Marcus Mariota went 22/23 against the Texas and he averaged 13.2 yards per attempt. That sounds like it should be one of the great games in NFL history. So how come the Titans scored just 17 points and lost despite such a high completion percentage and no turnovers until the team’s final offensive play? Tennessee even set a new record for completion percentage in a loss! One reason is that the team punted six times, and you might be wondering how is that even possible to have 6 times as many punts as incompletions.
For starters, Mariota took a whopping 6 sacks, a 21% sack rate. And 7 of Mariota’s 22 completions were negative plays according to EPA. That includes three obvious ones: a 4-yard completion on 3rd-and-19, a 7-yard completion on 3rd-and-9, and a 7-yard completion on 3rd-and-8. (Tennessee went for it on 4th-and-1 after that, but failed; the other four failed third down plays that yielded to punts were two Mariota sacks, a Mariota scramble for 8 yards on 3rd-and-16 after another Mariota sack, and a rushing play on 3rd-and-29 following a 15-yard facemask penalty and yet another sack.) But there was also a 2-yard pass on 1st-and-10, a -1 yard completion on 2nd down, a 2-yard completion on 2nd-and-10, and even a 3-yard completion on 2nd-and-5 is considered a negative play (you’d rather re-do the down than take a 3-yard gain on 2nd-and-5). All of the sudden, Mariota’s 22/23 game turns into 15 positive completions on 29 dropbacks, which is a far different story. That’s still a good game, but not a great one, much less an all-time great one.
Mariota finished with the 5th-best performance of the week; below are your week 12 passing stats.
| Rk | Quarterback | Tm | Opp | Result | Att | Yds | TD | Int | Sk | Yds | ANY/A | VALUE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baker Mayfield | CLE | CIN | W 35-20 | 26 | 258 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 157 |
| 2 | Russell Wilson | SEA | CAR | W 30-27 | 31 | 339 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 10.97 | 133 |
| 3 | Tom Brady | NWE | NYJ | W 27-13 | 31 | 283 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10.42 | 107 |
| 4 | Kirk Cousins | MIN | GNB | W 24-17 | 38 | 342 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 9.63 | 107 |
| 5 | Marcus Mariota | TEN | HOU | L 17-34 | 23 | 303 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 43 | 10.34 | 98 |
| 6 | Jameis Winston | TAM | SFO | W 27-9 | 38 | 312 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 8.82 | 73 |
| 7 | Philip Rivers | LAC | ARI | W 45-10 | 29 | 259 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 23 | 8.97 | 67 |
| 8 | Ryan Tannehill | MIA | IND | L 24-27 | 25 | 204 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 9.27 | 60 |
| 9 | Dak Prescott | DAL | KC | W 31-23 | 31 | 289 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 31 | 8.51 | 55 |
| 10 | Josh Allen | BUF | JAX | W 24-21 | 19 | 160 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.47 | 48 |
| 11 | Cam Newton | CAR | LAR | L 27-30 | 30 | 256 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8.37 | 42 |
| 12 | Drew Brees | NOR | ATL | W 31-17 | 22 | 171 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 8.7 | 40 |
| 13 | Andrew Luck | IND | MIA | W 27-24 | 37 | 343 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 7.97 | 39 |
| 14 | Deshaun Watson | HOU | TEN | W 34-17 | 24 | 210 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 29 | 7.89 | 26 |
| 15 | Carson Wentz | PHI | NYG | W 25-22 | 28 | 236 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 22 | 7.55 | 18 |
| 16 | Case Keenum | DEN | PIT | W 24-17 | 28 | 197 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 7.47 | 15 |
| 17 | Chris Boswell | PIT | DEN | L 17-24 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 15 |
| 18 | Anthony Miller | CHI | DET | W 23-16 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| 19 | Jacoby Brissett | IND | MIA | W 27-24 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | -3 |
| 20 | Antonio Brown | PIT | DEN | L 17-24 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -7 |
| 21 | Eli Manning | NYG | PHI | L 22-25 | 37 | 297 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 21 | 6.44 | -20 |
| 22 | Geno Smith | LAC | ARI | W 45-10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -21 |
| 23 | Ben Roethlisberger | PIT | DEN | L 17-24 | 56 | 462 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 6.55 | -23 |
| 24 | Chase Daniel | CHI | DET | W 23-16 | 37 | 230 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 6.29 | -27 |
| 25 | Aaron Rodgers | GNB | MIN | L 17-24 | 28 | 198 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 26 | 6 | -30 |
| 26 | Matt Ryan | ATL | NOR | L 17-31 | 47 | 377 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 37 | 6.32 | -33 |
| 27 | Andy Dalton | CIN | CLE | L 20-35 | 17 | 100 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4.41 | -43 |
| 28 | Jeff Driskel | CIN | CLE | L 20-35 | 29 | 155 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 5.43 | -46 |
| 29 | Derek Carr | OAK | BAL | L 17-34 | 34 | 194 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 5.46 | -55 |
| 30 | Lamar Jackson | BAL | OAK | W 34-17 | 25 | 178 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | -77 |
| 31 | Josh Rosen | ARI | LAC | L 10-45 | 19 | 105 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 18 | 2.95 | -84 |
| 32 | Josh McCown | NYJ | NWE | L 13-27 | 45 | 276 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 5.09 | -88 |
| 33 | Nick Mullens | SFO | TAM | L 9-27 | 32 | 221 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 27 | 3.44 | -126 |
| 34 | Colt McCoy | WAS | DAL | L 23-31 | 38 | 268 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 17 | 3.8 | -129 |
| 35 | Blake Bortles | JAX | BUF | L 21-24 | 23 | 127 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 20 | 1.42 | -144 |
| 36 | Matthew Stafford | DET | CHI | L 16-23 | 38 | 236 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 3.3 | -146 |
| Total | 972 | 7600 | 55 | 22 | 70 | 466 | 6.95 | 0 |
What about Philip Rivers who went 28/29? He also had 4 sacks, and while he had a worse ANY/A than Mariota, he was better at picking up first downs. Geno Smith actually came in and went 0/3, leaving the Chargers with 17 passing first downs on 36 dropbacks as a team; Rivers picked up first downs on just over half of his dropbacks, which is always outstanding.
Below is the first down rate — that is, passing first downs divided by pass attempts plus sacks — for each team in week 12.
What stands out to you?