The midway point of the 2011 NFL season is upon us. In fact, with the Raiders kicking off the second half with a Thursday night game against the Chargers it has almost past us by.
Both Bay Area teams are sitting in first place (even though it seems like the Raiders are doing everything in their power to lose games) and have the potential to end long playoff droughts.
So how do each team’s stats measure up? To answer that I present the mid-season report card.
First Let’s take a look at the traditional stats and the rankings for each team.
Next the efficiency stats from football outsiders:
And last but not least the special team stats which are also from football outsiders.
To determine the grades for each category each grade level was grouped into 6 team rankings, for example and A is given if you are ranked 1-6 in a category and a B is given if you are ranked 7-13 and so on.
Here is the full report card for both teams:
The grades are no surprise if you have watched either of these teams this season. The 49ers defense and special teams have been among the best in the league while the offense has been just enough to not lose games. For the Raiders you can see that they have talent, but they also have some glaring holes in their game that have really hurt them this season.
Looking forward we’ll see if the 49ers can survive with a mediocre offense (following The Giants Way™) and make a deep playoff run. The big questions for the Raiders are if can they overcome the injuries that have decimated the offense and stop killing themselves with penalties and turnovers.
The second half of the season should be interesting to watch for the first time in a long while for football fans in the Bay Area. I could get used to that.
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I’m Scott Willis you can catch my Giants writing at Crazy Crabbers and follow me on twitter @BAStatsGuy and @CrazyCrabbers.