FanPost

Charting Sam Bradford's Throws: Week 5-7

This is the second of two posts on Sam Bradford's accuracy. The first can be found here.


In weeks 1-4, the offense relied solely on the arm of Sam Bradford. We struggled mightily to run the ball, and as a result, Sam Bradford threw the ball 162+ times.

I'd like to reiterate, in this study I was tracking every throw Sam Bradford made. I left out throw-aways and tipped passes/hit during throws, as a throw away is generally a good play and a tipped pass/hit can often be a result of the OL not doing their job.

I compiled two statistics in - One being completion percentage, the other being Bradford's accurate throw percentage. The accuracy percentage considers drops to be catches, and basically accounts for Bradford putting the ball exactly where he needs to on the throw he decides to make.

For starters, let's go over the stats, and then talk about the differences from weeks 1-4.

Let's once again separate the field into three parts - left, middle, and right

The right side of the field is once again where we'll begin, seeing as it's our offense's most efficient area to throw the ball. In weeks 5-7, Bradford completed 23/30 passes, which gives him a completion percentage of 76.7%.

He threw accurately on 26 of those throws, making him an accurate passer on 86.7% of his throws. That's up by 12.3% from weeks 1-4!

Over the middle of the field, Bradford completed 18/25 throws, which comes out to 72%. That's up 7% from weeks 1-4.

However, Bradford's accuracy over the middle didn't change much. In weeks 1-4, he threw accurately on 84.6% of passes over the middle. In weeks 5-7, he accurately threw on 22/25 throws, which is 88%.

The left side of the field was Bradford's biggest area of struggles in weeks 1-4, and continued to be so in weeks 5-7. He completed 11/21 passes for a completion percentage of 52.4%.

However, his accuracy to the left side jumped by 14%! He was only accurate 62.2% of the time in weeks 1-4, but threw accurately 16/21 times in weeks 5-7, which comes out to 76.2%.

The depth of throws once again tells a much larger story than the side of the field.

Bradford completed 15/17 passes behind the LOS for an 88.2% completion rating.

He threw accurately on 16/17 passes, which comes out to 94.1%.

On throws from 1-10 yards, where Bradford thrived in weeks 1-4, Bradford completed 26/40 throws, which comes out to 65% of his passes. That's down 8.3%.

However, he threw accurately on 32/40 of those throws, which means he was accurate on 80% of them. He was hurt by the left side of the field from 1-10 yards, where he only completed 1/7 passes and only threw accurately on 3/7 passes.

The farther we move down the field, the bigger change we see.

In weeks 1-4, Bradford completed only 44.4% of his throws from 10-20 yards down the field. In weeks 5-7, that number was up to 66.7%! Bradford completed 6 out of 9 of such throws.

Even more astonishing, Bradford threw accurately on 8 of those 9 throws, which is a brilliant 88.9%.

The biggest story is on throws beyond 20 yards.

In weeks 1-4, in which Bradford threw the ball 162+ times, he only threw 12 times over 20 yards. He only completed and threw accurately on 5 of those throws, for a paltry completion percentage of 33.3%, and accuracy percentage of 44.4%.

In weeks 5-7, in which Bradford only threw 76 passes, he threw the ball over 20 yards a total of 10 times. That's 13% of his throws, compared to 7.4% in weeks 1-4.

On those throws, Bradford completed 5/10, which is a completion percentage of 50%.

He threw accurately on 8 of the throws, meaning that he was accurate 80% of the time.

This also included 2 TD passes, both of which were over 30 yards in the air from the LOS. We had 0 in weeks 1-4.

In total, Bradford completed 52/76 passes (adjusting for throwaways and tips/hits) for a completion percentage of 68.4%.

He also threw accurately on 64 of 76 throws. That means he threw accurately on 84.2% of his throws.

It's apparent that the improved running game increased our offensive efficiency, and allowed us to take more shots down field. Based on Bradford's numbers during this three week span, it's impossible for me to doubt Bradford as "our guy" moving forward.

As a quick P.S., let me remind everyone that I was on the "Draft Bridgewater" bandwagon. The pain of losing can make you lose sight of objectivity... Watch his tape, and he'll win you back over.