FootballOutsiders: 1985 season DVOA ratings/commentary

These guys go back and add another 1-2 years every offseason to their historic DVOA ratings. They just posted their 1985 season DVOA ratings and analysis/commentary. This was, you remember, the Bears' Super Bowl-winning season (where they had beaten the Rams in the NFC title game). Fun to look back.

Interesting notes to me reading this:
- Just how good the 1991 Redskins were- an underrated all-time team...
- that the 1986 Bears defense was every bit as good as their famed 1985 defense- maybe a bit better

Rams notes:
- They rank the Rams 4th in the league overall for 1985- 22nd on offense (21st passing/15th rushing), 2nd only to Chicago on defense (2nd vs. pass/9th vs run), and 1st on special teams
- A 21st ranked schedule (out of 28 teams)
- On Rams special teams: The 1985 Rams come out with the second-best special teams unit in DVOA history, behind only the 2002 New Orleans Saints. The 1985 Rams were above average in all five phases of special teams that we measure, but the biggest star was Olympic sprinter Ron Brown. Brown didn't return kickoffs until Week 7, but he averaged 32.8 yards per return with three touchdowns, including two in a Week 12 victory over Green Bay. Brown was worth an estimated 24.3 points of field position above average; the other Rams returners, mainly running back Charles White, were negative on kick returns. The other star was punter Dale Hatcher. Hatcher was third in the league in gross punt average (43.2 yards) but led the league in gross punt value based on the situations where he punted, and also led the league in net punt average: 38.6 yards, more than 2 yards better than any other punter.
- On QB Dieter Brock (who they rank 18th among QBs in 1985): The Rams had one of the more peculiar NFL one-year wonders at quarterback in 1985: Dieter Brock. Brock had gone undrafted out of Jacksonville State in 1974 and had an 11-year career in the Canadian Football League. He won back-to-back CFL MVP awards (called "Most Outstanding Player" ) for Winnipeg in 1980 and 1981. Unsatisfied with Jeff Kemp as their starting quarterback, the Rams reached up north and signed Brock in 1985. He was officially an NFL rookie at the age of 34. Brock's 59.7% completion rate set a new Rams record at the time -- no, seriously, that's how low completion rates were in the '70s and '80s -- but he also had a knee injury in the 1986 preseason and chronic back problems that knocked him out for the rest of the year. The Rams cut him when they traded for the rights to Jim Everett and that was the end of Brock's football career. He has one year in the NFL at the age of 34 and that's it.
- The Rams had just one WR ranked in the top 40 (Henry Ellard, 29th) and a pair of decent TEs (Tony Hunter, 27th, and David Hill, 29th)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2020 07:22AM by LMU93.