Over the weekend, we took a look at the stats of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as it relates to him passing deep in his own end of the field, and today we will look at just how accurate he was in 2012 compared to other the starting quarterbacks in the league.
The numbers below are courtesy of STATS, and they consist of bad passes thrown in relation to the total number of adjusted pass attempts in 2012. The columns are pretty straight forward as from left to right they are Total Passes Attempted, Spiked Passes, Pass Thrown Away Intentionally, Adjusted Passing Attempts, Pass Over Thrown, Passes Under Thrown, Passes Thrown Wide, Total Bad Passes and Percentage Of Bad Passes Thrown.
As you can see, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan had the least percentage of bad throws in 2012 and in second place was New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees. Roethlisberger came in third just ahead of Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.
According to the complete stat line, only two of Roethlisberger\’s bad throws last season resulted in interceptions, but even if you were to count the other six interceptions as bad throws, his percentage would still only be 12.79%.
For all the accolades that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady receives, his 2012 bad throw percentage was worse than that of New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. It is important to keep this stat in perspective; however, as Brady of course completed a far greater percentage of passes than Sanchez did and the idea that I am comparing the two is ridiculous. A poor bad throw percentage didn\’t keep Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco from winning the Super Bowl in 2012, either. In other words, stats like this one can be deceptive.
In the grand scheme of things, a bad throw percentage really doesn\’t reflect the overall success of a quarterback during a season, but having a good one certainly means that he is giving his receivers a good opportunity to make a catch more times than not. Little things such as this are not often taken into consideration when the “experts” attempt to rank the quarterbacks, however, and it\’s just one more area where Roethlisberger is better than most of his peers.
| PLAYER | TEAM | ATT | SPIKE | TA | ADJ ATT | OT | UT | WIDE | TOT BAD | % BAD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Ryan | ATL | 615 | 0 | 15 | 600 | 30 | 11 | 26 | 67 | 11.17% |
| Drew Brees | NO | 670 | 3 | 32 | 635 | 25 | 20 | 27 | 72 | 11.34% |
| Ben Roethlisberger | PIT | 449 | 6 | 13 | 430 | 30 | 7 | 12 | 49 | 11.40% |
| Peyton Manning | DEN | 583 | 3 | 9 | 571 | 31 | 13 | 23 | 67 | 11.73% |
| Russell Wilson | SEA | 393 | 0 | 28 | 365 | 26 | 5 | 14 | 45 | 12.33% |
| Robert Griffin III | WAS | 393 | 2 | 9 | 382 | 22 | 11 | 18 | 51 | 13.35% |
| Aaron Rodgers | GB | 552 | 3 | 21 | 528 | 32 | 13 | 27 | 72 | 13.64% |
| Carson Palmer | OAK | 565 | 4 | 3 | 558 | 31 | 16 | 32 | 79 | 14.16% |
| Matt Hasselbeck | TEN | 221 | 0 | 7 | 214 | 7 | 4 | 20 | 31 | 14.49% |
| Eli Manning | NYG | 536 | 0 | 15 | 521 | 38 | 14 | 26 | 78 | 14.97% |
| Sam Bradford | STL | 551 | 7 | 18 | 526 | 37 | 7 | 35 | 79 | 15.02% |
| Andy Dalton | CIN | 528 | 3 | 13 | 512 | 45 | 2 | 30 | 77 | 15.04% |
| Tony Romo | DAL | 648 | 3 | 15 | 630 | 44 | 10 | 41 | 95 | 15.08% |
| Colin Kaepernick | SF | 218 | 0 | 13 | 205 | 15 | 4 | 12 | 31 | 15.12% |
| Philip Rivers | SD | 527 | 2 | 41 | 484 | 25 | 15 | 36 | 76 | 15.70% |
| Matt Cassel | KC | 277 | 7 | 9 | 261 | 21 | 5 | 15 | 41 | 15.71% |
| Matt Schaub | HOU | 544 | 0 | 26 | 518 | 36 | 15 | 31 | 82 | 15.83% |
| Christian Ponder | MIN | 483 | 0 | 22 | 461 | 34 | 8 | 32 | 74 | 16.05% |
| Brandon Weeden | CLE | 517 | 1 | 24 | 492 | 36 | 8 | 36 | 80 | 16.26% |
| Michael Vick | PHI | 351 | 2 | 17 | 332 | 23 | 12 | 19 | 54 | 16.27% |
| Matthew Stafford | DET | 727 | 4 | 23 | 700 | 48 | 8 | 58 | 114 | 16.29% |
| Blaine Gabbert | JAC | 278 | 0 | 4 | 274 | 27 | 2 | 16 | 45 | 16.42% |
| Jay Cutler | CHI | 434 | 0 | 4 | 430 | 37 | 16 | 18 | 71 | 16.51% |
| Ryan Tannehill | MIA | 484 | 2 | 22 | 460 | 35 | 8 | 34 | 77 | 16.74% |
| Mark Sanchez | NYJ | 453 | 2 | 7 | 444 | 37 | 7 | 35 | 79 | 17.79% |
| Tom Brady | NE | 637 | 3 | 23 | 611 | 43 | 21 | 47 | 111 | 18.17% |
| Andrew Luck | IND | 627 | 8 | 17 | 602 | 55 | 18 | 38 | 111 | 18.44% |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | BUF | 505 | 2 | 9 | 494 | 44 | 17 | 31 | 92 | 18.62% |
| Joe Flacco | BAL | 531 | 0 | 19 | 512 | 60 | 5 | 34 | 99 | 19.34% |
| Kevin Kolb | ARI | 183 | 0 | 9 | 174 | 15 | 4 | 15 | 34 | 19.54% |
| Cam Newton | CAR | 485 | 2 | 19 | 464 | 53 | 9 | 29 | 91 | 19.61% |
| Josh Freeman | TB | 558 | 2 | 21 | 535 | 57 | 19 | 36 | 112 | 20.93% |
