by Aaron Schatz

When the San Francisco 49ers became a playoff team again two years ago, many football fans must have felt like the order of the universe had finally fallen into place again. Those few years where the 49ers were a terrible team made no sense. The San Francisco 49ers are supposed to be good every single year. Many of us became football fans during that long, historic streak where the 49ers won double-digit games every single season from 1983 through 1998. One of the best of those years was 1989, the year Bill Walsh turned the reins of the team over to former defensive coordiantor George Seifert. The defending champion 49ers outscored opponents by nearly 200 points and went 14-2 on their way to their fourth Super Bowl title. It is not a shock that the 49ers are way ahead of the rest of the league now that we have broken down all of the play-by-play from the 1989 season to create DVOA and DYAR ratings.

Every year or so we've gone back and added an old year to our archives, but this time, we got to break down two years of old play-by-play simultaneously. We'll introduce the 1989 ratings today and the 1990 ratings tomorrow. Of course, this all could not have been done without the amazing hard work of Jeremy Snyder, who has transcribed tons of gamebooks and even watched and marked new play-by-play off of old videotapes for games that no longer have gamebooks in existence. Jeremy also went through and took some great notes on interesting plays and facts about the 1989 season, which you'll find later on in this essay.

One indication of just how remarkable the 1989 49ers season was is that they lost only two games by a combined five points: 13-12 to the Rams in Week 4 and 21-17 to the Packers in Week 11. Both games were at Candlestick Park. In fact, the Rams game was the only game that the 49ers played at Candlestick Park until November, due to the World Series Earthquake. They were actually scheduled to start the year with three games on the road. Because the San Francisco Baseball Giants needed Candlestick Park for postseason baseball, the 49ers' Week 5 game was moved to New Orleans with the later Week 9 game moved from New Orleans to San Francisco, while their Week 7 game with the Patriots came five days after the earthquake and was played at Stanford.

The 49ers led the league with 36.0% total DVOA in 1989, which ranks as the ninth best season in DVOA history and was nearly 12 percentage points ahead of second-place Cleveland. (The idea of 9-6-1 Cleveland finishing second is weird in and of itself, but we'll get to that in a bit.) This is the fourth-largest gap between No. 1 and No. 2 in the database, trailing only 1991 (Washington over San Francisco), 2007 (New England over Indianapolis), and 1996 (Green Bay over San Francisco). The 49ers ranked fifth in defensive DVOA, but what really drove them to the championship was their offense, which was significantly ahead of the rest of the league.

The 49ers' offensive dominance spread all across our positional ratings for 1989. That starts with Jerry Rice, who's standard stats of 82 catches, 1,483 yards, and 17 touchdowns worked out to 563 receiving DYAR. This is the fourth-best season by a wide receiver in our database (the top three, of course, were discussed in an article just a week ago). Rice would rank even higher if we didn't ding him for an easy schedule; his 1989 total of 590 YAR is the highest ever. This marks four years so far where Rice leads the league in wide receiver DYAR: 1989, 1994, 1996, and -- SPOILER ALERT! -- 1990.

Rice is only second in the league in DVOA (minimum 50 passes), because his running mate John Taylor had a fabulous 56.3% DVOA with 80 percent catch rate on 75 pass attempts. This is the best receiving DVOA ever for a wide receiver with at least targets, although it still ranks slightly behind that totally out-of-career-pattern 60.5% DVOA year Dennis Northcutt had with 51 targets in 2002. Tight end Brent Jones didn't lead his position in DYAR or DVOA, but he was second with 133 DYAR and fourth with 29.3% DVOA.

When your receivers are this good, your quarterbacks are probably going to be equally as good (and vice versa). Joe Montana led the league with 1,381 passing DYAR in only 13 games. This is the first year we have where Montana leads the league in DYAR, and it is very unlikely to be the last. Montana also led the league with 123 rushing DYAR, gaining 262 yards on 32 runs (which I assume were mostly scrambles; they weren't marked that way back then). When Montana was out, Steve Young came in, and his 48.3% passing DVOA led all quarterbacks with at least 100 passes, although he narrowly makes that minimum at 105 passes.

The one position where the 49ers are missing from the league leaders? Running back, suggesting that the importance of passing over rushing was as true 25 years ago as it is now. The 49ers were fourth in run DVOA at 7.8%, but compare that to the power of their pass offense, which was at 51.7%.

And yet, with all that being said, it's interesting to see just how big the difference was between "dominant offense" in 1989 and "dominant offense" in today's NFL. San Francisco's offensive DVOA of 26.2% doesn't even make the all-time top 20, and it pales in comparison to the ratings over 40% that the New England Patriots put up in 2007 and 2010. Remember, DVOA is now normalized for each individual season, so this has nothing to do with overall offensive levels being lower 25 years ago. The gap between the best offenses and the average offenses of today is just much, much larger than the gap between the best offenses and the average offenses of 20-25 years ago.

* * * * *

Here are the Football Outsiders team efficiency ratings for 1989, measured by our proprietary Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA) system that breaks down every single play and compares a team's performance to the league averaged based on situation and opponent in order to determine value over average. (Explained further here.)

DVOA represents adjusted statistics. OFFENSE and DEFENSE DVOA are adjusted for opponent quality and to consider all fumbles, kept or lost, as equal value. SPECIAL TEAMS DVOA is adjusted for type of stadium (warm, cold, dome, Denver) and week of season. NON-ADJ TOTAL VOA does not include these adjustments. DVOA is a better indicator of team quality. VOA is a better indicator of actual wins. WEIGHTED DVOA gives a stronger consideration to games late in the season. Remember that, as always, defense is better when it is NEGATIVE.

TEAM TOTAL

DVOA NON-ADJ

TOT VOA W-L OFFENSE

DVOA OFF.

RANK DEFENSE

DVOA DEF.

RANK S.T.

DVOA S.T.

RANK 1 SF 36.0% 39.9% 14-2 26.2% 1 -11.5% 5 -1.7% 21 2 CLE1 24.4% 19.0% 9-6-1 5.2% 8 -16.9% 3 2.3% 7 3 LARM 19.9% 20.1% 11-5 17.3% 3 -2.0% 13 0.6% 13 4 DEN 19.0% 21.0% 11-5 1.8% 13 -16.6% 4 0.6% 14 5 MIN 18.0% 20.8% 10-6 0.3% 16 -17.8% 2 -0.1% 16 6 NYG 16.4% 16.0% 12-4 0.9% 14 -9.4% 7 6.1% 1 7 BUF 15.3% 15.5% 9-7 7.2% 7 -6.8% 10 1.2% 8 8 PHI 11.5% 15.8% 11-5 -3.6% 17 -18.9% 1 -3.8% 25 9 CIN 11.5% 7.5% 8-8 17.5% 2 -2.0% 14 -7.9% 28 10 WAS 11.4% 16.5% 10-6 9.5% 5 -2.1% 12 -0.2% 17 11 CHI 9.6% 0.8% 6-10 9.7% 4 1.2% 17 1.1% 9 12 NO 9.2% 11.5% 9-7 2.1% 12 -4.0% 11 3.1% 5 13 KC 7.7% 9.4% 8-7-1 0.4% 15 -10.4% 6 -3.1% 24 14 LARD 4.8% 5.2% 8-8 2.8% 11 1.0% 16 3.0% 6 TEAM TOTAL

DVOA NON-ADJ

TOT VOA W-L OFFENSE

DVOA OFF.

RANK DEFENSE

DVOA DEF.

RANK S.T.

DVOA S.T.

RANK 15 GB -0.1% 3.2% 10-6 8.9% 6 8.3% 20 -0.7% 19 16 SD -2.7% -5.3% 6-10 -3.7% 18 -7.7% 8 -6.6% 27 17 IND -7.2% -2.0% 8-8 -14.2% 25 -7.0% 9 0.1% 15 18 PIT -8.7% -12.0% 9-7 -13.4% 24 0.2% 15 4.9% 3 19 DET -11.4% -12.5% 7-9 -15.6% 26 1.8% 18 6.0% 2 20 HOIL -11.8% -10.4% 9-7 3.3% 10 10.6% 22 -4.5% 26 21 TB -13.5% -15.8% 5-11 -7.2% 21 3.4% 19 -2.9% 22 22 MIA -13.9% -11.6% 8-8 4.7% 9 18.3% 28 -0.3% 18 23 NE -16.7% -18.1% 5-11 -4.3% 19 13.4% 23 0.9% 11 24 ATL -21.6% -24.4% 3-13 -6.3% 20 16.3% 27 1.0% 10 25 SEA -23.0% -24.2% 7-9 -10.4% 23 9.6% 21 -3.0% 23 26 NYJ -25.5% -28.2% 4-12 -8.7% 22 16.0% 26 -0.8% 20 27 PHX -26.8% -26.8% 5-11 -16.9% 27 13.5% 24 3.7% 4 28 DAL -36.2% -35.3% 1-15 -23.3% 28 13.6% 25 0.7% 12

ESTIMATED WINS uses a statistic known as "Forest Index" that emphasizes consistency as well as DVOA in the most important specific situations: red zone defense, first quarter offense, and performance in the second half when the score is close. It then projects a number of wins adjusted to a league-average schedule and a league-average rate of recovering fumbles.

uses a statistic known as "Forest Index" that emphasizes consistency as well as DVOA in the most important specific situations: red zone defense, first quarter offense, and performance in the second half when the score is close. It then projects a number of wins adjusted to a league-average schedule and a league-average rate of recovering fumbles. WEIGHTED DVOA is adjusted so that earlier games in the season become gradually less important. It better reflects how the team was playing at the end of the season.

is adjusted so that earlier games in the season become gradually less important. It better reflects how the team was playing at the end of the season. 1989 SCHEDULE lists average DVOA of opponents played this season, ranked from hardest schedule (#1, most positive) to easiest schedule (#28, most negative).

lists average DVOA of opponents played this season, ranked from hardest schedule (#1, most positive) to easiest schedule (#28, most negative). PYTHAGOREAN WINS represent a projection of the team's expected wins based solely on points scored and allowed.

represent a projection of the team's expected wins based solely on points scored and allowed. VARIANCE measures the statistical variance of the team's weekly DVOA performance. Teams are ranked from most consistent (#1, lowest variance) to least consistent (#28, highest variance).

TEAM TOTAL

DVOA W-L ESTIM.

WINS RANK WEIGHTED

DVOA RANK

1989

SCHED RANK PYTH

WINS RANK VAR. RANK 1 SF 36.0% 14-2 12.9 1 42.9% 1 -2.0% 22 12.8 1 11.9% 7 2 CLE1 24.4% 9-6-1 10.5 5 16.7% 6 -3.6% 25 10.5 5 23.4% 25 3 LARM 19.9% 11-5 10.7 3 22.4% 2 -0.4% 16 10.1 10 14.5% 15 4 DEN 19.0% 11-5 10.5 4 18.8% 4 0.6% 12 12.0 2 10.5% 4 5 MIN 18.0% 10-6 10.2 6 21.8% 3 0.7% 11 10.3 8 17.8% 19 6 NYG 16.4% 12-4 11.6 2 13.6% 8 -1.2% 17 10.9 4 8.8% 3 7 BUF 15.3% 9-7 9.3 9 17.2% 5 -5.5% 27 10.5 6 14.5% 16 8 PHI 11.5% 11-5 9.5 8 11.0% 9 0.0% 13 10.1 11 7.8% 2 9 CIN 11.5% 8-8 9.1 11 8.4% 12 -0.4% 15 11.2 3 25.7% 27 10 WAS 11.4% 10-6 10.0 7 10.9% 10 -5.5% 28 10.2 9 11.0% 5 11 CHI 9.6% 6-10 9.0 12 -4.5% 17 3.2% 6 7.5 16 20.5% 24 12 NO 9.2% 9-7 9.2 10 10.7% 11 -0.2% 14 10.4 7 18.0% 20 13 KC 7.7% 8-7-1 8.6 14 14.7% 7 -3.3% 23 9.0 12 13.3% 12 14 LARD 4.8% 8-8 8.7 13 0.5% 15 -1.8% 20 8.6 13 19.2% 21 TEAM TOTAL

DVOA W-L ESTIM.

WINS RANK WEIGHTED

DVOA RANK

1989

SCHED RANK PYTH

WINS RANK VAR. RANK 15 GB -0.1% 10-6 8.2 15 1.5% 14 -1.9% 21 8.2 14 13.0% 10 16 SD -2.7% 6-10 7.8 16 5.3% 13 -1.5% 19 7.2 17 14.6% 17 17 IND -7.2% 8-8 7.0 18 -12.8% 21 0.9% 10 7.9 15 13.6% 13 18 PIT -8.7% 9-7 7.6 17 -5.5% 18 1.2% 8 6.1 21 36.3% 28 19 DET -11.4% 7-9 7.0 19 -0.4% 16 1.3% 7 6.5 20 19.4% 22 20 HOIL -11.8% 9-7 6.7 20 -12.5% 20 3.2% 4 6.8 18 23.8% 26 21 TB -13.5% 5-11 6.2 22 -24.8% 25 4.8% 2 5.4 22 19.4% 23 22 MIA -13.9% 8-8 6.3 21 -12.2% 19 -4.6% 26 6.7 19 12.0% 9 23 NE -16.7% 5-11 5.6 23 -12.9% 22 -3.6% 24 5.4 23 11.9% 8 24 ATL -21.6% 3-13 3.9 26 -24.7% 24 3.2% 5 4.0 26 7.6% 1 25 SEA -23.0% 7-9 4.3 24 -23.9% 23 6.5% 1 5.3 24 13.2% 11 26 NYJ -25.5% 4-12 4.1 25 -26.0% 26 1.0% 9 3.8 27 15.1% 18 27 PHX -26.8% 5-11 3.9 27 -29.6% 28 -1.4% 18 4.6 25 13.9% 14 28 DAL -36.2% 1-15 2.7 28 -28.6% 27 3.9% 3 2.8 28 11.8% 6

DVOA for 1989 is now listed in the stats pages:

So, what about that Cleveland Browns team that was a distant second behind San Francisco in DVOA? There was still a reasonably-sized gap between the Browns and the rest of the league, but that certainly does not jive with public perception of that Browns team or what happened to them the following year. The 1989 season is seen as the beginning of the Browns' downfall after their successful years of the late 1980s. With new head coach Bud Carson replacing the fired Marty Schottenheimer, the Browns only went 9-6-1, although they did manage to advance to the AFC Championship game. They lost there to Denver for the third time in four years. This is the one of those three games that doesn't have a special nickname, as Denver won easily 37-21. (The Browns had the higher DVOA rating, but this certainly was not an upset by Football Outsiders standards, given that the Broncos had home-field advantage.)

By advanced stats, the Browns were certainly better than their record. Not only are they No. 2 in DVOA, but they finished fifth with 10.5 Pythagorean wins. Trying to figure out the gap between advanced stats and public perception is really difficult here. A lot of the perception problem is probably about defense. The Browns of the late 1980s aren't thought of now as a great defense, but they finished third in defensive DVOA behind Philadelphia (featuring many of the same players who would lead the Eagles to the all-time best defensive DVOA two years later) and Minnesota. Defensive tackle Michael Dean Perry was an All-Pro while outside linebacker Clay Matthews Sr., middle linebacker Mike Johnson, and cornerback Frank Minnifield all made the Pro Bowl. Minnifield's partner Hanford Dixon was pretty good too.

Some of the gap between perception and reality has to do with an absolutely horrendous record of fumble recovery on offense, where the Browns recovered only five of their own 19 fumbles. Defense was better but still a little slanted, with the Browns recovering 11 of 25 fumbles. However, there isn't a schedule issue here, as the Browns finished 25th with one of the easiest schedules in the league. And the Browns' advanced stats aren't totally skewed by a bunch of close losses and huge wins. The Browns beat the Steelers 51-0 in Week 1, which gives us one of our best (Cleveland, 149.2%) and worst (Pittsburgh, -158.5%) single-game DVOA ratings ever. But they had only one other win by more than two touchdowns, and they were a not-horrible 3-4-1 in games decided by a touchdown or less.

Making this Browns team even more confusing is that usually you would expect a team which looks better in DVOA or Pythagorean wins than it does in regular wins to do better the following year. Instead, the Browns completely imploded. They lost only four starters on offense and two on defense, plus their offensive coordinator, some guy named Marc Trestman. Still -- here's a second spoiler alert on 1990 -- they plummeted from 9-6-1 to 3-13 and from second in total DVOA to 26th out of 28 teams. We'll explore the Browns' collapse more when we get to 1990. Maybe there was something in the water that year, as both the Rams and Broncos collapsed as well after being strong in 1989.

Returning to discussion of that Browns-Steelers game, it's actually a bit surprising how extreme these DVOA ratings are given that Cleveland scored three of their touchdowns on turnover recoveries and were stopped inside the 10 and forced to kick a field goal three times. (OK, not forced, but coaches weren't any more aggressive in 1989 than they are now.) Bubby Brister was 10-for-22 with three picks that day and the Steelers fumbled six times, five recovered by the Browns. One of the other greatest DVOA mismatches of all-time came 10 years later, also in Week 1, also with the same two teams. Sort of.

After losing their first two games by a combined 92-10, the Steelers ended up in the playoffs. Going into the last week of the season, the Steelers needed to win on the road in Tampa Bay and have the Colts, Bengals, and Raiders all lose in order to make the postseason. All the dominoes fell the right way, with the Bengals losing in the final Monday Night Football game to a Minnesota team that had to win in order to beat out Green Bay for a division title. The Steelers were only 18th in DVOA, but their wild card opponent Houston was just 20th, and the Steelers beat them before losing to Denver the next week. This Pittsburgh team is also known for the fact that the NBC directors were completely obsessed with showing shots of Bubby Brister's mom in the stands.

The 1989 Bears were the best of the losing teams, combining a hard schedule and some bad luck to go 6-10 despite finishing 11th in total DVOA. The Packers, meanwhile, finished 15th in total DVOA -- that's the bottom half of a 28-team league, remember -- despite going 10-6, while the Dolphins were 22nd in DVOA despite going 8-8. The 1-15 Cowboys were dead last in DVOA, which will surprise nobody. Of course, we know now what that team would turn into.

The 12-4 Giants led the league on special teams, followed by the Detroit Lions and the Steelers. The Lions' No. 2 special teams were pretty much entirely Eddie Murray. Murray hit 20 of 21 field goals and all 36 extra points in a year where field-goal kickers around the league averaged just 72.5 percent. In FO stats, despite a penalty for kicking indoors, Murray comes out as being worth 16.7 points more than an average field-goal kicker would be worth from the same distances. The next-best kicker of the season was Chris Jacke of Green Bay at 6.8 points above average. That's a gap, kids.

And yet, the Lions also would have led the league in special teams if not for Eddie Murray. Murray was the worst kickoff man in the league, finishing dead last with minus-10.1 points of gross kickoff value. (The Lions were better in net kickoff value, 22nd, because they had good coverage teams.) Near the end of the season, Wayne Fontes had Murray go out and kick a 36-yard field goal with 20 seconds left and the Lions beating Tampa Bay 30-0, telling reporters afterwards he was trying to get Murray into the Pro Bowl. The Lions actually lost the shutout when Joe Ferguson threw a 69-yard touchdown to Mark Carrier on the last play of the game, but Murray made the Pro Bowl because a) he was awesome on field goals and b) nobody pays attention to kickoff distance except Football Outsiders, and I was 15 years old at the time.

Now let's take a look at the best and worst players by position:

Quarterbacks: Jim Everett, not yet driven to insanity by Jim Rome, finished second behind Montana with 1,360 DYAR. The top five is rounded out by Boomer Esiason, Warren Moon, and Mark Rypien. (In case you thought that the 1991 Rypien was a one-year wonder, he wasn't.) Some legendary quarterbacks had down seasons in 1989, including Dan Marino (875 DYAR, sixth); Jim Kelly (478 DYAR, 10th); and John Elway (202 DYAR, 19th). And way down at the bottom of the league is the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, rookie Troy Aikman, with -299 passing DYAR, built off a combination of nine touchdowns and 18 interceptions with just 6.0 yards per attempt. Clearly this was not all Aikman's fault, as backup Steve Walsh is 36th out of 39 quarterbacks with -138 DYAR.

You may have read a stat we commonly give when discussing struggling young quarterbacks: it is very rare for a quarterback to play below replacement level in his first two seasons and eventually improve to the point where he is a legitimate NFL starter. Until we ran 1989 and 1990, the best quarterback by far who qualified for this statement was Alex Smith. Here's another spoiler alert for the 1990 ratings: Troy Aikman is now way, way beyond Alex Smith as the best quarterback who ever was below replacement level in his first two seasons, combining for -550 DYAR in years one and two.

Quarterbacks making their first-ever appearances in the FO database include Doug Williams (-8.8% DVOA on 95 passes) and Ron Jaworski (-27.6% DVOA on 64 passes).

Running Backs: Chicago's Neal Anderson led all running backs with 254 rushing DYAR, boosted in part by a difficult schedule of opposing run defenses. The Bears played each of the top four run defenses that season, and Minnesota and Detroit were both in the top ten. Anderson is in a virtual tie with Cincinnati's James Brooks at 250 rushing DYAR. Barry Sanders is third. Ernest Byner is fourth; he also led all backs with at least 100 carries with 24.8% DVOA and was second with 61 percent Success Rate. Christian Okoye, who led the league with 370 carries and 1,480 yards, was fifth in DYAR.

Bo Jackson was sixth with 175 rushing DYAR. If you prorate that from 11 games to a full 16, he would narrowly lead the league at 255. This is sort of Jackson's first time appearing in DVOA (the first time I'm writing about it) and sort of not (since he played in 1990 also). I didn't realize what a boom-and-bust back he was. In fact, Jackson may surpass Barry Sanders as the greatest boom-and-bust back of all-time because I'm not sure Jackson can blame his offensive line. Jackson finished 37th out of 42 running backs with 43 percent Success Rate, but he had so many great long runs that he ended up third with 17.1% DVOA. Meanwhile, teammate Steve Smith was fourth with a 57 percent Success Rate, and Marcus Allen had a 59 percent Success Rate on 69 carries, but both finished behind Jackson in DVOA.

Jackson gets just 51 DYAR for the first of his two famous Cincinnati games, the one with a 92-yard touchdown run featuring amazing change of direction (see video). Six of Jackson's 13 carries in that game gained three yards or fewer.

The lowest rushing DYAR of the year belongs to "the other" Curt Warner at the end of his strong career, as he gained just 3.3 yards per carry. Almost as low in DYAR, with fewer carries, was Phoenix's Tony Jordan, who gained just 211 yards on 83 carries. That's 2.5 yards per carry for -91 DYAR and -35.6% DVOA.

Thurman Thomas led all running backs with 254 receiving DYAR, followed by Dalton Hilliard and Dave Meggett.

Wide Receivers: As noted earlier, Jerry Rice and John Taylor were first and third in receiving DYAR. Sterling Sharpe was second with 425 DYAR, while the Los Angeles Rams duo of Flipper Anderson and Henry Ellard Is My Personal Pet Hall of Fame Candidate finished fourth and fifth. Anderson got 160 of his 341 DYAR in the Week 12 game against New Orleans where he set the all-time single-game receiving yardage record with 336 yards. That total doesn't include 35 yards he gained on a Defensive Pass Interference call, and it doesn't consider the fact that the Saints were actually a slightly above-average pass defense in 1989. Our stats do consider these things, which is why Anderson's game surpasses Jimmy Smith's 141-DYAR game against the 2000 Ravens as the greatest wide receiver game in DVOA/DYAR history.

Walter Stanley of Detroit was dead last with -161 receiving DYAR and his -47.8% receiving DVOA is the second-lowest ever for a wideout with at least 50 targets. He caught 24 of 60 passes for just 304 yards with two fumbles and no touchdowns. It wasn't all bad; he did lead the league with 13.8 yards per punt return, which was the other reason the Lions had such good special teams besides Eddie Murray's field-goal percentage.

And in the latest edition of DVOA Loves Michael Irvin, the second-year receiver played only six games due to injury but at -0.3% had the second-best receiving DVOA on the Cowboys, trailing only fullback Daryl Johnston at 15.7%.

Tight Ends: Rodney Holman of Cincinnati led the league with 206 receiving DYAR as a tight end, and was second in DVOA (minimum 25 passes) behind Mike Dyal of the Raiders. Behind Holman, Jones, and Dyal to complete the DYAR top five were Keith Jackson and Mickey Shuler, with Mark Bavaro sixth. The lowest receiving DYAR for a tight end, by more than 50, belonged to Jay Novacek in his fifth and last year with the Cardinals. I have to admit that I didn't even remember that Jay Novacek had played for the Cardinals, let alone for five years. If you consider how much better he was with Dallas, and you consider that he had a 43 percent catch rate as a tight end, then wow, he must have been the king of all unfortunate dumpoff outlets. The previous low for receiving DVOA by a tight end with at least 50 pass targets was -36.2% by Robert Royal in 2008. Novacek was at -47.7% on 53 targets.

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Here are some more fun tidbits about the 1989 season. Thanks again to Jeremy Snyder for putting these all together and finding video.

1989 is the first year back in the database with no bye weeks. For those curious about the technical aspects of DVOA, we fooled our Excel macros by telling them that every team had a bye week in Week 17.

If you want some nostalgia, here are the NFL Primetime highlights from Week 1 of 1989 and here are some from Week 13.

On the Week 1 telecast of Falcons-Rams, Falcons cornerback Bobby Butler gave his list of the top wide receivers in the NFL. He had Mike Quick first, ahead of Jerry Rice. Mike Quick had 22 receptions for 508 yards in 1988, and had 22 receptions the rest of his career.

The Chargers got stuck with a safety on a punt return in Week 1 when Victor Floyd muffed a punt, tried to take it out of the end zone, and then retreated.

In a case of the Raiders being the Raiders, a Week 3 game against Denver featured three offensive holding calls that moved the Raiders from second-and-9 on the Denver 12 to second-and-40 on the Denver 43. (The last one was walked off slightly too far by the officials.)

In another, much better case of the Raiders being the Raiders, Los Angeles made Art Shell the first African-American head coach in modern NFL history when he replaced Mike Shanahan in Week 5.

The Steelers moved offensive tackle Mike Hinnant to tight end at halftime of their Week 5 game against the Bengals, changing his number in-game from 67 to 81, then cut him after the game.

from 67 to 81, then cut him after the game. At the beginning of the fourth quarter of the Week 7 Denver at Seattle game, with the Seahawks leading 14-7, punter Ruben Rodriguez punted the ball so high and so short that it landed two yards behind the line of scrimmage despite going untouched by the punt blocking team. The Broncos took over at their own 40, scored a game-tying touchdown, and won the game in overtime when Dave Krieg threw an interception from his own 15 and Dave Treadwell kicked a 27-yard field goal.

the line of scrimmage despite going untouched by the punt blocking team. The Broncos took over at their own 40, scored a game-tying touchdown, and won the game in overtime when Dave Krieg threw an interception from his own 15 and Dave Treadwell kicked a 27-yard field goal. Not to be outdone, in Week 14 Detroit's Jim Arnold punted the ball into the back of teammate John Miller, leading to a punt that officially travelled minus-10 yards.

The Saints had a U.Johnson, a V.Johnson, and a W.Johnson on their roster for the Week 8 game with Atlanta. The official scorer made no attempt to make any distinction between the three players and we hate him.

In Week 9, the Packers scored a go-ahead touchdown on a last-minute fourth-down pass from Don Majkowski to Sterling Sharpe, the first time in history officials used instant replay on a play that would determine who won the game (video here).

Great Annals of Wussy Punting: In Week 11 Sam Wyche had the Bengals punt on fourth-and-4 from the Lions' 27. Not surprisingly, it was a touchback.

Legend of Buddy Ryan Part I: In Week 11, the Eagles were beating Minnesota 10-9 with 15 seconds left and faced fourth-and-22 at their own 24. Ryan, wanting to protect against a blocked punt or a long return and knowing that a penalty for too many men on the field and replay of the down would only take more time off the clock, sent out a punt unit with 14 (or 15, history seems to be unsure) players. Officials completely failed to notice and Ryan was fined in the offseason only after bragging about his "Polish Punt Team."

Legend of Buddy Ryan Part II: The Bounty Bowl, Thanksgiving Day. I feel like we need to bring Mike Tanier back to even try to do that one justice, but here's some video discussing it.

Legend of Buddy Ryan Part III: On a frigid, windy day in New Jersey, Ryan had Randall Cunningham punt on fourth-and-33 from the Eagles' 2-yard line in the fourth quarter. The punt went 91 yards to the Giants' 7-yard line and was returned only to the 16. Again, this was fourth down, so this wasn't even a surprise punt that just bounced around behind the entire defense. Cunningham's leg and the wind were both that strong. Video here.

Newspaper quotes we would never see in today's NFL, from Jets-Steelers in Week 14: "[Al Toon] made a juggling reception with his arms extended, took one step, then was cracked helmet to chin by Steelers safety Thomas Everett. As Toon lay on the Giants Stadium turf, linebacker Greg Lloyd, trailing the play, rolled over Toon and counted him out wrestling style. 'I gave him a 1-2-3 count like wrassling. I was trying to spark my teammates." Toon, for those who do not know, retired early due to concussion symptoms.

In case you were wondering how much Sam Wyche and Jerry Glanville hated each other, the Bengals beat the Oilers 61-7 in Week 15. They ran an onside kick with the score 45-0, used the punter to kick an extra point out of spite, and kicked a field goal with the score 58-7 and 25 seconds left. Tune in to the 1990 ratings and commentary for another installment of "Sam Wyche and Jerry Glanville hate each other."

The Week 16 Dolphins-Chiefs game was played in 39-degree weather with snow flurries. It was, and we are not kidding you here, a Miami home game. Joe Namath was on color commentary for NBC and did not attempt to kiss anyone despite the festive holiday spirit.

And now, a quick note on where the 1989-1990 stats will and will not appear. The 1989 pages are all up and the 1990 pages will be up tomorrow. However, the 1989-1990 stats have not yet been added to either the premium team stats database or the premium player pages, and we have not yet been able to create player pages for those players whose careers ended in 1989 or 1990. These items are on a long to-do list that also includes

Updating the 2012 stats on our site to reflect all post-season play-by-play changes and match those given in Football Outsiders Almanac 2013

Fixing an error where non-adjusted VOA is listed incorrectly on past team offense and team defense pages

Fixing all passing and receiving stats to reflect the new versions that correct a mistake that incorrectly gave players value on some interceptions

Introducing expanded drive stats and new pace stats pages

(In the much longer term) producing updated DVOA/DYAR stats for the postseason and listing those stats in our premium database

The arrival of the new season sort of interrupts this work, but we'll certainly have the 2012 stats updated by Thursday when the Ravens and Broncos kick off, and we'll try to get to the rest of this as soon as we can.

Return tomorrow for our unveiling of 1990 DVOA ratings, the long-awaited ratings for Tecmo Super Bowl.