Sports announcers and pundits love their clichés. Defense wins championships. You win the games in the trenches. The best teams are the teams that can run the ball. You have to keep the opposing quarterback off the field. Most of those clichés are related to the running game. Obviously, good teams usually are able to run the ball. They are also able to pass the ball and defend the other team as well.
So, looking at total offensive yards is a kind of a well duh kind of study. However, in this piece and the next one, we will break down offenses to see whether the run or the pass is actually the most related to winning.