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We've played 5 very good offensive halves of football through 6 games. 2nd half @ Seattle, 1st half vs SF, 1st half @ Indy, 1st half vs Philly and 2nd half vs Arizona. But we can't seem to put together 2 good halves of football in the same game. It happened in the second half of the Seattle game and the first half of the SF game though. 40 points, 33 first downs, 453 yards, 110 on the ground, no interceptions, no sacks allowed, 4 of 4 in the red zone and 40 minutes of possession time.

Here's the stats, both total and by average:

Offense: 1st half / 2nd half
1st Dns: 63 (10.5/g) / 68 (11.3/g)
3rd Dn%: 47.2% (17-36) / 38.3% (18 - 47)
Tot Yds: 1069 (178 /g) / 1133 (188.8 /g)
Rush Att: 64 (10.7) / 89 (14.8)
Rush Yds: 261 (43.5) / 388 (64.7)
YPC: 4.1 / 4.4
Pass Att: 101 (16.8) / 126 (21)
Comp: 67 (11.1) / 72 (12)
Comp%: 66.3% / 57.1%
Pass Yds: 808 (134.7) / 745 (124)
Yds/Att: 8.0 / 5.91
Yds/Comp: 12.1 / 10.4
Int: 1 / 4
Sacks: 6 / 10
Fum-L: 2 - 1 / 1 - 0
RZ: 4-8 / 7 - 11
Pts: 70 / 68
TOP: 13:35 / 17:44

Bottom line is they have scored basically the same amount of points in each half, on average. They have managed to possess the ball 4 minutes more in the 2nd, possibly because they've committed to and had more success with the run. But game by game they have had some stinkers (7). First half @ Seattle. 2nd half vs SF. Both halves @ Cincinnati. 2nd half @ Indy. 2nd half vs Philly. 1st half vs Arizona. It's time to put two good halves together now that we're more than a third of the way into the season.

Defensively we've played 6 very good halves of football. 2nd half @ Seattle, both halves vs Cincinnati, 1st half @ Indy, both halves vs Arizona. We might also include the 2nd half vs Philly where we allowed just 6 points but some might argue 250 yards allowed in a half is unacceptable. Still by that measure, the defense is actually outplaying the offense, at least from a consistency standpoint. Who'da thunk it?

Defense: 1st half / 2nd half
1st Dn: 68 (11.3/g) / 59 (9.8/g)
3rd Dn%: 43.9% (18-41) / 34.2% (13-38)
Tot Yds: 1025 (170.8) / 957 (159.5)
Rush Att: 86 (14.3) / 83 (13.8)
Rush Yds: 423 (70.5) / 310 (51.6)
YPC: 4.9 / 3.7
Pass Att: 111 (18.5) / 93 (15.5)
Comp: 71 (11.8) / 45 (7.5)
Comp%: 64.0% / 48.4%
Pass Yds: 602 (100.3) / 647 (107.8)
Yds/Att: 5.42 / 6.96
Yds/Comp: 8.48 / 14.4
Int: 0 / 3
Sacks: 6 / 4
Fum/L: 2-1 / 3-1
RZ: 5-10 / 4-9
Pts: 62 (10.3) / 55 (9.2)
TOP: 16:25 / 12:58

Some areas of significance. The defense allows less first downs and is much better on third down in the 2nd half. They allow less than 50% comp% in the 2nd half. The yards per attempt allowed suggest they are playing the pass quite well, even without an abundance of pressure. And the rushing ypc drop more than a yard even though the attempts are practically the same. I don't know what all the numbers mean.....I suppose we could translate them a variety of ways. But if you were to hold a gun to my head and ask for the truth as I see it, I'd say the defense is playing pretty good and definitely better than most predicted prior to the season. The offense has some stellar moments but lacks consistency.

Any views on the numbers? What some may mean? What doesn't matter?