Last week, Pro Football Focus graded quarterbacks under pressure. How did Colt McCoy do compared to the rest of the league's quarterbacks? PFF broke things down into the following categories: avoiding sacks under pressure, touchdown to interception ratio under pressure, and completion percentage under pressure.
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Pressured Into Sacks: McCoy was pressured on 179 of his dropbacks, getting sacked 33 times (18.4% of the time). He ranked 16th in the league in this category. The top three quarterbacks in the league were Eli Manning (11.5%), Michael Vick (11.6%), and Drew Brees (13.8%). Among the people below McCoy were Aaron Rodgers (22.8%) and Ben Roethlisberger (21.6%). I don't think this was a make-or-break issue for McCoy, especially when quarterbacks have to take more sacks when their receivers can't get separation.
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Touchdown to Interception Ratio Under Pressure: McCoy ranked 26th in the league in this category, throwing 2 touchdowns to 4 interceptions under pressure. I'm not sure what PFF considers under pressure, but I think a lot of us remember plays in which McCoy would roll out and stupidly throw an interception deep down the field on an early down. Those type of decisions can't hang around long-term for a starting quarterback.
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Completions Under Pressure: McCoy completed 58-of-125 passes (46.4%), which was good for 14th best in the league. Out of all the categories, this one seems to have the closest reflection to the actual ability of a quarterback. It's a two-way street for McCoy's percentage to improve here -- better receivers at getting open, and better ball placement by McCoy.
To close things out, PFF had an "Overall Grade" for pressured passing. I'm not sure exactly how they calculated it, but their overall assessment of McCoy under pressure was quite low. He ranked 31st overall, with only Blaine Gabbert, Joe Flacco, and Mark Sanchez ranking worse. As always, interpret all of this information with a grain of salt, as many final statistics don't tell the true story of a quarterback's success.
This explains a lot.
HenryDawg - February 7, 2012
those numbers are not able to reflect poor pass protection and even worse receiver play, hopefully Colt gets some weapons in the draft to get a fair chance to lead the Browns to wins!
okhornfan - February 7, 2012 via Android app
Well apparently it does account for drops.
nickjs21 - February 8, 2012 via Android app
Um…
notthatnoise - February 8, 2012
Weird how they calculated the overall rating. With the stats they put up, it would seem that McCoy would have fallen anywhere between 16-22.
dirtyjoe - February 7, 2012
My thoughts exactly!
BornAKardiacKid - February 7, 2012
HenryDawg - February 8, 2012
I like the idea of what PFF tries to do with their rankings, I don’t know if I always agree with them on their more subjective evaluations, and I don’t know how reliable we can trust them to be when they have to do all of this stuff in a relatively short time frame for every single team in the league.
With that said, these types of key plays are exactly the ones that could keep us in the games we haven’t been in and could help us win close games that we lost. Whether it is a new QB or Colt McCoy finally showing some improvement in year 2 of the WCO, here’s hoping we find a way to make them.
rufio - February 7, 2012
The question it would seem they should be obligated to answer is their definition of pressure. A pocket collapsing but one in which a QB can still step into their throw is one thing; uncovered blitzes is another, etc. Regardless, I always enjoy the detail they put into their analyses and gobble up these links when posted here.
I’d be curious what sort of variables they’d put into a points off of turnovers grading. Admittedly, our defense wasn’t a turnover machine this year but looking back on the season my very unscientific memory thinks that the Browns rarely made the opponents pay when we did get a turnover. At those points in a game it’s time for all 11 on offense to step it up, especially the QB, seize momentum and perform “under pressure.”
Mal Reynolds - February 8, 2012
when i play madden, colt mccoy is so realistic in his play style! Idk if its because i really suck or if its because they make each player very real.
pwndabear - February 8, 2012
It would be really helpful to know how they weigh this formulation. The final grades really don’t make any sense to me good or bad.
The New Kardiac Kids - February 8, 2012
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