Okay, here’s my take on sharing my practical experience, focusing on the comparison between Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt’s 2023 stats, written in a blog post style.
Diving into the Stats: Myles Garrett vs. T.J. Watt – My 2023 Deep Dive
Alright, so I got super into comparing the stats of Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt from the 2023 season. It all started because my buddy and I were arguing about who the better defensive player was. I thought, “Forget arguing, let’s LOOK at the freakin’ numbers!”
First things first, I grabbed the data. I spent a good chunk of an afternoon crawling through different sports stats websites. ESPN, Pro Football Reference, even some of the team official sites. I was copying and pasting stuff into a spreadsheet like a madman. Seriously, data entry is NOT my favorite part, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Then, I cleaned the data. Oh man, the data cleaning. Some sites had slightly different names for the same stat. Some had stats I didn’t even need. I basically whittled it down to what I thought was most important: Sacks, Tackles (both solo and combined), Tackles for Loss, QB Hits, Forced Fumbles, and Pass Deflections. I filtered out pre-season games because, you know, those don’t REALLY count.
Next up, analyzing the numbers! I’m no expert statistician, but I know how to do some basic comparisons. I calculated percentages for things like sack rate (sacks per pass rush snap). That took some extra research because not every site had the number of pass rush snaps, so I had to hunt those down separately.
I started by simply comparing their raw numbers side-by-side. Watt had more total tackles, but Garrett had a higher sack rate. It wasn’t immediately clear who was “better” just from looking at the totals.
Then I went deeper. I looked at game-by-game stats. Were there games where one player completely dominated, while the other was relatively quiet? Did one player consistently perform well against tougher opponents? This part was time-consuming, I basically scanned each game stat for both players.
I also considered the context. Who were their teammates? Did they have a strong defensive line around them, or were they carrying the load? What were the offensive lines they were going up against? I tried to find articles and analysis about the teams they played against to see if I could figure out who had the tougher job.
Finally, after all that digging, I formed my own opinion. Honestly? It’s still tough to say definitively who was “better”. Watt had more overall impact in terms of tackles and disruption, but Garrett was arguably more dominant as a pass rusher. It really depends on what you value more in a defensive player. Both are monsters!
To really show what I found I organized all the stats into a table that was a lot easier to read.
- Sacks: I needed to clearly show the total sacks for each player
- Tackles: Display both total and solo tackles
- Forced Fumbles: Highlight impact plays like forced fumbles
It’s really more about their style of play and what you are looking for in a player rather than just stats. You gotta watch the games!
