Through 7 weeks of the 2009 NFL season, the Bucs have accrued the same number of wins as if we took 11 members of Buc Em and put them on the field. The ole goose egg. The games haven't been pretty.
On a more disturbing note, the numbers have been even less comforting. We've taken a few looks into the stats of various players and units, most notably the defensive line. It seems that each particular unit is ultimately coming up short. With that in mind, i wanted to take a look at the 2009 DVOA numbers for all three phases of the game and see where the Bucs stood after 7 games.
| DVOA | Rank | Off. DVOA | RANK | Def DVOA | RANK | S.T. DVOA | RANK | ||
| 28 | TB | -44.40% | 29 | -17.90% | 26 | 25.70% | 32 | -0.80% | 19 |
Let me remind those of you not entirely familiar with DVOA that a positive number is good for overall, offense and special teams, and bad for defense.
The numbers pretty much do the talking, but we can go ahead and wade through this mess. Let's start with the offense. You can see the DVOA for the offense is -17.9%. That puts the Bucs 26th out of the 32 NFL teams. I didn't expect to be this low but with 3 starting quarterbacks, a lack of a running game (or more correctly, a lack of commitment to a running game), receivers who have a paranoia for catching the ball, and an offensive line that is having difficulty blocking, I have to say this seems about right. The average offense, once adjusted for opponent, down and distance will perform at a better clip than the Bucs.
The defensive number is what is so appalling. After years of locking in a top 10 defense and being able to rely on them to bail out our teams for so many years, to see this is quite a shock. We are ranked dead last in the NFL in defensive DVOA. Dead last. A large part of this is due to the defensive line, which I detail here.
Of course, our special teams haven't been much of a help, performing just below the average special teams unit. Hard to believe that with Nugent throwing up all over himself, Clifton being unable to break the big one (though Stroughter has), and Dirk Johnson being unable to carry a punt farther than a 3rd grader, we are still about at league average.
Overall, you see the number the same way I do. Our Defensive adjusted Value Over Average is -44.40%. That is horrific, and still, somehow, doesn't put us at the bottom, just close to it.
As always, thanks to Football Outsiders for the numbers.