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Vikings-Giants: By the numbers

While we dive into the dozens of statistics and rankings between the Vikings and Giants, turnovers margin is the stat that tells how good teams have been.

There are many statistics that tell how good or bad a team is. When it comes to ranking offenses and defense, the NFL may be missing the boat, basing it strictly on yardage. A good team can have a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter and play a prevent defense that allows an opponent to pile up “garbage yards” when the result of the game has long since been decided.

Given the complicated system used to determine passer rating, there should be a statistic that better explains how good or bad an offense or defense is – factoring in how many times it forces an opponent to settle for field goals in the red zone rather than touchdowns, how many three-and-out drives a team has on either offense or defense, etc.