Dominate the Super Bowl-Chapter 332 331 Brilliant Rookie

The American League raised the banner of defense, while the National Conference sounded the horn for offense, the 2017 playoffs... should be very interesting and worth looking forward to.

At this point, the playoff matchups have become completely clear—

In the American League, the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers have a first-round bye; in the National Conference, the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings have a first-round bye.

After enduring a long and grueling season, a week of rest and adjustment is undoubtedly precious, ensuring they can sit on the sidelines and watch as their opponents fight tooth and nail, waiting to launch a strong attack after conserving their strength, and to vie for some advantages in the playoffs.

The other teams, however, are not so lucky. Immediately after the end of the seventeenth week of the regular season, with no rest, the wildcard round kicks off.

On January 6th, the Kansas City Chiefs will host the Tennessee Titans at home, while the Los Angeles Rams will face the Atlanta Falcons at home.

On January 7th, the Jacksonville Jaguars will host the Buffalo Bills at home, and the New Orleans Saints will face their divisional archrival, the Carolina Panthers, for the third time this season.

The battle drums have already been sounded.

With no time to adjust, no space to breathe, you have to roll up your sleeves and enter the field. The value of the Kansas City Chiefs' rotation in the last week is clear now; they didn't have a bye, but it's as good as one, conserving energy for the key players.

However, before the playoffs officially commence, there's still a bit of time to look back at the regular season, with a series of summary statistics released. We must not only pay attention to the playoff landscape but also not forget the other teams and players, as the excitement of the 2017 season is also thanks to their contributions.

Traditionally, quarterbacks are undoubtedly the absolute focus of attention—

This year is no exception.

In the quarterback passing yards ranking, Brady narrowly defeated Rivers's 4,516 yards with 4,577 yards, topping the league this season in passing yards.

On the passing touchdowns chart, Wilson crowned himself with 34 passing touchdowns, narrowly outmatching Brady's 32.

Additionally, there's a rating scale for quarterbacks based on their completion percentage, passing yards, passing touchdowns, and interceptions, among other data, using the same formula resulting in a score that shows the quarterback's performance, with the perfect score being 158.3.

Rodgers was considered one of the four elite quarterbacks at a young age, because he is, to date, the player with the highest career quarterback rating.

This season, on the quarterback rating leaderboard, after Rodgers was out for the season due to injury, there was a significant change. Quarterback Smith from the Kansas City Chiefs topped the list with 104.7, narrowly beating rookie quarterback Watson's 103.0.

In fact, once the data is laid out, the whole picture becomes clear:

The passing yards king, passing touchdowns king, and quarterback rating king each belong to different players, and all the data failed to set new records, even falling far below record levels, with no 5,000 passing yards, no 50 passing touchdowns, nothing.

Moreover, the names in the top five of each ranking list have a series of changes, with no player appearing in every list; plus, several quarterbacks from the top of the lists failed to lead their teams into the playoffs, lacking the appearance of "team leaders."

Various, various.

This shows that it was a year of overall poor performance for quarterbacks. Despite still being in the spotlight and despite the bustling hot topics, neither professionals nor fans could praise them.

Because of this, the regular season MVP discussion reached its peak since the millennium, full of controversy. Name after name was thrown around, but none could convince the majority, everyone actively expressed their opinions, each one substantive and well-argued, and the debates were at a stalemate.

To make matters worse, the defensive group was the same.

JJ Watt was out for the season, Khalil Mack's performance visibly declined, and Von Miller faced injury troubles, with dominant defensive players from the past three seasons all encountering difficulties.

Defensive Tackle Aaron Donald from the Los Angeles Rams emerged as a shining light in the league, but unable to single-handedly spark more discussion.

So much so that at the end of the regular season's games, the media and fans participated in discussions eagerly, only to find one by one a lack of chemistry—

Leading to waning interest.

So what now?

As it's said, circumstances create heroes.

The emergence of a hero is often not so simple; in addition to the hero's personal charm and ability, it also requires a confluence of the right time, place, and people—without any one of these elements, the desired effect may not be achieved.

This year, before the season began, no one anticipated that the running back would become the center of attention; after the season ended, people still did not expect it, but it happened nonetheless.

When the wave of heated discussions could not find topics from quarterbacks and the defensive group, the running backs, who had been ignored and overlooked, entered the spotlight.

Once it started, there was simply no stopping—

On the rushing yards leaderboard.

Li Wei, 1888 yards.

Tolli, 1305 yards.

Bell, 1291 yards.

McCoy, 1138 yards.

Ingram, 1124 yards.

Regrettably, Peterson was out for the season due to injury, Lynch seemed unable to find his form after coming out of retirement, and last season's rushing champion, Blount, performed modestly, resulting in a complete overhaul of the leaderboard.

Li Wei powerfully ascended to the top, crowning himself with the honor of his career's first regular-season rushing champion.

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On the rushing touchdowns leaderboard.

Li Wei, 20.

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Tolli, 13.

Ingram, 12.

And the numbers of touchdowns for other running backs all fell short of reaching double digits, unfortunately.

Li Wei unquestionably became the season's touchdown king.

The ascent was not just about reaching the top, but doing so with an overwhelming dominance. This year's running backs should be divided into Li Wei and everyone else. Li Wei broke the rookie running back record that had been sealed for thirty years with an unbelievable manner and made all other running backs pale in comparison.

What's more, the figures mentioned above were achieved by all other players in sixteen games, while Li Wei played in only fifteen games. He did not even take the field in the last week, but he still completely dominated both leaderboards.

This was no ordinary dominance.

However, running backs are slightly different from other football positions; they are always in contact and must break through using their bodies, so their stats can't be judged by rushing yards and touchdowns alone.

Two other very important key metrics are used to measure the ability of running backs:

First, average yards per carry.

Second, number of fumbles.

Like wide receivers and tight ends, the number of times running backs carry the ball is relatively limited, so their efficiency per carry and mistake control are unignorable metrics in measuring a running back's personal ability.

A running back rushing for a thousand yards sounds impressive, but if it takes four hundred carries, averaging 2.5 yards per attempt, then it's a disaster. One can imagine that team's ground offense must be quite dreadful.

And then, there's the case of a running back who performs well but suffers from occasional 'Butterfingers', resulting in fumbles. One mistake could jeopardize all the effort of the entire team, which is even more disheartening.

Naturally, before the whole league was ready to place Li Wei on the throne, professionals and seasoned fans needed to calmly assess—

Li Wei's dazzling performances in both the Alabama Crimson Tide Storm and Kansas City Chiefs, were they based on personal ability, or the team's system?