Falcons: How Much Better, Statistically, Have The Falcons Performed Over The Past 5 Games

[RFlagg]

I admit, I know the competition hasn't been the toughest we've faced this season, but I think we've looked a lot better over the past 5 weeks against Carolina, Detroit, Indy, New Orleans and Tennessee. I decided to take a look at the main categories for determining a teams performance: Total Offense, Pass Offense, Rush Offense, Points Scored, Total Defense, Pass Defense, Rush Defense, and Points Allowed. Here is how we currently rank in those categories:

Total Offense - 12th (369.0 Yards Per Game)
Pass Offense - 10th (248.4 Yards Per Game)
Rush Offense - 11th (120.6 Yards Per Game)
Points Scored - 14th (23.5 Points Per Game)
Total Defense - 15th (339.5 Yards Per Game)
Pass Defense - 26th (254.1 Yards Per Game)
Rush Defense - 2nd (85.4 Yards Per Game)
Points Allowed - 15th (21.3 Points Per Game)

The Pass Defense is dismal while the rush defense is splendid. The offense is lurking just outside the top 10 in the leagueas well. But, let's look at the last 5 games, where I keep thinking we look like a team coming around.

Total Offense - 399.6 Yards Per Game (Good Enough For The 6th Ranked Total Offense)
Pass Offense - 257.2 Yards Per Game (Good Enough For The 10th Ranked Pass Offense)
Rush Offense - 142.4 Yards Per Game (Good Enough For The 6th Ranked Rush Offense)
Points Scored - 26.2 Points Per Game (Good Enough For The 7th Ranked Points Scored)
Total Defense - 295.6 Yards Per Game (Good Enough For The 3rd Ranked Total Defense)
Pass Defense - 214.0 Yards Per Game (Good Enough For The 10th Ranked Pass Defense)
Rush Defense - 81.6 Yards Per Game (Good Enough For The 2nd Ranked Rush Defense)
Points Allowed - 16.6 Points Per Game (Good Enough For The 2nd Ranked Points Allowed)

That's a pretty big shift. Suddenly, we're top 10 in every category and our D looks like one of the best in the league. This is the type of thing we want to see as the weather turns cold. We want the Falcons to be playing their best ball as the regular season comes to an end, and we want them to carry that into the playoffs. Hopefully we can keep it up over the final 6 weeks, and beyond. I just have to wonder, if not for the lockout, would the team of the past 5 weeks shown up sooner.