do those calculations for you if I get a moment tonight.

Dola,

BTW that site may not have what you were looking for, but it's easy to look up his stats and see what schmuck Dan Marino was. ;)

Allright my green skinned friend. When you speak of me speak well.

Rushing Averages Per Game for the entire NFL.
2002: Carries - 27.6, Yards - 116.6, TD's - 0.9
2001: Carries - 26.6, Yards - 108.5, TD's - 0.7
2000: Carries - 26.6, Yards - 108.7, TD's - 0.8
1999: Carries - 26.5, Yards - 103.9, TD's - 0.7
1998: Carries - 26.5, Yards - 105.9, TD's - 0.7
1997: Carries - 26.5, Yards - 106.1, TD's - 0.7
1985: Carries - 26.3, Yards - 108.0, TD's - 0.8
1975: Carries - 25.7, Yards - 103.3, TD's - 0.8

I can get more years for you if you like, but considering the numbers aren't that far off from 75 and 85 compared to the 00's there isn't much reason to. I will post QB avg's in a bit.

Passing Averages Per Game for the entire NFL.
2002: Cmp - 20.8, Att - 34.9, Yards - 234.5, TD's - 1.4, Ints - 1.1
2001: Cmp - 18.9, Att - 32.1, Yards - 217.9, TD's - 1.3, Ints - 1.1
2000: Cmp - 18.5, Att - 31.8, Yards - 214.5, TD's - 1.2, Ints - 1.0
1999: Cmp - 18.9, Att - 33.2, Yards - 224.4, TD's - 1.3, Ints - 1.1
1998: Cmp - 18.0, Att - 31.9, Yards - 218.4, TD's - 1.4, Ints - 1.1

I'll post some more stuff later tonight when I get home.

You rock the house, primelord. Will you be my second wife (first if you hurry)?

I will just overlook the Marino comment.

Anything else, primelord? :D

Kodos,

You might check out the book called The Hidden Game. Gives an alternative view of stats analysis in pro football, but I bet the kind of numbers you are looking for are in there. Only problem is that the stats are a bit out of date (I think the book is a few years old now), but it's a good read anyway.

Also, a good book store might have some kind of NFL stats book from last year, with everything totaled up nice and neat.

Dola...

Don't know the source, but here's something I grabbed about plays per game when I was tweaking Madden minutes/quarter a couple of years ago. I think the info is reliable, or I wouldn't have saved it:

"When we speak of longer and shorter gams we're referring to the number of plays. A weekend was selected at random, October 17 and 18, 1998. The average college game had over 141 non-special teams play from scrimmage while the pros averaged only 115 plays per game, which is close to what we can expect until we see significant rule changes. College games ranged from 118 plays in the TCU-SMU game to 164 plays in the overtime thriller between UCLA and Oregon. In the NFL, we can expect a narrower range. We logged from 106 plays in New Orleans' game in Atlanta to 126 plays in a wild affair between San Francisco and Indianapolis."

Hope that helps.

It does. Thanks Blitz!

Ok Kodos I think ths should be pretty much everything you are looking for. My first numbers were based off of a script I worte that read that raw data from pro-football-reference.com. I think that data is a little flawed though. Here are more accurate numbers.

2002 Per Game Averages

Passing:
Att: 33.75 Cmp: 20.13 Yards: 226.94 TD: 1.38 Int: 1.06

Rushing:
Att: 27.56 Yards: 116.13 Avg: 4.2 TD: 0.88 Fumb: 0.5

Defense:
Tack: 53.63 Asst: 12.06 Sack: 2.28 FFumb: 0.88 Pass Def: 5.19

That should be everything you need. You can obviously get the total plays from adding up the rushing and passing atempts. The defensive Ints will obviously match the passing ints.

Thanks, primelord.