Here's another reminder for everyone to check out the Pro-Football-Reference Play Index. In case you don't already know about the PI, it's a set of research tools that allow you to create customizable queries on our database, save the results, and share them with others. With the PI, you can:

• Use the Player Season Finder to search through every player's stats (since 1920) for single or combined seasons that match your criteria.
• Use the Player Game Finder to search through our game logs (since 1960) for individual games that match your criteria.
• Use the Player Touchdown Finder to search through every TD since 1940 for plays that match your criteria.
• Use the Team Game Finder to isolate specific games or seasons matching certain criteria.
• Use the Super Bowl Play Finder to search through every play in Super Bowl History (we'll be adding 2009 soon as well -- our apologies for the delay!)
• Use the PFR Draft Finder to search through every NFL and AFL draft pick.
• Use our Boxscore Search Tools to find head-to-head results, or all-time games matching a particular score.

And best of all, these features are 100% free to use!

So go ahead, give them a try, and you'll wonder how you ever got along without them.

After covering Dermontti Dawson yesterday, we now come to the other offensive lineman in this year's group of Hall of Fame finalists: Willie Roaf. The facts on Roaf's career:

• Tied for 94th in career games started (189); 30th among offensive linemen; 12th among offensive tackles
• 11x Pro Bowler, 3x 1st Team All-Pro
• Tied with Anthony Munoz and Jonathan Ogden for most Pro Bowl selections by an offensive tackle
• 7th among O-linemen in raw career Approximate Value (146); 3rd among tackles
• 76th overall in career weighted Approximate Value (110)
• 6th-best OL and 3rd-best T ever according to career weighted AV
• Starting LT for '02-'04 Chiefs offenses that averaged the 16th-, 52nd-, and 24th-most yards per play, respectively, since merger

What's the verdict on Roaf?

Here's another reminder for everyone to check out the Pro-Football-Reference Play Index. In case you don't already know about the PI, it's a set of research tools that allow you to create customizable queries on our database, save the results, and share them with others. With the PI, you can:

• Use the Player Season Finder to search through every player's stats (since 1920) for single or combined seasons that match your criteria.
• Use the Player Game Finder to search through our game logs (since 1960) for individual games that match your criteria.
• Use the Player Touchdown Finder to search through every TD since 1940 for plays that match your criteria.
• Use the Team Game Finder to isolate specific games or seasons matching certain criteria.
• Use the Super Bowl Play Finder to search through every play in Super Bowl History (we'll be adding 2009 soon as well -- our apologies for the delay!)
• Use the PFR Draft Finder to search through every NFL and AFL draft pick.
• Use our Boxscore Search Tools to find head-to-head results, or all-time games matching a particular score.

And best of all, these features are 100% free to use!

So go ahead, give them a try, and you'll wonder how you ever got along without them.

A quick note on two features Sean recently added to the Pro-Football Reference Play Index:

• Team & Opponent 2nd-half scores added to Team Game Finder - In the past, we just listed 1st-half and final point totals for games, making it impossible to answer questions like, "Which team scored the most points in a game where they were held scoreless in the second half?" But now that Sean added "Second Half Score" to the criteria, you can find the answer:

  											Points			Score by quarter								Score by half
  Rk	Tm	Year	Date		Opp	W#	G#	Day	Result	OT	PF	PA	PD	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	OQ1	OQ2	OQ3	OQ4	H1	H2	OH1	OH2
  1	CHI	2006	2006-10-29		SFO	8	7	Sun	W 41-10		41	10	31	24	17	0	0	0	0	0	10	41	0	0	10
  2	CIN	1983	1983-11-20		HOU	12	12	Sun	W 38-10		38	10	28	17	21	0	0	3	0	0	7	38	0	3	7
  3	CRD	1950	1950-10-22	@	WAS	5	5	Sun	W 38-28		38	28	10	10	28	0	0	7	7	7	7	38	0	14	14
  4	PIT	1973	1973-10-07		SDG	4	4	Sun	W 38-21		38	21	17	17	21	0	0	0	0	0	21	38	0	0	21
  5	CHI	1971	1971-10-10		NOR	4	4	Sun	W 35-14		35	14	21	7	28	0	0	0	7	0	7	35	0	7	7
  6	CHI	1980	1980-11-09		WAS	10	10	Sun	W 35-21		35	21	14	21	14	0	0	0	0	14	7	35	0	0	21
  7	CHI	1987	1987-10-04	@	PHI	3	3	Sun	W 35-3		35	3	32	7	28	0	0	0	3	0	0	35	0	3	0
  8	NOR	1980	1980-12-07	@	SFO	14	14	Sun	L 35-38	OT	35	38	-3	14	21	0	0	0	7	14	14	35	0	7	28
  9	NYG	1985	1985-12-08	@	HOU	14	14	Sun	W 35-14		35	14	21	14	21	0	0	0	14	0	0	35	0	14	0
  10	NYJ	1985	1985-11-03	@	IND	9	9	Sun	W 35-17		35	17	18	14	21	0	0	0	3	7	7	35	0	3	14
  11	PIT	1990	1990-12-23		CLE	16	15	Sun	W 35-0		35	0	35	21	14	0	0	0	0	0	0	35	0	0	0
  12	SDG	1979	1979-12-09	@	NOR	15	15	Sun	W 35-0		35	0	35	14	21	0	0	0	0	0	0	35	0	0	0
  13	SDG	2007	2007-10-28		HOU	8	7	Sun	W 35-10		35	10	25	14	21	0	0	0	3	0	7	35	0	3	7
  14	SEA	2003	2003-11-16		DET	11	10	Sun	W 35-14		35	14	21	14	21	0	0	7	7	0	0	35	0	14	0
  15	SFO	2008	2008-11-16		STL	11	10	Sun	W 35-16		35	16	19	7	28	0	0	0	3	6	7	35	0	3	13
  16	NYG	1945	1945-10-07	@	PIT	1	1	Sun	W 34-6		34	6	28	6	28	0	0	0	6	0	0	34	0	6	0
  17	RAM	1972	1972-09-17		NOR	1	1	Sun	W 34-14		34	14	20	13	21	0	0	0	7	0	7	34	0	7	7
  18	SEA	1977	1977-12-11	@	KAN	13	13	Sun	W 34-31		34	31	3	14	20	0	0	21	0	3	7	34	0	21	10

  Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
  Generated 1/13/2011.
• Total Offense added to Player Season & Game Finders - We have always featured yards from scrimmage (rushing yards + receiving yards) in the PI finders, but that category doesn't help us rank the performances of QBs who pass and run. Enter Total Offense, which equals Rushing Yards + Passing Yards - Sack Yards. Here are the single-game leaders (1960-2010):

  												Passing					Rushing			Total Yds
  Rk	Player	Age	Date	Lg	Tm		Opp	Result	G#	W#	Day	Cmp	Att	Yds	TD	Int	Att	Yds	TD	TotOff
  1	Warren Moon*	34-028	1990-12-16	NFL	HOU	@	KAN	W 27-10	14	15	Sun	27	45	527	3	0	4	2	0	529
  2	Boomer Esiason	35-207	1996-11-10	NFL	ARI	@	WAS	W 37-34	10	11	Sun	35	59	522	3	4	3	1	0	523
  3	Dan Marino*	27-038	1988-10-23	NFL	MIA		NYJ	L 30-44	8	8	Sun	35	60	521	3	5	1	0	0	521
  4	Phil Simms	30-344	1985-10-13	NFL	NYG	@	CIN	L 30-35	6	6	Sun	40	62	513	1	2	2	5	0	518
  5	Vince Ferragamo	28-246	1982-12-26	NFL	RAM		CHI	L 26-34	8	8	Sun	30	46	509	3	2	1	2	0	511
  6	Drew Brees	27-308	2006-11-19	NFL	NOR		CIN	L 16-31	10	11	Sun	37	52	510	2	3	0	0	0	510
  7	Elvis Grbac	30-084	2000-11-05	NFL	KAN	@	OAK	L 31-49	9	10	Sun	39	53	504	2	2	1	3	1	507
  8	Y.A. Tittle*	36-004	1962-10-28	NFL	NYG		WAS	W 49-34	7	7	Sun	27	39	505	7	0	1	1	0	506
  9	Jake Plummer	29-317	2004-10-31	NFL	DEN		ATL	L 28-41	8	8	Sun	31	55	499	4	3	2	5	0	504
  10	Doug Williams	25-099	1980-11-16	NFL	TAM	@	MIN	L 30-38	11	11	Sun	30	55	486	4	2	2	13	0	499
  11	Steve Young*	30-338	1992-09-13	NFL	SFO		BUF	L 31-34	2	2	Sun	26	37	449	3	1	7	50	0	499
  12	Tommy Kramer	31-240	1986-11-02	NFL	MIN	@	WAS	L 38-44	9	9	Sun	20	35	490	4	1	3	8	0	498
  13	Joe Namath*	29-116	1972-09-24	NFL	NYJ	@	BAL	W 44-34	2	2	Sun	15	28	496	6	1	1	1	0	497
  14	Billy Volek	28-235	2004-12-19	NFL	TEN	@	OAK	L 35-40	14	15	Sun	40	60	492	4	1	1	1	1	493
  15	Matt Hasselbeck	27-095	2002-12-29	NFL	SEA	@	SDG	W 31-28	16	17	Sun	36	53	449	2	2	7	42	1	491
  16	Boomer Esiason	29-173	1990-10-07	NFL	CIN	@	RAM	W 34-31	5	5	Sun	31	45	490	3	0	2	0	0	490
  17	Ken O'Brien	25-298	1986-09-21	NFL	NYJ		MIA	W 51-45	3	3	Sun	29	43	479	4	1	1	8	0	487
  18	Neil Lomax	25-303	1984-12-16	NFL	STL	@	WAS	L 27-29	16	16	Sun	37	46	468	2	1	3	18	1	486
  19	Don Meredith	25-214	1963-11-10	NFL	DAL	@	SFO	L 24-31	9	9	Sun	30	48	460	3	1	3	24	0	484
  20	Kurt Warner	36-156	2007-11-25	NFL	ARI		SFO	L 31-37	11	12	Sun	34	48	484	2	2	0	0	0	484

  Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
  Generated 1/13/2011.

  And the single-season leaders:

  							Games	Passing							Rushing			Total Yds
  Rk	Player	Year	Age	Draft	Tm	Lg	G	Cmp	Att	Yds	TD	Int	Sk	SkYds	Att	Yds	TD	TotOff
  1	Drew Brees	2008	29	2-32	NOR	NFL	16	413	635	5069	34	17	13	92	22	-1	0	4976
  2	Dan Marino*	1984	23	1-27	MIA	NFL	16	362	564	5084	48	17	13	120	28	-7	0	4957
  3	Daunte Culpepper	2004	27	1-11	MIN	NFL	16	379	548	4717	39	11	46	238	88	406	2	4885
  4	Tom Brady	2007	30	6-199	NWE	NFL	16	398	578	4806	50	8	21	128	37	98	2	4776
  5	Dan Fouts*	1981	30	3-64	SDG	NFL	16	360	609	4802	33	17	19	134	22	56	0	4724
  6	Matt Schaub	2009	28	3-90	HOU	NFL	16	396	583	4770	29	15	25	149	48	57	0	4678
  7	Jay Cutler	2008	25	1-11	DEN	NFL	16	384	616	4526	25	18	11	69	57	200	2	4657
  8	Kurt Warner	2001	30		STL	NFL	16	375	546	4830	36	22	38	233	28	60	0	4657
  9	Warren Moon*	1990	34		HOU	NFL	15	362	584	4689	33	13	36	252	55	215	2	4652
  10	Rich Gannon	2002	37	4-98	OAK	NFL	16	418	618	4689	26	10	36	214	50	156	3	4631
  11	Peyton Manning	2010	34	1-1	IND	NFL	16	450	679	4700	33	17	16	91	18	18	0	4627
  12	Dan Marino*	1986	25	1-27	MIA	NFL	16	378	623	4746	44	23	17	119	12	-3	0	4624
  13	Warren Moon*	1991	35		HOU	NFL	16	404	655	4690	23	21	23	174	33	68	2	4584
  14	Jeff Garcia	2000	30		SFO	NFL	16	355	561	4278	31	10	24	155	72	414	4	4537
  15	Philip Rivers	2010	29	1-4	SDG	NFL	16	357	541	4710	30	13	38	227	29	52	0	4535
  16	Dan Fouts*	1980	29	3-64	SDG	NFL	16	348	589	4715	30	24	32	210	23	15	2	4520
  17	Mark Brunell	1996	26	5-118	JAX	NFL	16	353	557	4367	19	20	50	257	80	396	3	4506
  18	Peyton Manning	2004	28	1-1	IND	NFL	16	336	497	4557	49	10	13	101	25	38	0	4494
  19	Drew Bledsoe	1994	22	1-1	NWE	NFL	16	400	691	4555	25	27	22	139	44	40	0	4456
  20	Trent Green	2004	34	8-222	KAN	NFL	16	369	556	4591	27	17	32	227	25	85	0	4449

  Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
  Generated 1/13/2011.

All four of this weekend's playoff matchups feature rematches of regular-season games:

How much extra information (above & beyond the Simple Rating System) can we glean from these previous matchups of playoff foes?

Player Touchdown Finder - Pro-Football-Reference.com

At the end of last week, Sean was able to add a new category to the Player Touchdown Finder: Combined Offensive TDs (rushing + receiving).

To use this new feature, just look under "Touchdown Type" and select "Offensive". It will allow you to execute queries like this one for the most offensive TDs in a playoff game since 1940:

As a follow-up to the 2010 team passing ratings I posted Tuesday, I ran the same process on team rushing performances. The formula for adjusted rushing yards per attempt was:

ARY/A = (Rush Yds + 18 * Rush TD) / Rush Att

(The 18 comes from Chase's post on the value of TDs.)

Using the PFR Team Game Finder, I plugged every team single-game rushing performance of the 2010 season into the formula above, then adjusted for strength of schedule and game location using an SRS-style recursive loop. The result was a set of ratings that best predicted every game according to these equations:

Home ARY/A = Lg Avg  ARY/A + .5*HFA + Home Rush Offense Rating + Away Rush Defense Rating

Away ARY/A = Lg Avg ARY/A - .5*HFA + Away Rush Offense Rating + Home Rush Defense Rating

Here were the ratings (again, negative is good for defenses):

This is just a quick reminder for everyone to check out the Pro-Football-Reference Play Index. In case you don't already know about the PI, it's a set of research tools that allow you to create customizable queries on our database, save the results, and share them with others. With the PI, you can:

• Use the Player Season Finder to search through every player's stats (since 1920) for single or combined seasons that match your criteria.
• Use the Player Game Finder to search through our game logs (since 1960) for individual games that match your criteria.
• Use the Player Touchdown Finder to search through every TD since 1940 for plays that match your criteria.
• Use the Team Game Finder to isolate specific games or seasons matching certain criteria.
• Use the Super Bowl Play Finder to search through every play in Super Bowl History (we'll be adding 2009 soon as well -- our apologies for the delay!)
• Use the PFR Draft Finder to search through every NFL and AFL draft pick.
• Use our Boxscore Search Tools to find head-to-head results, or all-time games matching a particular score.

And best of all, these features are 100% free to use!

So go ahead, give them a try, and you'll wonder how you ever got along without them.

In a move that's admittedly long overdue, we've added Doug's Approximate Value metric to a variety of places throughout the site:

• Leaderboards: Single-Season, Career, Career (Active), Year-by-Year, Weighted Career, Weighted Career (Active), & Yearly League
• Player Pages: Stat tables, Similar Players, leaderboard appearances, weighted career AV listing
• Franchise Pages: Team listing, Season index, franchise career register

And as always, you can search for AV leaders using the PFR Play Index's Season Finder (example).

Also, we overhauled the main AV page to make it more user-friendly, added a sub-page for Doug's extended explanation of the method, and created a blog category for AV to make it easier to find past and future posts that feature the stat.

In honor of the Patriots' vicious beatdown of the Jets Monday night, here are some stats from the Team Game Finder...

New England's romp featured the 2nd-biggest margin of victory in any 2010 game:

It also tied the 2nd-biggest rout in Monday Night Football history:

Today we have an inquiry from PFR reader Jose:

"No one seems to know the answer to this question: What is the record for most OT games in a season by one team?"

Thanks to an upgrade made to the Play Index Team Game Finder by S-R president Sean Forman, we can now use PFR's site tools to answer this question.

Just go to the Team Game Finder, select "Search for Season Games matching criteria," and check the OT radio button at the bottom left-hand side of the finder interface ("Overtime Game"=Yes). Click "Get Results," and here's what you come up with:

This includes regular-season + OT games, but you can select either of those individually as well.

In honor of the holiday tomorrow, I thought I'd put together a list of every Thanksgiving QB performance since 1960. Using the PFR Player Game Finder to find Thursday games, I cross-referenced the results against this list of historical Thanksgiving dates. Here's what I eventually came up with:

In honor of this Sunday's battle between two of the NFL's fiercest rivals, let's use the PFR Team Game Finder to take a look at the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts' head-to-head stats during the Brady-vs-Manning era (2001-09, including the playoffs -- but excluding '08, when Brady was injured and missed the game).

First, the overall game results:

And the results just in Foxboro, the location of Sunday's game:

If you were watching the Philly-Washington game on Monday night, you knew that Michael Vick and the Eagles were setting records right & left because the MNF crew pointed them out on-screen as they happened. But do you ever wish you could search for those kinds of milestones yourself? Using the Pro-Football-Reference.com Play Index, you can. Here are some Vick/Eagles milestones I searched for on Tuesday morning, as soon as we loaded the Eagles game into the database:

(Please note that I'm not picking on the Redskins here, or rubbing in their loss -- this is merely a demonstration of our site tools, and the MNF game is a good example because a lot of milestones were reached.)

Last week, I showed you how to set up an "expected W-L" method for a quarterback using the Play Index Team Game Finder, the QB's gamelogs, and a logistic regression formula. I found that our test case, Philip Rivers, should have been expected to win 27.7 games over the last 3 seasons (prior to the Chargers' win over Houston) based on his passing performance, but in actuality only won 24 games, a difference of -3.7 wins. Without context, though, that number doesn't really mean anything -- is that a lot, or a little? Today, I'm going to answer that question by comparing every QB's actual and expected W-L records, something I like to call "The Rivers Index" (in an homage to Doug's Manning and Dungy Indices).

Which teams have played the best in each quarter so far this season? Using the data in the PFR Team Game Finder and a little Excel wizardry, you can answer this question.

At the Game Finder, check the radio button next to "Search for Cumulative Season Games", click the red "current" text under Years, and tell the finder to sort by "First Quarter Score":

Using the PFR Play Index's Player Season Finder, you can run custom individual leaderboards across multiple seasons. For instance, here are the NFL leaders in Adjusted Yards per Attempt over the past three years:

As you can see, the leader (by far) is San Diego's Philip Rivers. In fact, 10th-ranked McNabb is closer to #2 Brees than Brees is to Rivers!

Statistically, it's tough to find a QB since 2008 who can touch Rivers. However, his team hasn't enjoyed the same lofty success: the Chargers are 24-16 over the past 3 years -- a respectable record, but one seemingly out of place next to Rivers' gaudy passing numbers. This disconnect between individual accomplishments and team performance has haunted many a quarterback in the past, and is now is the main reason Rivers isn't held up in the same group as Brady, Manning, Roethlisberger, and Brees as a quarterback. QBs are supposed to win, we're told, not amass seemingly empty stats.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: At 6-1, the New England Patriots boast the NFL's top record despite a roster that looks less than overwhelming on paper. So does this mean 2010 will be another one of those patented Patriot seasons where they're somehow on top when the dust clears? Let's go to the PFR Play Index's Team Game Finder and break down the numbers...

Play Index: Team Game Finder

Searching for the most rushing yards in a loss or the fewest pass attempts by a team in a game is so much easier using the Team Game Finder. Check it out before the season starts.

If you go to PFR's leaderboard page, you can see that Tony Romo ranks 4th all time in yards per pass attempt, and all three quarterbacks ahead of him retired by 1960. Romo also ranks first in net yards per attempt (PFR has NY/A data beginning in 1969, which is the earliest year for which we have complete individual sack data) and first in adjusted net yards per attempt among all players. You can use PFR-'s play index to see a list of the top active quarterbacks in yards per attempt, and I've heard multiple sources cite Romo's incredible career average in that category.

My initial take when I heard such propaganda was that is was incredibly misleading. Why?

1) Romo obviously plays in a much more pass-friendly era than nearly every quarterback in league history.
2) Romo, because he was an undrafted free agent, didn't see the field during his early years. Young quarterbacks tend to play poorly, and sitting on the bench during your first couple of years will help boost your career averages, especially when you have only played for a few seasons. Which brings me to ...
3) Romo just turned 30 years old in April; he hasn't yet played during the final years of his career, when most quarterbacks tend to kill their career averages. For example, the Patriots Steve Grogan retired with a career yards per attempt average of 7.48, but from age 25 to 34, Grogan averaged 7.98 yards per attempt. Romo, unless he retires early, will sink his career averages at least a little bit by the end of his career.