Thorman’s Snaps and Pace: Week 2

Up In Pace | Slow-Paced Slogs | No-Huddle Notes

Welcome to the Week 2 edition of Snaps & Pace — back-to-back winner of the FSWA’s Best Football Series — where we examine trends in play volume and game pace. It is meant to be a 30,000-foot view of upcoming contests, while identifying main-slate matchups that will — and will not — be played on fertile fantasy soil. For a primer on why this is important, click here.

Hot damn, fantasyland is abuzz after Week 1 scoring was up. It was way up, in fact — averaging 24.7 points per team per game compared to 23.0 a season ago. Ominously, however, play volume was clearly down from already depressed levels. Offenses averaged only 60.8 snaps, versus 61.3 per game in 2025.

From less passing and lower aDOTs, to more tight ends and pre-snap motion, to Aaron Rodgers not shutting up and snapping it, we’ve discussed the myriad reasons why games are less voluminous. At least for one week, the trend continued in the wrong direction.

While we wait to bounce back from Week 1 play-volume doldrums — and it will rebound over the full season — at least we are still feeling that touchdown-fueled sugar high. It may not last even one more week, so let’s dive right in.

“Situation neutral” is meant to provide context and refers to plays while the game is within seven points during the first three quarters (minus the final two minutes of the first half). Neutral Pace (average play-clock seconds used), Neutral Pace Over Expected (POE), and Pass Rate Over Expected (PROE) are based on neutral game script and are provided by our data science team.

Up In Pace

New Orleans Saints at Baltimore Ravens

The Saints remain game-script cocaine. Even when things look bleak — as they did after Tyler Shough opened the second half of a sleepy 7-0 game in Detroit with an interception and lost fumble — it doesn’t take much New Orleans to wake up an afternoon. The Saints ripped touchdown, touchdown, field goal, touchdown, missed field goal, and touchdown (OT) on their final six possessions. That they even had six possessions from mid-third quarter onward is a testament to tempo. The Saints finished Week 1 first in neutral pace, just as they did last year while lapping the league. The New Orleans offense has issues, but those remain secondary to that sweet, volume-infusing pace. With a whopping 139 combined snaps before a 20-play overtime (2025 NFL pre-OT average: 121.8), there was more than enough for everyone to eat.

The Ravens’ skeleton receiving crew might need those extra opportunities, but don’t blame Lamar Jackson and Declan Doyle. The new QB/OC pairing blasted off in Indianapolis, scoring touchdowns on four of Baltimore’s opening five possessions — and reaching the 3-yard line on the other. The Ravens’ offense was brisk for a change, operating at the 12th-fastest neutral pace after years of plodding under John Harbaugh and friends. This is still primarily a run-based operation — especially with Zay Flowers hamstrung and Ja’Kobi Lane out — but getting in and out of the huddle quickly, along with the occasional quick-snap, will grind fewer play clocks to dust. Sprinkle on some Saints instead, and we should have ourselves a party.