If you saw Vince Young's numbers without his name, you would think that this guy sucks. Outside of his win/loss record, he has only completed 58.1% of his passes (although to his credit he has never thrown under 61% after his rookie year), only has a little under 6,000 yards in 40 games/ 29 started (to put this into perspective, guys like Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Tom Brady can get 6,000 yards easily in only 30 games, less than two seasons), and has thrown more INTs (34) than TDs (26) with a measly 6.6 YPA. In his career, Vince Young has only averaged 149.4 yards per game. Most quarterbacks can get that in a half. Young also has a career 71.9 passer rating. These numbers are sup bar at best. But yet the Titans keep winning and winning with him. The Titans are 5-6 and have won their past five games- the only games Vince Young has started this season. The Titans started off 0-6 with Kerry Collins. The only real change the Titans have between their losing record and their winning record this year is Vince Young.
Young is 23-11 (68%) in his career when he starts. That's damn fine. And as a football fan, or as a player on the team, all you really care about is the "W"s right? Normally, in these type of situations, you would credit wins to the team as a whole and not to the crappy QB. But I don't think you can do that with Young, which startles and upsets me as a stat guy.
I think the reason the reason the Titans keep winning games despite the seemingly crappy play of Vince Young, is because Young is able to do great things with his feet as well as be decent to mediocre with his arm. The things that I like about Vince Young and criticized Mike Vick for, is that Young tries to look for an open receiver and when he inevitably doesn't find one, he runs. As opposed to Vick who just instinctively runs because he can. This keeps defenses "honest" (ugh, I hate to use cliches) and helps keeps drives alive. Young only has 907 passing attempts in 40 games and never has hit above 382 in a single season, even when playing 13 and 15 games in his first two years. So while Young may be crappy, he doesn't throw THAT much at all to make his crappiness hurt the team as much as say a Jay Cutler is doing this year.
Young's ability to run and seemingly get first downs helps keep his offense on the field and only helps his team by making easier for his offense to get points, run time off the clock, and keep that amazing Titans D well rested.
It kind of upsets me that I can't explain Vince Young by his numbers and that despite his sub par numbers, Bud Adams and the team made a good decision drafting and starting Young and I think he has deserved to be on the playing field. Maybe respecting his "intangibles" is too strong of a sentiment, but the fact that Young deserves to play by using qualitative instead of quantitative analysis, really says something about this unique situation.
I think it is only a matter of time before the numbers catch up with how good he has been this season and his great winning percentage. As he gets more comfortable with passing, he will be harder to stop.
ReplyDeleteyeah, i think Young's numbers are a little less obvious than other QB's, like being able to pick up a first down by running for 4 yards on 3rd down, so we use the word intangibles to mean we just havent found the exact formula to explain why guys like Young and Orton win so many games
ReplyDeleteCan pitching 9 innings a game be grindy? if so, Halladay is the ult. grinder
ReplyDeleteI think most people completely missed the game or stats because Young threw for 387 yards, he did not really run on that incredible 99 yard drive to win the game. He does have a knack for winning games by being a leader, thats something you cannot teach.
ReplyDeleteI did miss those numbers and I didn't realize he threw for almost 400 yards last game, but I'm looking at Young from the big picture. We hear all the time "Vince Young Just Wins Games" and from a "stat" perspective that just seems dumb because you think a team then just wins despite the QB not because. But I think with Young and a little bit with Orton, the teams are winning BECAUSE of these QBs, even though they have sub par numbers and you think, how is that possible? And I think it's hard to really quantify why these these QBs help these teams win and I think The Bright One is correct in that we can't really measure rushing for four yards on a 3rd and 3. We can't really quantify all these qualitative measures that guys like Vince Young brings. It's not a knock and more power to the Titans. I'm just saying.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Vince Young has drastically cut down his INTs in the five games he's played. In his first two seasons, he had a 3.6 and 5.4 INT% and he's cut that way down to only 1.5% in the five games this year and his positive TD/INT ratio this year also helps A LOT
ReplyDeleteHe is a little odd on how he does his maths, but he of course knows his stuff, I haven't look his numbers and predictions for this almost over season.
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