Stats misleading About Niners

By Richard Brear  |   Wednesday, November 05, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

San Francisco 49ers
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Stats for the first game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals on Sept. 7 can suggest that the Niners are not a totally horrible team this season. In all honesty, the Niners’ first defeat of the regular season, in Week 1, did have its positives. For instance, the 49ers had more rushing yards per carry than the Cardinals (5.4 to 2.8) in their 23-13 defeat. San Francisco also garnered more net aerial yards than Arizona (183 to 176) with fewer passes thrown by quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan (20) than Kurt Warner (30). As a matter of fact, the Niners had more yards per play (6.6 to 4.0) than the Cards. To top off these wonderful accomplishments, the 49ers were only penalized 20 yards during the game, while Arizona regressed twice as much. I’ll stop while you stand and cheer for a second.

Do not get carried away with your enthusiasm, though. It’s time to come clean. San Francisco rushed half as many times as Arizona and passed fewer times than the Cardinals because the 49ers had a turnover-making contest that they managed to win. The Niners served up four fumbles and, as an additional unexpected gift, generously tossed an interception. Surrendering possession repeatedly like that caused the 49ers to have the ball half as long as the Cardinals.

And what about the Niners accruing more yards per play than the Cardinals? Duh! Having the ball so seldom during a game makes a team grind out more from every play than it might without a sensible sense of desperation.

So, let me guess: You will not be uplifted now to remember that the 49ers had a higher third-down conversion percentage than Arizona in Week 1, right?

Here is another taste of stats, this time about the respective records of the 49ers and Cardinals on "Monday Night Football" games in the past three seasons. Arizona is 0-2, while San Francisco is 1-1. The 49ers' victory, a 20-17 triumph in September of 2007, came over Arizona.

We'll find out this Monday if the 49ers can improve to 2-1, dropping the Cards to 0-3 in the process. Playing in Arizona, where the 5-3 Cardinals are 3-0, it certainly won't be easy.
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About Richard Brear

My first newspaper article of many appeared in print in the 1960's, but my fascination with journalism never got too serious until roughly twenty years later. In the 80's, I became a certified teacher of English Language Arts, got degrees from the University of Houston, and began teaching writing ...
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