Christian Ponder has the the highest completion percentage in the NFL after week 2 of the season at 75.9%.
Talk about a deceptive stat. It's always easy to have a high completion rate if you never throw a pass longer than 5 yards. It's like hitting .300 in baseball and not having any extra base hits. It's nice but it means less if you're not a long threat.
When Ponder is threatened or it's third and long, he has not got the job done. He may have no interceptions at this point, but his fumble on the 50 yard line against the Colts turned the game around.
I don't blame Ponder if this is the current Vikings game plan. I blame the coaching staff. We really won't know how good the Vikings offense is until we see a different version of it.
Ponder will most likely be forced to play catch up in this week's game. He'll have to throw longer more often if we are to have any chance at all. We will not be allowed to have short passes and short runs if the Niners get an early lead as expected. If he can hit 75% with no interceptions this week I'll be impressed.
As long as we don't lose by more than 20 points that is.
I have nothing optimistic to say for this weeks game. That passer rating reminds me of Checkdown Charlie, AKA Brad Johnson.
ReplyDeleteThe only real differences were that Brad Johnson's LIFETIME percentage was around 62% and he threw lots of long TD passes. It was only under the Childress regime that he was saddled with the same offense as Ponder. AND he hated it, too. That's why he lost his job as starter. He recognized a failed system.
ReplyDeleteHe had FIVE seasons passing over 3,000 yards and one of those was over 4,000 yards. (Washington 1999.)
By comparison, the only OTHER QB in history with a better career completion percentage is Tom Brady and he's only averaged .7 yards per pass more than Johnson with the explosive New England offense..
Oh, and Johnson won a Super Bowl with the Bucs.
So that's the only differences I can see.
LOL! That was a good read.
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