Alright so today I wanted to dig into the Panthers vs Giants game stats after last Sunday’s matchup. Took me forever to find reliable play-by-play data that wasn’t behind some paywall or broken API. Seriously why’s this stuff gotta be so hard to get?
Starting The Whole Thing
First I fired up my laptop around 8am with cold coffee next to me. Opened like seven browser tabs trying to scrape * play-by-play before realizing their tables load dynamically. Felt like banging my head on the keyboard. Switched to official team PDF stats reports instead – should’ve started there honestly.
The QBs Were Messy
Tried comparing Bryce Young against Daniel Jones first. Stats were brutal:
- Jones got sacked SIX times before halftime
- Young only 4.3 yards per throw
- Neither broke 150 yards passing total
Scrapped that angle quick. Nobody wants to see quarterback misery porn.
Got sidetracked watching highlights when Chuba Hubbard broke that 24-yard run. Nearly spilled cold coffee on my mousepad.
Running Backs Saved My Butt
Finally found my focus when pulling RB stats:
- Hubbard carried 19 times for damn near 100 yards
- Giants Saquon Barkley looking vintage with 6.1 yards per carry
- That backup Gary Brightwell popped off too
Threw everything into spreadsheets that wouldn’t behave. Formulas kept breaking when I tried calculating yard-per-carry averages. Excel errors make me wanna throw things.
Wrapping This Mess Up
Took three coffee refills but finally got it working. Sorted everybody by total scrimmage yards. Top three weren’t surprising:
- Barkley (146 all-purpose)
- Hubbard (97 rushing)
- Thielen catching garbage time passes (86 yards)
Made a bar chart so ugly it’d make graphic designers cry. But hey it shows who actually moved the chains. Next time I’m just watching the damn game instead of overcomplicating spreadsheets at dawn.
