How much did our defense really improve in second half of last season

[*SHRacerX*]

(06-06-2020, 10:09 AM)fredtoast Wrote: This is a good point.

The defense was on the field less the second half of the season, but not by a lot.  The first 8 games opponents ran 529 plays which ranked 23rd in the league (fewest plays ranked highest).  The second half of the season opponenets ran 24 fewer plays (505 total) to rank 15th in the league.

But here is the key stat.  Over the first 8 games of the season the Bengals defense was allowing 6.59 yards per play which ranked 32nd in the league, and just like "yards allowed", that would have been the 2nd highest ypp allowed by any defense since the 1970 merger.  Over the last 8 games they allowed over a yard less per play (5.57) to rank 21st.

So some of the decrease in yards allowed was based on facing fewer plays per game, but there was still a huge increase in efficiency per play from one of the worst in history to 21st in the league.

To clarify, did they rank 21st in the NFL for the year with 5.57 YPP or just over the last 8 games?  I only ask because 5.57 still sounds like a really high number.  Do you have where the Chiefs ranked in YPP?  I was thinking all season long that their defense wasn't that great, but that their offense was just rarely stopped.  They really seemed to be able to turn it up when they needed to, though.

It kind of spins me in to another potential topic:  pass rush.  Ours ranked poorly, but the Bengals rarely had much of a lead (and never had a big lead) where the defense gets to tee off on the pass.  I think the Chiefs defense excelled at that situation....who probably wouldn't love to make an offense one-dimensional.  

I bring that up as more potential impact of Burrow and a strong offense on the entire team.  I know most everyone on here is still very cautious about the offensive line, but if Williams is even a decent starter the line should be significantly better than last year.  I won't go all across the line position by position as it has been done many times already, but I think the offense will have a huge impact on not only the number of snaps for the defense, but also potentially helping improve the pass rush.