[sportscurmudgeon]

Let me correct soemthing I put in my previous post in this thread. The Redskins did indeed make more than one first down in one of their drives last night. They had one drive with two first downs; it was the drive that ended with Deion's interception. I overlooked that drive when I glanced at my game chart. My mistake; the Ravens defense did allow that to happen.

If you don't care about yardage and time of posession as a statistic to worry about over the course of an entire game or a season you are absolutely correct. When the Rams won the Super Bowl, they only led in time of posession in two or three games for the whole season. It can be a very misleading stat.

I am not blaming the defense for losing last night's game; you can hang the blame directly on the offensive line because they stunk like a skunk's butt. But this thread started with the Redskins' defense being called arguably the best in the league. Well, I argue that they are good but nowhere near the best in the league.

And time of possession in a critical part of last night's game is one reason they are not the best.

Here are my notes from my game chart - as best as I can read them because I never did well in penmanship:


Ravens 17 - Skins 10 4th quarter 10:16 to play. Baltimore ball.

1st and 10 at the Baltimore 8

Jamal Lewis runs three times for a first down at the Balt 20 (8:53 to play)

Lewis out; Chester Taylor runs twice for a first down at the Balt 31 (7:37 to play)

Jamal Lewis tackled for a 3 yard loss

Jamal Lewis gains one yard

Kyle Boller throws incomplete pass (time remaining 5:43)

On that posession the Ravens managed to consume almost 50% of the time remaining in the game. This is a point in the game where a field goal is of little or no value; the offense needs the ball in good field position with some time left to maneuver. The defense did not do that for them.

But amazingly, the Ravens gave the Skins good field position because of Hartwell's brain cramp that caused him to take off his helmet on the field. So the Ravens gave the Skins what the Skins' defense could not give them - really good field position. And then the offense went three and out with a net gain of zero yards. Balt gets the ball back with 4:50 to play. The offense held the ball for all of 46 seconds.

So the defense had another chance to force a turnover or force a three and out to give the offense one more shot - which would probably have been futile anyway given the way the game had been going. But iot was the only hope.

Didn't happen. If my counting is correct, the Ravens ran the ball 8 consecutive plays for 53 yards - that's 6.6 yards per carry for those keeping score at home. Then they knelt down and let the game expire.

Remember, I DID NOT say the defense lost that game; the offense lost it But I am saying that if you want to call this the best defense in the league you have to explain how they allowed the Ravens to hold the ball for 9 minutes and 30 seconds in the final 10 minutes and 16 seconds of the game. That is 93% of the time that the Baltimore offense held the ball during crunch time. If this is arguably the best defense in the league, would you also say that Baltimore has arguably the best offense in the league? I hope not. Remember, all the Skins needed was one score to tie it up.

Time of posession mattered a whole lot here and it would be worthwhile to worry about it a lot if this becomes a pattern...