Week 5 Quick Reads

by Vincent Verhei

For many football fans, last Sunday served as a reminder of just how ugly the NFL can be. Not because of any anthem-related activities, nor because of the many injuries on what turned out to be a very bloody Sunday across the league. No, what made things so unpleasant for fans in the Deep South is that they were forced to watch Matt Cassel battle Jay Cutler for four miserable quarters in what appeared to be a race to the bottom of the passing statistical tables. The day ended, however, on a more exciting note, as Alex Smith and Deshaun Watson spent Sunday trading big plays back and forth. The game wasn't terribly dramatic -- Houston's win expectancy was never higher than 25 percent after the early portions of the second quarter, according to Pro Football Reference -- but for sheer yardage and touchdowns, there was no better quarterback matchup in Week 5. When the smoke cleared on Monday morning, it was no surprise to see that Smith and Watson held the top two spots in the Quick Reads tables, while Cassel and Cutler were both in the bottom three. (For our narrative, it would have been nice to simply say they were the two worst passers of the week, but you can always count on a Cleveland quarterback playing badly enough to screw things up for everyone.) We don't know how often that kind of thing has happened, but we do know matchups like this are not unprecedented. Going through our list of all-time great and all-time terrible quarterback games, we found 12 instances where quarterbacks on opposing teams both played to one extreme or another.

We'll begin with the bad matchups, and how Cassel and Cutler stack up historically. Cutler finished 12-of-26 for 92 yards with one touchdown, one interception, and one sack for 14 yards lost -- and Cutler and the Dolphins still won this game. Cassel went 21-of-32 for 141 yards with one touchdown, no interceptions, and six sacks for 22 yards lost. Add those numbers up, and you get a 57 percent completion rate and 3.0 net yards per play. Perhaps most depressing is that the two teams averaged only 7.1 yards per completion -- a terrible rate for a running back, let alone two entire teams' worth of tight ends and wide receivers. That left Cassel with -72 passing DYAR and Cutler with -97. As it turns out, that's nothing close to a historically bad game, mainly due to a general lack of interceptions. We found five games where both quarterbacks put up -200 DYAR or worse. In chronological order:

• Week 12, 1992, Detroit Lions 19 at Cincinnati Bengals 13: This game should have been played on Christmas -- both Detroit's Erik Kramer and Cincinnati's Boomer Esiason were 12-of-25 passing. Kramer's throws gained 141 yards with no touchdowns, three interceptions, and five sacks, while Esiason's produced only 64 yards (5.3 per completion! No completion gained more than 9 yards!) with no touchdowns, two interceptions, and three sacks.
• Week 4, 1994, Cincinnati Bengals 13 at Houston Oilers 20: Houston's Cody Carlson attempted 33 passes, completing only 12 of them for 211 yards, with one touchdown, two interceptions, and three sacks. And yet that was good enough, because Cincinnati's David Klingler went 10-of-30 for 115 yards with no touchdowns, three interceptions, and seven sacks. That's -302 DYAR, which is still the worst single game we have ever measured. The Bengals only scored because of Corey Sawyer, who returned one punt 82 yards for a touchdown, and another 47 yards to set up a field goal. Amazingly, Klingler had a chance to throw a game-tying Hail Mary from the Oilers' 46 on the last play of regulation, but ended up taking his seventh sack instead.
• Week 13, 2006, Minnesota Vikings 13 at Chicago Bears 23: The Vikings actually used three quarterbacks in this game, but the one who played the most (and worst) was Brad Johnson, who went 11-of-26 for 73 yards with no touchdowns, four interceptions, and a sack. His counterpart, Rex Grossman, went 6-of-19 for 34 yards with no touchdowns, three interceptions, and a sack. And yet, the Bears won, thanks to 16 points on defense (a 54-yard interception return touchdown by Ricky Manning, and a safety when Ciatrick Fason was tackled in the end zone) and special teams (a 45-yard punt return touchdown by Devin Hester).
• Week 5, 2010, Chicago Bears 23 at Carolina Panthers 6: You knew the Bears were going to show up more than once on this list, right? Each team's backup played a bit in this one, but it's the starters -- Jimmy Clausen for Carolina, Todd Collins for Chicago -- we're talking about today. Clausen was just 9-of-22 for 61 yards with no touchdowns, one interception, and five sacks. Collins went 6-of-16 for 32 yards (that would be TWO! yards per pass) with no touchdowns, four interceptions, and two sacks. The Bears had five scoring drives in this game. Four of them started in Carolina territory. One of them went backwards before Robbie Gould kicked a field goal.
• Week 1, 2012, Philadelphia Eagles 17 at Cleveland Browns 16: Brandon Weeden was a few weeks shy of his 29th birthday for this, his first NFL game. Perhaps he should have waited longer -- he went 12-of-35 for 118 yards with no touchdowns, four interceptions, and two sacks. Michael Vick, who had made his NFL debut in 2001 at the age of 21, was hardly any better on this day, going 29-of-56 for 317 yards and two touchdowns, but also with four interceptions, two sacks, and two fumbles.

Before we move on to our good quarterbacks, it occurs to me that we really need two categories for bad quarterback play. Some quarterbacks -- like Vick in that last game -- have bad numbers because they made so many big mistakes that the value of the good plays they made were washed out. Other quarterbacks -- like Cassel and Cutler this weekend -- have bad numbers not because they turned the ball over, but because they didn't do anything to move their offenses and put points on the board. The worst quarterbacks, of course, were those with lots of turnovers and little scoring to show for it. But dumping all of them in one bucket may not be the best way to measure this.

Regardless, the quarterbacks who played on Sunday night are clearly at the other end of the spectrum. Alex Smith is making himself a strong candidate for MVP, while Deshaun Watson is making a case for rookie of the year (assuming Smith's teammate Kareem Hunt doesn't take home both awards), and we saw why in this game. Smith went 29-of-37 for 324 yards with three touchdowns, no interceptions, and one sack. Watson went 16-of-31 for 261 yards with five touchdowns, no interceptions, and three sacks. That's 214 passing DYAR for Smith, 177 for Watson. As was the case for Cutler and Cassel, this is not unprecedented. Here's a look at seven games where both quarterbacks finished with at least 200 DYAR:

• Week 18, 1993, Denver Broncos 30 at Los Angeles Raiders 33: Given the stakes -- the winner of this game would take the AFC West Championship -- this is an underrated classic among the great shootouts of all time. John Elway led Denver to a 30-13 lead in the third quarter, going 25-of-36 for 361 yards with three touchdowns and no sacks or interceptions. It wasn't enough, though, because Jeff Hostetler went 25-of-41 for 310 yards with three touchdowns, no interceptions, and three sacks. The Raiders tied the game in the fourth quarter and went on to win in overtime. Seven days later, the two teams met again in the same building, with the Raiders winning 42-24 to advance in the playoffs.
• Week 11, 1994, Minnesota Vikings 20 at New England Patriots 26: Another overtime game saw the Vikings go up 20-0 in the first half as Warren Moon went 26-of-42 for 349 yards with one touchdown, no interceptions, and one sack. Playing from behind all day, Drew Bledsoe threw 70 passes, a record that still stands. He completed 45 of them for three touchdowns. The amazing thing is that with all those dropbacks, Bledsoe didn't give up a single interception or sack as the Patriots completed their rally and won in overtime.
• Week 4, 1995, Cincinnati Bengals 28 at Houston Oilers 38: The average quarterback in 2017 is completing 63 percent of his passes. In 1995, that average was just 58 percent. In that light, Chris Chandler's 23-of-26 performance against the Bengals was even more impressive. He gained 352 yards and threw for four touchdowns, with no interceptions and only one sack. The Bengals fell behind early and couldn't catch up, despite the heroics of Jeff Blake: 24-of-46, 356 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, one sack.
• Week 12, 1995, New Orleans Saints 24 at Minnesota Vikings 43: There's a common theme in some of these games -- they're not necessarily back-and-forth affairs. Often one team jumps out to a big lead and the other has to stage a furious rally. In this case, the Vikings were ahead 30-7 at halftime as Moon went 25-of-32 for 338 yards with four touchdowns, no interceptions, and two sacks. Jim Everett's too-little, too-late statline was at least a boon to those playing fantasy football in 1995: 25-of-37, 335 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, two sacks.
• Week 8, 2004, Indianapolis Colts 35 at Kansas City Chiefs 45: You knew the Dick Vermeil-era Chiefs would be on this list somewhere. From 2002 to 2004, the Chiefs scored a league-high 1,434 points, but they gave up 1,166 points, fifth-most. You take that team and match it up against Peyton Manning in his best year with the Colts, and you watch the numbers fly by like a slot machine giving up its jackpot. Manning went 25-of-44 for 472 yards and five touchdowns with one interception and no sacks. Kansas City's Trent Green, though, went 27-of-34 for 389 yards with three touchdowns, no interceptions, and one sack.
• Week 5, 2013, Denver Broncos 51 at Dallas Cowboys 48: Oh, hey, it's Peyton Manning again. He's bound to show up a few times in almost any "good quarterbacks" list. Here, after the Cowboys took a 48-41 lead with 7:19 to go, Manning was able to rally the Broncos to ten more points in regulation, with Matt Prater hitting a 28-yard field goal at the gun to seal the win. Manning went 33-of-42 for 414 yards with 4 touchdowns, one interception, and no sacks. Thanks to some kneeldowns, he also had a hysterical rushing line: four carries for -8 yards with a touchdown. In a losing effort, Tony Romo went 25-of-36 for 506 yards (that's 14.1 yards per pass) with five touchdowns, one interception, and four sacks.
• Week 14, 2013, Indianapolis Colts 28 at Cincinnati Bengals 42: Another "shootout" where one team had a commanding lead, as the Colts trailed by at least 14 points for the entire fourth quarter. Andy Dalton went 24-of-35 for 275 yards and three touchdowns, while Andrew Luck went 29-of-46 for 326 yards and four touchdowns. In 81 total dropbacks, neither defense managed a single sack or interception.