Underperforming the Stats

Short post today.  Take a quick look at the following charts that show the rank of the Eagles' offense and defense over the past six seasons, based on yards gained/allowed and points scored/allowed (these are leaguewide rankings, so low numbers are better):

We've looked at the ups and downs of both units over the past few weeks, but today I want to point out something else.  Check out the gap between yards and points for both units.  For the first four years of the graph, the Eagles consistently performed better from a points perspective than the yardage numbers would indicate. 

The gap was especially wide in 2003, when neither unit was that good statistically, yet somehow both managed to be ranked rather high in terms of points.   

In the last two seasons, the situation has changed.  The defense actually had a worse ranking in 2005 for points over yards, and had identical rankings in 2006.  Last year's offense also ranked worse in scoring than the yards gained would indicate.

I doubt there's a single explanation for this trend reversal.  I'm sure some of it is luck, some is probably schedule strength, and some of it might be the mistakes made by a younger team. 

But take a look at the next graph: 

This figure shows the ranking of the Eagles' special teams, as compiled by FootballOutsiders.com.  Again, without getting too far into the weeds of exactly how they go about calculating those rankings, take a look at what's happened the last two seasons.  After four years ranked #3, #1, #2 and #2, the Eagles' special teams fell off the cliff the last two seasons.  I'm willing to bet that this difference probably explains a fair amount of the trend we're seeing above. 

And it also makes me wonder if John Harbaugh's reassignment away from special teams coordinator was as voluntary and career-oriented as advertised.