Some Folks Are Just Sticklers For Perfection

Against the Patriots Monday night Drew Brees compiled a “perfect” 158.3 rating, which for some reason touched off some more carping about the imperfections of the perfect quarterback rating designation.⇥The issue here is that the rating has arbitrary boundaries for each of the above factors. A player is considered to have had a perfect game if he:⇥⇥1. completes 77.5% of his passes⇥
⇥2. completes at least 11.875% of his passes for touchdowns⇥
⇥3. throws zero interceptions (this one actually makes sense…..thank goodness, I’m starting to get a headache)⇥
⇥4. has an average yards per attempt of at least 12.5⇥

⇥⇥Although 77.5% is clearly an outstanding completion percentage, it is a C (maybe a C+) at most academic institutions. Either way, it is not perfect. Further, it’s a fairly arbitrary number. Why not 75%? 81%? 88.23217%?⇥

He has a point, if a very pedantic one. A perfect quarterback rating does not indicate a performance that we would consider the textbook definition of perfection. Using that standard, every time a quarterback dropped back, he would have to complete a pass (while not getting sacked), and that completion would have to be a touchdown.

The writer has in the past taken issue with the quarterback rating metric, laying out sensible arguments about its flaws. And while he’s technically right that it’s a misnomer to deem perfect an exceedingly great but minorly flawed performance like the one Brees had against the Patriots, within the boundaries of what we’ve seen quarterbacks do in the history of the game, I think it’s about as close to perfect as we’re going to see.

↵