Fans of the Seattle Seahawks have long lamented the team’s slow starts under Pete Carroll, under the premise that the offense probes to understand the opponent during the early portions of the game. Specifically, fans have long wanted to know how effective the scripting of the early plays in a contest are relative to the rest of the game. Thanks to NFLscrapR and analytics, we’re now able to take a look at this question from at least one angle.
Using all the play by play data for 2018, Twitter user Ryan Stimson pulled the Expected Points Added (EPA) numbers for the first fifteen plays of every offense in the NFL during the most recent season.