The goal of this page is to explain the job of the quarterback, and the statistics found on a Memento of a quarterback. These stats will give you a basic indication of how good the player’s game was. A good starting point is to see how many of the stats are on fire, but Dale the Llama wants you to understand a bit more behind each statistic.
The job of the quarterback is to move the ball and his team down field. The field is 100 yards long. By reaching the other team’s end zone they score a touchdown, which is worth 6 points. After a touchdown, they have the opportunity to kick a field goal for an extra point, or to attempt to pass or run the ball into the end zone for 2 points. Before each play, the quarterback decides on a predetermined play where the ball will either be passed to a player, or given to the running back in order to run the ball downfield. The player with the ball attempts to avoid being tackled to the ground, pushed out of bounds or have the ball taken from him. His teammates without the ball attempt to block the defense from tackling the player with the ball as he runs for the end zone.
The quarterback’s primary statistics are:
- Pass Yards – The number of total yards obtained by passing plays. If the quarterback throws the ball to the wide receiver 10 yards and the wide receiver is able to run another 15 yards before being tackled, the total passing yards for that play is 25 yards. The average yards/game by a quarterback in 2020 was 240 (more than 5 games played). The aim of this metric is to be as high as possible. This higer the number, the more he and his team were successfull in gaining yards on the other team via passing plays.
- Interceptions – The total number of times the quarterback throws the ball where the defensive team intercepts the ball that was intended for one of the quarterback’s teammates. The average interceptions per game by a quarterback in 2020 was 0.73. The aim of this metric is to be zero. Ideally, every pass a quarterback makes would be successfully completed to the receiving player.
- Touchdowns – the number of passes thrown that resulted in a touchdown. Whether the player caught the ball in the endzone or caught it before and ran past the goal line is irrelevant.
- QB Rating – This is a metric that takes into account the following:
- Completion percentage – the amount of successful passes / the total amount of passes
- Yards per attempt – total passing yards / attempted passes
- Touchdown percentage – touchdown passes / attempted passes
- Interception percentage – total interceptions thrown / attempted passes
These 4 metrics are used in a complex formula to calculate the QB rating on a scale from zero to 158.3. The higher the rating the better the game the quarterback had.
