Official NFL stats measure individual offensive or defensive units. I like to follow more innovative stats which try to reflect the correlation between offensive, defensive and also special teams units. The performance of each unit on a team has a direct impact on every other that’s why I think those kind of stats are a lot more convenient when trying to measure teams in the NFL.

The scoreability and bendability index are team-wide indicators, measuring teams’ ability to turn yards into points and they both take into account not only teams’ offensive or defensive performance but also include performance of special teams units.

Scoreability index is calculated by dividing total yards with total points scored. The result of this calculation is Yards per Point Scored (YPS). The lower the number, the more efficiently a team scores points.
Like mentioned above, scoreability index isn’t strictly offensive indicator because it takes into account a variety of  other factors, especially performance of special teams.

Bendability index is calculated by dividing total yards allowed with total points allowed. The result of this calculation is Yards per Point Allowed (YPA). The higher the number, the more difficult a team makes it for opponents to score points.
Just like scoreability index, bendability index isn’t strictly defensive indicator because it also takes into account a variety of  other factors.

Turnover ratio and red-zone proficiency are two of those very important factors, factored in this two indicators. Ultimately a teams’ goal is to score points and keep opposing teams away from the endzone, and if teams are able to force turnovers on defense, and hold onto the ball on offense, score points in red-zone and prevent opposing teams from scoring when in red-zone, then they will be ranked high on scoreabilty and bendability index.

What follows is a table of 2011 final scoreability and bendability index for all 32 NFL teams.
Playoff teams are colored in blue (NFC) and red (AFC).

– 8 of 12 playoff teams are ranked in top 10 on scoreability index and 6 of 12 playoff teams are top 10 on bendability index

– 10.4 is an average scoreability ranking for playoff teams ( 11.5 is an average ranking for playoff teams based on total offense)

– 11.4 is an average bendability ranking for playoff teams (15.5 is an average ranking for playoff teams based on total defense)