With Week 3 of the 2016 NFL regular season now in the books we can now turn our attention to the ANY/A (adjusted net yards per passing attempt) differential stats from the first three weeks.
Once again, I want to caution that until we get to Week 5 or 6 of the season it’s hard to draw any hard conclusions from these numbers as there just haven’t been enough games played so far. After week 6, however, these passing stats should be very telling and from that point moving forward is when I like to use the order as my own personal power rankings.
As you can see below, the Pittsburgh Steelers now have the fourth-worst adjusted net yards per passing attempt differential stat in the league through the first three weeks of the season and that certainly isn’t great even though they have a 2-1 record. While I’m not concerned too much about their offensive ANY/A number, I do worry about their defensive ANY/A number as it has increased every week since the season got underway. That number being 7.5 is not overly surprising, however, being as the Steelers pass defense has registered just 2 interceptions and 1 sack so far this season.
The good news as it relates to these early stats is that they can change drastically right now. In other words, a solid showing by both the Steelers offense and defense on Sunday night against the Kansas City Chiefs could result in a large swing in the overall differential. From Week 6 and on, however, these fluctuations will get smaller and smaller.
The Chiefs, by the way, currently have the best defensive ANY/A stat in the NFL. However, it’s worth pointing out that their defense registered 6 interceptions this past Sunday against the New York Jets and that certainly had a huge impact on that stat lowering being as they’ve only played 3 games.
For now, just take note of these stats and rankings and try not to read too much into them until at least after Week 6. Remember, we’re looking for teams to stay above 1.0 in the differential while possessing a defensive ANY/A number of 5.5 or less.
| TEAM | OFFENSE | DEFENSE | DIFF | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TEAM | ATT | YDS | TD | INT | S | SYDS | ANY/A | ATT | YDS | TD | INT | S | SYDS | ANY/A | DIFF |
| PHI | 102 | 751 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 18 | 8.0 | 99 | 610 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 72 | 4.4 | 3.6 |
| MIN | 92 | 643 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 50 | 7.2 | 113 | 633 | 3 | 5 | 15 | 116 | 3.7 | 3.5 |
| DEN | 94 | 728 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 28 | 7.0 | 104 | 535 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 62 | 3.8 | 3.2 |
| KC | 118 | 723 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 63 | 5.8 | 113 | 675 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 24 | 3.1 | 2.7 |
| ARI | 121 | 823 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 50 | 5.7 | 110 | 567 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 59 | 3.2 | 2.5 |
| NE | 87 | 656 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 35 | 8.0 | 123 | 814 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 40 | 5.9 | 2.1 |
| SD | 100 | 759 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 34 | 8.1 | 135 | 966 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 57 | 6.2 | 1.9 |
| ATL | 103 | 936 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 34 | 9.5 | 131 | 939 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 17 | 7.8 | 1.7 |
| SEA | 110 | 770 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 50 | 6.3 | 84 | 488 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 56 | 4.8 | 1.5 |
| BAL | 118 | 726 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 48 | 4.9 | 93 | 505 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 60 | 3.5 | 1.4 |
| NYG | 107 | 893 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 32 | 7.4 | 125 | 787 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 30 | 6.6 | 0.8 |
| DAL | 99 | 753 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 7.5 | 123 | 870 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 18 | 7.1 | 0.4 |
| CAR | 109 | 730 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 82 | 5.0 | 90 | 549 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 43 | 4.7 | 0.3 |
| HOU | 109 | 644 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 51 | 4.6 | 85 | 454 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 51 | 4.5 | 0.1 |
| BUF | 78 | 491 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 46 | 5.5 | 117 | 855 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 64 | 5.6 | -0.1 |
| MIA | 113 | 848 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 44 | 6.5 | 116 | 803 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 58 | 6.7 | -0.2 |
| WAS | 125 | 992 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 28 | 7.1 | 105 | 905 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 37 | 7.6 | -0.5 |
| CIN | 115 | 879 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 59 | 6.5 | 107 | 741 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 19 | 7.1 | -0.6 |
| NO | 140 | 1025 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 37 | 7.9 | 109 | 897 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 30 | 8.5 | -0.6 |
| TEN | 107 | 688 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 35 | 5.2 | 108 | 719 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 26 | 5.9 | -0.7 |
| DET | 120 | 938 | 7 | 2 | 8 | 47 | 7.7 | 104 | 793 | 10 | 1 | 7 | 35 | 8.5 | -0.8 |
| CHI | 107 | 722 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 46 | 6.0 | 93 | 643 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 26 | 7.0 | -1.0 |
| GB | 94 | 580 | 7 | 1 | 8 | 37 | 6.6 | 111 | 922 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 69 | 7.9 | -1.3 |
| CLE | 97 | 671 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 58 | 5.4 | 121 | 883 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 16 | 6.8 | -1.4 |
| IMD | 124 | 855 | 6 | 2 | 9 | 58 | 6.7 | 111 | 917 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 19 | 8.1 | -1.4 |
| OAK | 118 | 863 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7.7 | 109 | 1020 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 9.2 | -1.5 |
| JAC | 127 | 787 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 56 | 4.5 | 99 | 605 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 28 | 6.0 | -1.5 |
| SF | 96 | 526 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 4.6 | 107 | 764 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 27 | 6.3 | -1.7 |
| PIT | 118 | 762 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 54 | 5.7 | 128 | 996 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7.5 | -1.8 |
| LAR | 91 | 522 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 37 | 4.4 | 128 | 798 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 31 | 6.3 | -1.9 |
| TB | 142 | 891 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 38 | 5.3 | 99 | 816 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 23 | 8.8 | -3.5 |
| NYJ | 113 | 746 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 4.3 | 94 | 852 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 58 | 8.4 | -4.1 |
