Bucs vs Saints preview

Going with a Sgt. Joe Friday edition of the preview today. As usual, all my stats are courtesy of Football Outsiders. FO's stats are created by breaking every play down and comparing it to the league average. The reason I use these stats is that they are a better measure of how good a team is in a certain area than yardage gained. On offense and special teams, the more positive a number the better that team is on offense. On defense, the reverse is true, the more negative the number the better the defensive unit.


DVOA . . . . . . . .Bucs . . . . . . . . . . Saints
Offense
Passing . . . . . . .-0.4% (#20) . . . . -6.2% (#21)
Rushing . . . . . . -13.2% (#24) . . . -3.5% (#15)
Defense
Passing . . . . . . .2.2% (#20) . . . . 8.5% (#22)
Rushing . . . . . . -17.6% (#6) . . . . 13.4% (#26)
Special Teams
Overall . . . . . . . -0.6% (#22) . . . -4.1% (#30)
FG/XP . . . . . . . . 4.2% . . . . . . . . . -8.4%
Kick . . . . . . . . . .-5.3% . . . . . . . . . 3.7%
Kick Return . . . -7.4% . . . . . . . . . -14.5%
Punt . . . . . . . . . 7.5% . . . . . . . . . . .9.8%
Punt Return . . . -1.6% . . . . . . . . . -8.5%