QB Performance Plots For NFL Week 11: RGIII Throws A Perfect Game

• 0 comments - NFL - posted by Gregory Matthews on November 21, 2012

This is a guest post by Greg Matthews (Twitter: @StatsInTheWild), founder of Stats In The Wild, a blog focused on sports analytics and data visualization. If you’re interested in guest posting on TeamRankings, email us your post and we’ll consider it.

When I first looked at this weeks graphic there were two aspects that stood out. The first was the Robert Griffin III had an absolutely tremendous game and the second is that Matt Schaub has a ton of passing yards.

Let’s start with RGIII. 14 completions on 15 attempts for 200 yards, 4 touchdowns and no interceptions. What more can you ask from this rookie? That’s pretty much a perfect stat line. In fact, according to passer rating, it was perfect: 158.3. (And passer rating doesn’t even factor in his 84 rushing yards on 12 attempts.)

(Just click on the graphic below to enlarge it…)

Griffin joins a pretty elite list of quarterbacks who have had a “perfect” passing game.  The last five quarterback’s to complete a game with a perfect passer rating, the 158.3 club if you will, were Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Eli Manning (though he left the game at halftime), Kurt Warner, and Ben Roethlisberger. It might as well be a list of Super Bowl winning quarterbacks.

In fact, in my quick count, 10 of the last 13 Super Bowls have been won by a team with a quarterback in the 158.3 club. The point I’m trying to make here is that as a rookie, RGIII looks like a pretty darn good quarterback.

Another notable performance of the week was Matt Schaub. Schaub completed 43 of 55 pass attempts compiling 527 yards and 5 touchdowns to go along with 2 interceptions.

Of course, while those numbers are a fantasy players dream, they are likely a coach’s nightmare. For a quarterback to accumulate such stats usually means one thing: Your team was getting crushed and you needed to completely abandon the run to mount a comeback.

Which is exactly what Houston did, winning in overtime against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars.