QB Performance Plots for NFL Week 12: Brady Shines on Turkey Day

• 0 comments - NFL - posted by Gregory Matthews on November 28, 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.

The first thing that stands out in this week’s graphic is the large number of passing yards Matt Stafford and Tony Romo amassed on Thanksgiving day. In fact, they tied for the lead in passing yards in Week 12 with 441 yards each, but still managed to turn in mediocre games according to passer rating.

Stafford finished with a rating of 85.5, narrowly edging out Romo’s 84.1. The most important stat for these two, however, is zero: the total number of wins between the two of them on Thanksgiving. 882 total passing yards between the two and zero wins.

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

Leading all quarterback’s this week was Tom Brady with a 139.4 passer rating on 18 of 28 passing for 323 yards, no interceptions and three passing touchdowns (he also ran one in) in a 49-19 victory over the New York Jets.

Brady was immediately followed by Robert Griffin III who posted a passer rating of 132.6.  RGIII completed 20 of his 28 passes for 311 yards while throwing four touchdowns and only one interception. He also added 29 yards rushing on six attempts.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Cam Newton this week. Despite finishing with just the fourth highest passer rating in week 12, Newton probably had the best game of any quarterback. He rushed for 52 yards on 14 attempts and turned in a passer rating of 125.0, on 18 of 28 passing for 306 yards.

Even more impressive, he accounted for four total touchdowns, two passing and two rushing, and didn’t turn the ball over at all.

This week’s worst performances belonged to Charlie Batch and Ryan Lindley with respective passer ratings of 38.7 and 44.7. Between the two of them they completed just less than 60% of their passes, which alone isn’t terrible. Unfortunately, they managed to combine for seven interceptions while contributing no touchdowns.

Finally, I have to mention Brady Quinn, whose plot is barely visible. He struggled to complete just 13 of his 25 passes for a mere 126 yards of passing, with no touchdowns and a pick. That dismal performance was still good for a slightly better passer rating (49.8) than Lindley and Batch. Overall, these reserve quarterbacks clearly demonstrated why they deserved that status.