49ers Vs. Saints: Grass Vs. Turf Stats for Saints (Which May Mean Nothing)

By now we've all caught bits and pieces of things telling us how the Saints are a different team on grass than they are on turf, specifically their own turf inside the Super Dome (Mercedes Super Dome?). You can look at these things as foreshadowing what may happen tomorrow when the Saints play on the oft-slippery field inside Candlestick Park...or you can dismiss them, your choice.

At any rate, I found a bunch of statistics on the matter and thought I'd share them with you. Some of them are quite striking and I'd like to see if anyone has an explanation for them. Also, Fooch wont let me have a cookie until I do another post, so there's that.

After the jump, we dig in.

• On turf, the Saints complete 72.2% of their passes. On Grass they complete 69.6%.
• They average another 0.5 yards per attempt on turf, too.
• The Saints have eight INT's in 432 attempts on turf compared to six INT's in 230 attempts on grass. The INT% goes from 1.9 to 2.6.
• They've also allowed only 14 sacks in those 432 attempts on turf compared to 10 allowed in the 230 attempts on turf. That's nearly as many sacks in just over half the attempts.
• The QB rating on turf is 118.4 compared to 95.7 on grass. A difference, but both are pretty good.
• The biggest stat I noticed was TD%. The Saints have 37 TD's on turf in 430 attempts and just NINE TD's on grass in 230 attempts. The TD% is 8.6 on turf and 3.9 on grass.
• They also have 29 TD's at home, and 17 away for a difference of 9.5 TD% compared to 4.7%.

The home/away, indoors/outdoors, and turf/grass stats are all fairly consistent. They say that the Saints shouldn't be themselves at Candlestick this weekend. They'll still be pretty good, mind you, but not the same as they are indoors, at home, and/or on turf.

I still think we should ask fans to spill drinks intentionally onto the field before the game, or something like that...but whatever.

You can do some of your own research on the Saints statistical splits at ESPN's Saints page.