One of the first things that got me “deeper” into football was advanced stats. As I’ve started to better understand scheme and personnel, I’ve paid less attention to them, but I still think they serve a very valuable role as an objective, albeit imperfect (they don’t claim to be perfect!) guidepost for where a team is at.
Advanced stats work around a few general principles. They totally eschew “total” statistics such as total yards or total points, instead honing in on per-play or per-drive data (or a mix of both), because those are much more meaningful and predictive.