QB Performance Plots For NFL Week 5: Alex Smith, Professional Quarterback

October 10, 2012 - by Gregory Matthews

When I first saw the Week 5 graph, Alex Smith immediately caught my eye. In fact, I initially thought there was some error with the data, but, no, it was true. Smith was really damn good this past week.

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

Smith threw for 303 yards on only 24 pass attempts while completing 18 of them. This works out to 12.6 yards per passing attempt, which is the second-highest yards per attempt this year behind Cam Newton in Week 2 (counting only games with at least 20 pass attempts). Add three touchdown passes and no interceptions, and you’ve had yourself a pretty good week as a quarterback.

How good? Almost perfect according to QB rating. Smith’s rating was 156.2 out of a possible 158.3.

At the other end of the QB performance scale was Jacksonville’s quarterback, Blaine Gabbert. Gabbert is in the bottom row to the right of the four quarterbacks with byes in Week 5 (Freeman, Stafford, Romo, and Palmer).

You can barely see it, but Gabbert did actually play in a game this past weekend. He threw for 142 yards and 2 interceptions on 17 of 33 passing, for a QB rating of 37.7. This fabulous performance netted his team 3 total points on offense as the Jaguars fell to the Bears 41-3.

Not good.