One stat that former Ravens head coach Brian Billick brought to the attention of stats enthusiast a few years back was what he termed as the Fox-Tox rating. Basically the stat takes the differential of explosive plays, a play of 20 yards or more and adds it to the differential of the turnovers gained and lost to come to come up with this rating. The video below describes it in more detail, but it is pretty simple.
With the Steelers set to take on the Ravens this Sunday, I thought we would look how this stat shakes out in individual games in the series dating back to the 2000 season. The two teams have met a total of 25 times during that span with the Steelers winning 15 of these games.
As you can see in the table below, the Steelers have had a minus TOX stat 7 times and only won twice when that happened. When they have had a positive 2 or better TOX stat in a game, they are 12-1 and when they have had a zero or positive 1 TOX stat they are 1 and 4. Plus 2 seems to be the magic number for the Steelers.
| GAME | SCORE | TURNOVERS | BIG PLAYS | TOTAL TOX | |||||
| Week | Date | PIT | BAL | PIT TO | BAL TO | PIT BP | BAL BP | PIT TOX | BAL TOX |
| 1 | 9/3/2000 | 0 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | 10/29/2000 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | -2 |
| 8 | 11/4/2001 | 10 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | -1 |
| 14 | 12/16/2001 | 26 | 21 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 6 | -6 |
| Division | 1/20/2002 | 27 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | -4 |
| 8 | 10/27/2002 | 31 | 18 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 7 | -7 |
| 17 | 12/29/2002 | 34 | 31 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 9 | -3 | 3 |
| 1 | 9/7/2003 | 34 | 15 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 5 | -5 |
| 17 | 12/28/2003 | 10 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | -6 | 6 |
| 2 | 9/19/2004 | 13 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 3 | -1 | 1 |
| 16 | 12/26/2004 | 20 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | -3 |
| 8 | 10/31/2005 | 20 | 19 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | -1 | 1 |
| 11 | 11/20/2005 | 13 | 16 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3 | -3 |
| 12 | 11/26/2006 | 0 | 27 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -3 | 3 |
| 16 | 12/24/2006 | 7 | 31 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 1 |
| 9 | 11/5/2007 | 38 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 | -5 |
| 17 | 12/30/2007 | 21 | 27 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | -1 | 1 |
| 4 | 9/29/2008 | 23 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | 12/14/2008 | 13 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | -2 |
| ConfChamp | 1/18/2009 | 23 | 14 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 5 | -5 |
| 12 | 11/29/2009 | 17 | 20 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | -1 |
| 16 | 12/27/2009 | 23 | 20 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | -4 |
| 4 | 10/3/2010 | 14 | 17 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | -1 |
| 13 | 12/5/2010 | 13 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | -2 |
| Division | 1/15/2011 | 31 | 24 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | -2 |
Explosive plays are nothing new to the Steelers as they had 77 regular season plays of 20 yards or more last year while giving up just 40. With Mike Wallace another year experienced and both Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders heading into their second year now, the Steelers offense looks to built to be even more explosive this year as has been evidenced so far this preseason. Defensively the Steelers look to return the same starting secondary they had last year that was notorious for not giving up the big play.
On the Ravens side of things they have added receiver Lee Evans, who they hope to use to stretch the field much the same way the Steelers use Wallace. Evans has been hampered by a foot injury since being acquired from the Bills, but the injury is not deemed as one that will prevent him from playing Sunday. If he is hampered, that leaves rookies Tandon Doss and Torrey Smith left to pick up the slack. That will be a tall task if that happens. The Ravens look like they have shaken up the secondary as well as it is being reported that Cary Williams will start on one side likely opposite Domonique Foxworth. Chris Carr and rookie Jimmy Smith will likely get snaps at some point on Sunday.
On the surface, neither team is likely to have a good game running the ball against the other, so this game figures to be decided purely on turnovers and big plays once again. You have to like the Steelers chances if they can win the turnover battle by one as well as just make one more explosive play than the Ravens do. We will know Sunday.
I will be tracking this stat for the Steelers all season along with the other 31 teams to see where everyone ranks.
