Recently it was stated here on Rumblings that our offense is just as bad as our defense  In this post by Kaisertown.  A lot of you stated that you were surprised by the stats compared to what you thought your eyes were telling you back then.  While it is true that your eyes can deceive you IMO your eyes were not as far off as the stats would have you to believe.  I hope this post will give your eyes some relief, and shed some light on some of the numbers that do still need to improve, but will show why your eyes were telling you that things were looking up. 

I am going to give you three sets of offensive data.  Last year, this year, and this year if Fitz had played all 16 games.(imaginary number)  My reason for this is bc I want to point out the progression from last year, and I also want to point out the difference it makes when you separate Trent, and Brhom out of this years numbers(They really stunk it up in three games making a major difference in the numbers for the year.)  Fitz is the near future for this team at QB, and I wanted to give you some numbers for him that will stand alone. 

                                                     Last year              This year                Fitz in all 16 games

Points per game                           16.1                       17.7                             19.9

First downs                                     233                          263                             288

Third down conv.                 (51/198)=25.8%    (80/211)=37.9%       (85/213)=39.9%

Fourth down conv.               (7/15)=46.7%           (11/24)=45.8%         (12/23)=52.2%

Total yards                               4,382                           4,878                             5,371

Total plays/Avg.                       911/4.8                       954/5.1                          983/5.46

Total Rush yards/Att/Avg    (1867/424/4.4)      (1720/401/4.3)           (1857/411/4.52)

Total Pass yards                       2515                         3158                              3514

Comp/Att/Avg                       (256/441/6.3)                (296/519/6.1)           (314/543/6.5)

Interceptions                                 19                                 21                                   19

Sacks                                               32                                27                                    21

TD (total)                                          25                                 34                                    38

TD (rush)                                          6                                     6                                       6

TD( pass)                                         17                                  24                                    28

TOP                                                 27:50                            27:40                                28:10

When you see the numbers next to each other you can see the progression, and Fitz looks pretty good when you compare him to what we have had.  Is that good enough to get us to the playoffs, and beyond?  Probably yes and no in that order. Does he need to improve?  Yes.  Can he if we give him some help at RT and TE?  I think so to a limited degree.  What is amazing to me is that this has been done with less proven talent at WR. 

The stats that jump off the page to me are Third down conversion,  Total pass yards, Sacks, and TD(pass).  These numbers back up the fact that Chan does not yet have confidence in the run game.  I sure hope Spiller turns that around, and If these numbers can keep going in the direction they are going we will have a solid offense to put our new FRANCHISE  QB into.