Previously:
Kirk Cousins had a very bad day on Sunday. He averaged -1.38 ANY/A against the Colts, an unspeakably bad performance from an above-average quarterback most weeks. Since 2010, there have been just 22 other times where a quarterback finished with below -1.00 ANY/A, and most of those quarterbacks were very bad.
It was bad on all fronts. He threw 3 interceptions and took 3 sacks, so there were plenty of negative plays. He also threw for only five first downs. His completion percentage was bad, too, and he only averaged 10 yards per completion. The passing offense gained just 95 net yards, and obviously negative adjusted net yards.
How bad was it? Carson Wentz was a disaster on Sunday, throwing for only 242 yards on 43 pass attempts, with 0 TDs, 2 INTs, and only 13 first downs. But in terms of passing value added relative to average, Cousins’s performance was twice as bad as Wentz’s was.
How bad was it? The Vikings finished with a passer rating of 13.0. The last time a team won with a passer rating under 15.0 and their opponent did not have a passer rating under 15.0, was way back in 2008, when the Panthers and Jake Delhomme threw 4 INTs but still beat the Andrew Walter-led Oakland Raiders. If you are wondering why that previous sentence had to be so clunky, it’s because yes there was in fact a game where both teams had passer ratings under 15.0 in recent memory: a 2010 disaster of a game featuring Todd Collins, Matt Moore, and Jimmy Clausen.
On the plus side, we have Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who had the best passing game of his career in week two. The 2018 first round pick finally had his first 300-yard game in week 1 of the 2020 season, and promptly followed that up with his first 400-yard game on Sunday. The 2020 season represents just 6.7% of Allen’s career games played to date, but 12.3% of his career passing yards. Allen became just the 20th player to throw for 400+ yards and have a passer rating of 145.0+ in NFL history; of course, just one of those games came before 1984, with the majority coming in the last ten years.
Below are the full week 2 passing stats. As a reminder, the new formula to calculate Adjusted Yards per Dropback is (Passing Yards + 9 * Pass 1st Downs + 11 * Pass TDs – 45 * INTs – 50 * Fumbles Lost) divided by (Pass Attempts + Sacks). In week 2, the average was 9.37, slightly up from 9.20 in week 1. So for each passer, we multiply his number of dropbacks by the difference between his AdjYd/DB average and 9.37 to create a passing value.
| Rk | Passer | Team | Opp | Result | Att | Yd | TD | INT | 1D | Sk | Yd | FL | AdjY/DB | DB | VALUE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Allen | BUF | MIA | W 31-28 | 35 | 417 | 4 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 16.44 | 36 | 255 |
| 2 | Jared Goff | LAR | PHI | W 37-19 | 27 | 267 | 3 | 0 | 17 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 15.86 | 28 | 182 |
| 3 | Ryan Tannehill | TEN | JAX | W 33-30 | 24 | 239 | 4 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 15.32 | 25 | 149 |
| 4 | Cam Newton | NWE | SEA | L 30-35 | 44 | 397 | 1 | 1 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12.47 | 45 | 139 |
| 5 | Dak Prescott | DAL | ATL | W 40-39 | 47 | 450 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 12.21 | 48 | 136 |
| 6 | Russell Wilson | SEA | NWE | W 35-30 | 28 | 288 | 5 | 1 | 11 | 2 | 13 | 0 | 12.80 | 30 | 103 |
| 7 | Matt Ryan | ATL | DAL | L 39-40 | 36 | 273 | 4 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 12.05 | 37 | 99 |
| 8 | Aaron Rodgers | GNB | DET | W 42-21 | 30 | 240 | 2 | 0 | 13 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 11.87 | 31 | 78 |
| 9 | Drew Brees | NOR | LVR | L 24-34 | 38 | 312 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11.34 | 38 | 75 |
| 10 | Jimmy Garoppolo | SFO | NYJ | W 31-13 | 16 | 131 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 13.29 | 17 | 67 |
| 11 | Baker Mayfield | CLE | CIN | W 35-30 | 23 | 219 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12.04 | 23 | 61 |
| 12 | Justin Herbert | LAC | KAN | L 20-23 | 33 | 311 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 2 | 15 | 0 | 11.09 | 35 | 60 |
| 13 | Ryan Fitzpatrick | MIA | BUF | L 28-31 | 47 | 328 | 2 | 0 | 20 | 3 | 17 | 0 | 10.26 | 50 | 44 |
| 14 | Lamar Jackson | BAL | HOU | W 33-16 | 24 | 204 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 4 | 27 | 0 | 10.25 | 28 | 25 |
| 15 | Derek Carr | LVR | NOR | W 34-24 | 38 | 282 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 3 | 23 | 1 | 9.85 | 41 | 20 |
| 16 | Ben Roethlisberger | PIT | DEN | W 26-21 | 41 | 311 | 2 | 1 | 15 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 9.83 | 42 | 19 |
| 17 | Philip Rivers | IND | MIN | W 28-11 | 25 | 214 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 11 | 0 | 9.59 | 27 | 6 |
| 18 | Gardner Minshew II | JAX | TEN | L 30-33 | 45 | 339 | 3 | 2 | 20 | 2 | 24 | 0 | 9.32 | 47 | -2 |
| 19 | Patrick Mahomes | KAN | LAC | W 23-20 | 47 | 302 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 13 | 0 | 9.29 | 48 | -4 |
| 20 | Russell Gage | ATL | DAL | L 39-40 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | -9 |
| 20 | Andy Dalton | DAL | ATL | W 40-39 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | -9 |
| 20 | Chris Jones | DAL | ATL | W 40-39 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | -9 |
| 23 | Deshaun Watson | HOU | BAL | L 16-33 | 36 | 275 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 4 | 22 | 0 | 8.85 | 40 | -21 |
| 24 | Kyler Murray | ARI | WAS | W 30-15 | 38 | 286 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 8.80 | 41 | -23 |
| 25 | Sam Darnold | NYJ | SFO | L 13-31 | 32 | 179 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 8.30 | 33 | -35 |
| 26 | Matthew Stafford | DET | GNB | L 21-42 | 33 | 244 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 26 | 0 | 7.70 | 37 | -62 |
| 27 | Teddy Bridgewater | CAR | TAM | L 17-31 | 42 | 367 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 5 | 27 | 1 | 7.70 | 47 | -78 |
| 28 | Drew Lock | DEN | PIT | L 21-26 | 5 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 1 | -4.83 | 6 | -85 |
| 29 | Nick Mullens | SFO | NYJ | W 31-13 | 11 | 71 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 0 | 2.77 | 13 | -86 |
| 30 | Jeff Driskel | DEN | PIT | L 21-26 | 34 | 256 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 6 | 53 | 0 | 6.98 | 40 | -96 |
| 31 | Tom Brady | TAM | CAR | W 31-17 | 35 | 217 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6.63 | 35 | -96 |
| 32 | Dwayne Haskins | WAS | ARI | L 15-30 | 33 | 223 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 24 | 1 | 6.76 | 37 | -97 |
| 33 | Mitchell Trubisky | CHI | NYG | W 17-13 | 28 | 190 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 4 | 21 | 0 | 6.25 | 32 | -100 |
| 34 | Carson Wentz | PHI | LAR | L 19-37 | 43 | 242 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.26 | 43 | -134 |
| 35 | Joe Burrow | CIN | CLE | L 30-35 | 61 | 316 | 3 | 0 | 20 | 3 | 31 | 1 | 7.00 | 64 | -152 |
| 36 | Daniel Jones | NYG | CHI | L 13-17 | 40 | 241 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 4 | 21 | 1 | 5.91 | 44 | -152 |
| 37 | Kirk Cousins | MIN | IND | L 11-28 | 26 | 113 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 18 | 0 | 0.17 | 29 | -267 |
Jared Goff had an outstanding day as well, particularly when it comes to picking up first downs. He threw for a first down on a league-high 61% of his dropbacks in a win over the Eagles. He helped the Rams produce the biggest differential in adjusted yards per dropback in week 2.
It is, of course, weird seeing the Chiefs on the losing end of the passing battle, but Patrick Mahomes was not his usual self on Sunday. Kansas City actually had the slightly less efficient passing game, but escaped with a win against the Chargers for a few reasons: (1) Harrison Butker kicked two 58-yard field goals, (2) the Chiefs stole a drive, finishing with 9 in regulation to just 8 for Los Angeles, and (3) better situational decision making.
You also might be surprised (I was!) to see that Drew Brees finished with a better rating than Derek Carr, despite Carr and the Raiders looking better on Monday night. Well, there are two explanations. One is that this fumble by the Raiders was attributed to Derek Carr, and it really shouldn’t impact how he was viewed as a passer. That said, my formula penalizes Carr as if that was a normal quarterback fumble, and it brings him and Brees even on the day in turnovers. The other is that Carr took three more sacks than Brees and finished with 53 fewer net yards on 3 additional dropbacks. That is a big difference to overcome, and his two additional passing touchdowns are not enough to do so. Brees also got the overwhelming majority of his yards due to YAC, which made his game feel less impressive. He averaged just 3.8 yards per completion through the air and 8.2 yards of YAC per completion, highlighted by 94 yards of YAC for Alvin Kamara.