Stampede Blue
Each week during the season, I will be walking through the data from the previous Colts game and analyzing the numbers to form a sort of “what happened” narrative, as well as comparing the Colts against all other teams in the league. For a glossary of the stats listed, reference Season Stats. Thanks to Pro Football Reference, NFL.com, Football Outsiders, and the nflFastR project for being awesome sources of weekly data.
For the second week in a row, the Colts’ offense had no trouble moving the ball down the field. Their 26 first downs and 78.8% Drive Success Rate ranked 6th best of the week and 1st across the first two games.
The only two non-scoring drives stalled on failed fourth-down conversion attempts at midfield. Six others drives reached the red zone for 26 points and the final drive ended with a missed 60-yard field goal successful 45-yard field goal.
One weakness that carried over from last week is that while the Colts have no problem reaching the red zone, they continue to struggle punching it in. On the season, they are tied for the 2nd-most red zone drives but also rank 7th-worst in red zone touchdown rate.
Mouseover for definitions: PPD, Adj PPD, W-L, Pyth Wins, PPG, Yds, DSR, Strt Fld, yds/ply, EPA/ply, adj TSR, 1st/ply, Pen 1st/ Yds, 3DC, 3rd ytg, Expl Plys, TO, TOP%Their 29 points translate to 2.9 points per drive (8th best), while both total yards and yards per play ranked 4th-highest in Week 2. That’s further evidence that they’re struggling a bit to turn yardage into touchdowns, settling instead for chip shot field goals.
No turnovers kept their EPA efficiency strong (9th highest), while a 4th-ranked success rate shows they are consistent in executing positive plays.
The offense committed a lot of penalties that made first downs harder to come by, but they still managed the 5th-best conversion rate overall. Their third-down conversion rate this week was nearly identical to last week’s (46.2% vs. 46.7%), but the average distance to convert actually increased from 4.7 to 5.8 yards. So, accounting for difficulty, they were slightly better.
On the season, the offense is still #1 in points per drive and Drive Success Rate.
Mouseover definitions: EPA/db, Adj EPA/d, PSR, Cmp, Att, Yds, TD, Int, Sck, Sck Y, Sck Fum, Scrm, Scrm Yds, Scrm TD, Scrm Fum, 1st/db, ny/d, cmp %, aDOT, CPOE, Air Yd, YAC, 20+ #/YdAnother stong passing week for Daniel Jones with the 8th highest EPA per play and the 3rd best Success Rate. He had the 6th most yards per play, which easily translated to the 2nd highest conversion rate.
He didn’t turn the ball over and he limited sacks. Basically, the only negative is that he isn’t throwing touchdowns.
On the season, his accuracy has given him the 4th-highest completion rate in the league despite attempting the 8th-longest passes on average. This has helped him post the league’s 2nd highest success rate—essentially...
