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FiveThirtyEight - Josh Allen Article


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How stupid

 

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Josh Allen has had his share of doubters since entering the league. Perhaps his most outspoken critic — Jalen Ramsey — will be playing across the line of scrimmage from him this Sunday.

 

Ramsey, a starting cornerback for the Los Angeles Rams, infamously described Allen as “trash” after the Bills selected him with the seventh overall pick in the 2018 draft. At the end of Allen’s 2018 rookie season, there weren’t many who would argue with Ramsey’s assessment

 

Except for maybe Jalen Ramsey...

 

flwnAzG.png

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clickable link

 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-josh-allen-actually-good-now/

 

Another negative nancy who confuses beliefs and preferences.

 

Quote

Given the Bills’ opponents so far, this should probably give us pause. Both the Jets and the Dolphins are rated as bottom-10 teams by our Elo rating system, while the Rams, the Bills’ upcoming Week 3 opponent, are a top-10 team.

 

Everyone who has something negative to say about Allen uses the argument that the Dolphins and Jets suck.

 

First, this is early in the year with too small a sample. If the Bills did well, their opponents, by construction, have to suck. Cant use their bad performance when facing Allen to make the argument that Allen is not strong enough since they are weak teams.

 

Second, the Dolphins (who are  supposedly so bad) just walloped the Jaguars, who walloped the Colts ... so who is weak now?

 

Edited by IgotBILLStopay
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This is the paragraph I take issue with:

 

For quarterbacks, the stats that tend to be stable over time include passing efficiency from a clean pocket, passing efficiency with no play-action, completion percentage over expected and the share of throws that are off target or negatively graded. Each of these aspects of a QB’s performance is indicative of their true skill and is less affected by circumstances and luck. Stats that aren’t predictive of future performance — and that tend to be highly affected by circumstances and luck — include passing under pressure, passing outside the pocket and passing efficiency with play-action.

 

In what world does a QB get to operate without pressure or stay purely in the pocket?  And play-action is specifically designed to make a QB more successful.  The author says that because Josh is performing well in these "non-predictive" areas we shouldn't count on his improvement to continue?  That makes no sense to me.

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People are gonna ***** all over the article. 

I think it's fine.

FiveThirtyEight writers are the epitome of stat nerds. 

They're not watching football games, analyzing film, or breaking down individual plays.

Very simply and specifically, they look at numbers -- a data set -- and make conclusions and predictions based off what the numbers are saying. Their conclusions are telling them Allen has improved. Their predictions are telling them his performance may regress to the mean in the coming weeks.

If people are truly that bothered by the predictions of stat nerds, I suggest they learn a new strategy: It's called "stop caring what people you've never heard of think about Josh Allen". I've been trying it out the past couple weeks, and it's working wonders. 

Edited by Logic
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11 minutes ago, eball said:

For quarterbacks, the stats that tend to be stable over time include passing efficiency from a clean pocket, passing efficiency with no play-action, completion percentage over expected and the share of throws that are off target or negatively graded. Each of these aspects of a QB’s performance is indicative of their true skill and is less affected by circumstances and luck. Stats that aren’t predictive of future performance — and that tend to be highly affected by circumstances and luck — include passing under pressure, passing outside the pocket and passing efficiency with play-action.

 

They link to a PFF article that is talking about projecting college QBs to the NFL. There's nothing there that says passing under pressure is not stable over time in the NFL.

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Why bother if to quote a bunch of stats if your are just going to disregard the good ones and throw out the present ones...just say TLDR - We think he sucked before...he will soon suck again.....

 

Someone here had a much better description of the  overall picture...What about all the sacks he breaks, the constant running threat, the extension of plays, the impossible 3rd down pick ups, the crazy throws that only a handful of guys can make. I watched last nights game and those QB's didn't throw a pass more that 10 yards.....all game

 

How many 3 and outs do the Bills have....seems like 1 a game...17-12 as a starter when he never was even scheduled to start year one....

 

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8 minutes ago, Logic said:

People are gonna ***** all over the article. 

I think it's fine.

FiveThirtyEight writers are the epitome of stat nerds. 

They're not watching football games, analyzing film, or breaking down individual plays.

Very simply and specifically, they look at numbers -- a data set -- and make conclusions and predictions based off what the numbers are saying. Their conclusions are telling them Allen has improved. Their predictions are telling them his performance may regress to the mean in the coming weeks.

If people are truly that bothered by the predictions of stat nerds, I suggest they learn a new strategy: It's called "stop caring what people you've never heard of think about Josh Allen". I've been trying it out the past couple weeks, and it's working wonders. 

Fair. But stat nerds have no business evaluating certain players like Josh Allen who break the mold in several different ways. It's like taking off points for Russell Wilson or Kyler Murray because short QBs usually don't fare well in their model.

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51 minutes ago, IgotBILLStopay said:

clickable link

 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-josh-allen-actually-good-now/

 

Another negative nancy who confuses beliefs and preferences.

 

 

Everyone who has something negative to say about Allen uses the argument that the Dolphins and Jets suck.

 

First, this is early in the year with too small a sample. If the Bills did well, their opponents, by construction, have to suck. Cant use their bad performance when facing Allen to make the argument that Allen is not strong enough since they are weak teams.

 

Second, the Dolphins (who are  supposedly so bad) just walloped the Jaguars, who walloped the Colts ... so who is weak now?

 

The Jets look like complete garbage and the worst team in the nfl. But he is going to be given some good tests to provE how far he has come.

 

i don’t why people care about the media so much but if he plays well in these next few weeks, he will be given plenty of respect 

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36 minutes ago, BeerLeagueHockey said:

Summary: We think players don't improve in the NFL, and he'll quickly return to his past performance level.

 

🤷‍♂️

 

In general, habits are hard to change.  Muscle memory in athletes is hard to change.  Processing ability is hard to change.

 

There's a list of starting QB in the NFL whose accuracy and ability to read the field unquestionably improved in the NFL.  The list would include Steve Young (traded by his first team, "bust"), Drew Brees (first team drafted Phillip Rivers 'cuz they thought Brees couldn't play), Ryan Fitzpatrick (took him 5 years of playing in the league to crack 60% completions), Matt Stafford (3 years to crack 60%, 6 years to stay there consistently), Alex Smith (from "top 10 bust list" to solid starter - just took 6 years) - I'm sure I can think of others.  Sam Bradford, perhaps.  Then there are QB like Case Keenum, Nick Foles, and perhaps Mitch Trubisky who can have an all-world year with the right OC and talent around them, but regress badly when too many changes are made.  Last, there are QB like Matt Schaub, Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers, and yes, Pat Mahomes who looked very good once they started - but who sat on the bench 1-4 years before they stepped on the field as a starter.  Would they have looked the same if they started right away?  We'll never know.

 

Of course, there is a much longer lists of QB who had "steps to take" coming into the NFL and who failed to take those steps.

 

Allen is considered suspect by the "stats geeks" because unlike many of the other QBs named above, he didn't complete a high percentage of his passes in college.  Ironically, the same stats mavens who claim to separate the effect of the talent around the QB from the QB's performance don't seem able to do this for Allen in college. Allen didn't follow the path of Russ Wilson, who actually changed programs from NC State to Wisconsin and saw his completions jump 15%.

 

The bottom line IMO is no one as yet has figured out a way to measure heart and determination and their impact on what a QB can become.  As far as one can tell, Allen is doing all the right things - his offseasons include sitting on the beach and golfing, but also clearly include intense work on his craft.  And he seems to come back better each year.

 

It's really IMO not worth getting in a lather about.  Allen has already confounded most of his pre-draft critics who seemed to predict he'd have no success at all.  Playoffs, Baby. 

 

Either his heart and determination and intelligence will allow him to solidify his improvements, or they won't.  I'm betting on the former, but if someone wants to bet on the latter they have some history on their side. 

 

The other possibility is that if he keeps trucking linebackers and DLmen, he won't last in the league.

 

 

27 minutes ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

The Jets look like complete garbage and the worst team in the nfl.

 

The Jets offense is looking like a hot mess.

 

The Jets defense is in the middle of the pack, which is actually fairly impressive given that they lost a couple of their best players and that their offense hasn't given them much help.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

🤷‍♂️

 

In general, habits are hard to change.  Muscle memory in athletes is hard to change.  Processing ability is hard to change.

 

There's a list of starting QB in the NFL whose accuracy and ability to read the field unquestionably improved in the NFL.  The list would include Steve Young (traded by his first team, "bust"), Drew Brees (first team drafted Phillip Rivers 'cuz they thought Brees couldn't play), Ryan Fitzpatrick (took him 5 years of playing in the league to crack 60% completions), Matt Stafford (3 years to crack 60%, 6 years to stay there consistently), Alex Smith (from "top 10 bust list" to solid starter - just took 6 years) - I'm sure I can think of others.  Sam Bradford, perhaps.  Then there are QB like Case Keenum, Nick Foles, and perhaps Mitch Trubisky who can have an all-world year with the right OC and talent around them, but regress badly when too many changes are made.  Last, there are QB like Matt Schaub, Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers, and yes, Pat Mahomes who looked very good once they started - but who sat on the bench 1-4 years before they stepped on the field as a starter.  Would they have looked the same if they started right away?  We'll never know.

 

Of course, there is a much longer lists of QB who had "steps to take" coming into the NFL and who failed to take those steps.

 

Allen is considered suspect by the "stats geeks" because unlike many of the other QBs named above, he didn't complete a high percentage of his passes in college.  Ironically, the same stats mavens who claim to separate the effect of the talent around the QB from the QB's performance don't seem able to do this for Allen in college. Allen didn't follow the path of Russ Wilson, who actually changed programs from NC State to Wisconsin and saw his completions jump 15%.

 

The bottom line IMO is no one as yet has figured out a way to measure heart and determination and their impact on what a QB can become.  As far as one can tell, Allen is doing all the right things - his offseasons include sitting on the beach and golfing, but also clearly include intense work on his craft.  And he seems to come back better each year.

 

It's really IMO not worth getting in a lather about.  Allen has already confounded most of his pre-draft critics who seemed to predict he'd have no success at all.  Playoffs, Baby. 

 

Either his heart and determination and intelligence will allow him to solidify his improvements, or they won't.  I'm betting on the former, but if someone wants to bet on the latter they have some history on their side. 

 

The other possibility is that if he keeps trucking linebackers and DLmen, he won't last in the league.

 

 

 

The Jets offense is looking like a hot mess.

 

The Jets defense is in the middle of the pack, which is actually fairly impressive given that they lost a couple of their best players and that their offense hasn't given them much help.

 

 

The Jets gave up 31 to a 49ers team that lost their qb, rb, was already playing without their star TE, and starting 2 wrs.  I think the only reason the Jets aren’t even lower is because the Bulls took their foot of the gas and 49ers are really banged up. They are really bad.

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Bills fans know the areas where Josh Allen passes the eye test.  He's never going to be a "traditional" QB.  Which is absolutely fine, given that model is quickly being debunked for good by several current outstanding QB's.  

 

We also know how much he's improved, and is still improving.  Stats prove it, and so do the team's results

 

We also love watching him.  He excites us more than any QB we've ever had on the team, arguably.  To be where he is after ~ 30 starts is incredible.  Don't think for one second that after watching the 2018 draft that you wouldn't be ecstatic with where we are now.

 

Everything else is just noise

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4 minutes ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

The Jets gave up 31 to a 49ers team that lost their qb, rb, was already playing without their star TE, and starting 2 wrs.  I think the only reason the Jets aren’t even lower is because the Bulls took their foot of the gas and 49ers are really banged up. They are really bad.

 

The 49ers built up a 21-3 lead with Garappolo in the first half.

 

I don't say the Jets have a great D, but it's not garbage. 

 

If you're looking for the bottom of the league, I say look elsewhere, but Time will Tell.

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1 hour ago, Logic said:

People are gonna ***** all over the article. 

I think it's fine.

FiveThirtyEight writers are the epitome of stat nerds. 

They're not watching football games, analyzing film, or breaking down individual plays.

Very simply and specifically, they look at numbers -- a data set -- and make conclusions and predictions based off what the numbers are saying. Their conclusions are telling them Allen has improved. Their predictions are telling them his performance may regress to the mean in the coming weeks.

If people are truly that bothered by the predictions of stat nerds, I suggest they learn a new strategy: It's called "stop caring what people you've never heard of think about Josh Allen". I've been trying it out the past couple weeks, and it's working wonders. 

And stop even reading it.

 

Bolded: Was your first clue all the MVP talk going on here already? :)

Edited by CodeMonkey
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2 hours ago, IgotBILLStopay said:

clickable link

 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-josh-allen-actually-good-now/

 

Another negative nancy who confuses beliefs and preferences.

 

 

Everyone who has something negative to say about Allen uses the argument that the Dolphins and Jets suck.

 

First, this is early in the year with too small a sample. If the Bills did well, their opponents, by construction, have to suck. Cant use their bad performance when facing Allen to make the argument that Allen is not strong enough since they are weak teams.

 

Second, the Dolphins (who are  supposedly so bad) just walloped the Jaguars, who walloped the Colts ... so who is weak now?

 

 

They would have a small point if Josh just looked average or bad against them.  He didn't though.  He destroyed them.

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2 hours ago, eball said:

This is the paragraph I take issue with:

 

For quarterbacks, the stats that tend to be stable over time include passing efficiency from a clean pocket, passing efficiency with no play-action, completion percentage over expected and the share of throws that are off target or negatively graded. Each of these aspects of a QB’s performance is indicative of their true skill and is less affected by circumstances and luck. Stats that aren’t predictive of future performance — and that tend to be highly affected by circumstances and luck — include passing under pressure, passing outside the pocket and passing efficiency with play-action.

 

In what world does a QB get to operate without pressure or stay purely in the pocket?  And play-action is specifically designed to make a QB more successful.  The author says that because Josh is performing well in these "non-predictive" areas we shouldn't count on his improvement to continue?  That makes no sense to me.

I guess Lamar Jackson has a 0.0 completion percentage by this logic as the Ravens almost never throw without play action or keep him in the pocket. So, Lamar sucks too?

 

I love 538’s election models but this article has a lot of issues because it expects teams to always play to a Tom Brady style offense, which won’t always maximize the strengths of their QBs.

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2 hours ago, Tortured Soul said:

Does anyone know the source of this statement in note 1? 

 

"Analytics staffers on NFL teams ranked the Bills among the top five most analytically advanced in the NFL."

i read this yesterday.. I'm going to assume this is where they got it from:

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29939438/2020-nfl-analytics-survey-which-teams-most-least-analytically-inclined

 

image.thumb.png.b77983a05f21a5aea7a06667633b838d.png

Edited by Nineforty
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Color me unimpressed by this article.

 

The author says that some metrics are highly variable while others are more stable and predictive - but offers no evidence or analysis.  He goes on to note that "Allen's numbers are great in the unstable, less predictive metrics and middle in the road in their stable, more predictive counterparts."  He concludes that Allen is likely to return to his norm of 2018 and 2019.  

 

This analysis precludes the whole idea of progress.  For example, he argues that passing efficiency from a clean pockets is both stable and predictive.  I'm sure if you're looking at a QB in mid-career that's true.  But don't tell me that young QBs don't often get better at passing efficiency from a clean pocket over time.   The author, btw, never mentions whether or not Allen has made progress in the predictive metrics from 2018 to now.  He doesn't look to see if there's any upward trend.  If these metrics are truly predictive, wouldn't we expect an upward trend to continue?   

 

Furthermore, he makes the ridiculous argument that Allen achieved his statistical heights this year against weak opponents.  How - statistically speaking - do we know the Jets and Fins have weak defenses at this point in the season?  Not counting the Bills game, each had only played one opponent.  What conclusions can you base off of that?  Both the Jets and Fins defenses may have had bad statistical performances against the Bills simply because Allen and the Bills offense are that good.  We just don't know yet.  

 

Fitz, Drew Brees, Alex Smith, Rich Gannon, Jim Plunkett, Len Dawson and many other QBs improved over time.  Steve Deberg had a 40.0 passer rating in his first year as a starter.  He only got better after that with a peak rating of 96.3 as a 12 year veteran.  Early career stats often are NOT predictive of future performance.  Players sometimes just get better. 

 

They eye test seems to say that Allen is indeed getting better with his touch, deep ball, mechanics, and ability to find the open receiver.  The signs are certainly hopeful but I don't think two games is enough to rush to any conclusions, pro or con.  

 

 

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23 minutes ago, BisonMan said:

I guess Lamar Jackson has a 0.0 completion percentage by this logic as the Ravens almost never throw without play action or keep him in the pocket. So, Lamar sucks too?

 

I love 538’s election models but this article has a lot of issues because it expects teams to always play to a Tom Brady style offense, which won’t always maximize the strengths of their QBs.

 

 

"Each of these aspects of a QB’s performance is indicative of their true skill and is less affected by circumstances and luck.

 

I have a big problem with this.  Performance when under pressure and outside the pocket is more affected by circumstances and luck and performance when protection is clean is more meaningful?  You brought up Brady and he would be a great example.  He was throwing balls away, daring officials to make the grounding call, when he was facing pressure.  Being unwilling to take a hit to make a play is luck or "circumstances?"  Some of these QBs can't escape pressure and making plays on the move and outside the pocket is not even an option for them.  It's a club that is not in their bag.  I don't know how you can evaluate some QBs for parts of their game that do not exist for many of them.

 

Most all NFL starting caliber QBs perform well when not pressured or else they would not have the job.  So how could that be any meaningful way to evaluate their performances?  This author used their ordinal ranks after only two games to to say that Josh was middle of the pack in the "meaningful" measures: clean pocket QBR, no play action, completion% over expected and poor throw % even though the clean pocket QBR is a solid 79 and the bad throw % is a stellar 16% and SIS has him 4th in on target throw %.   

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https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/ny-josh-allen-20200925-wohah2rawratre2pmlepgbj3fm-story.html

 

Everyone has a different take. Stats can be manipulated to show whatever you would like. Josh is improving every year and was 10,000 throws behind his draft year colleagues. If you can't see his improvement you are blind. That is all.

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7 hours ago, BeerLeagueHockey said:

Summary: We think players don't improve in the NFL, and he'll quickly return to his past performance level.

 

Thanks. Nate Pyrite's predictions are so seldom correct, I was hoping it was something like that.

 

image.png.8cd3941aa389bc46533f74db44cd9acc.png

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My question is, that 79 QBR when not under pressure (19th rank in the league), wouldn't that include his two runs where he fumbled and lost the ball? I would imagine both those turnovers would have brought his QBR down quite a bit. If that's the case, I'm definitely not worried. 

 

But the other flaw here is where do Mahomes, Rodgers, Jackson and Wilson rank in QBR when not pressured compared to their overall QBR's? Do they also have decreases in ranking from their overall QBR? All four of these QB's and Allen excel in avoiding pressure and creating secondary reaction type plays. Guys like say Phillip Rivers, Drew Brees, Tom Brady on the other hand might have higher QBR ranks when not under pressure but lower QBR ranks overall. I'm sure the stats is out there somewhere but until we have it, for all we know guys like Cousins (well probably not this year) or Goff might have the highest QBR "not under pressure". And if that is the case, I don't really see the value. Just give me total QBR because a QB is going to be under pressure at some point of every game.

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7 hours ago, JESSEFEFFER said:

Most all NFL starting caliber QBs perform well when not pressured or else they would not have the job.  So how could that be any meaningful way to evaluate their performances?  This author used their ordinal ranks after only two games to to say that Josh was middle of the pack in the "meaningful" measures: clean pocket QBR, no play action, completion% over expected and poor throw % even though the clean pocket QBR is a solid 79 and the bad throw % is a stellar 16% and SIS has him 4th in on target throw %.   

 

Very true. 

 

79QBR  is 19th ranked. What is is 32nd rank? 60 QBR? Basically it's likely a tight range of good QB play between 60 and 95. Which would be expected as you pointed out: NFL starting QB's should play well not under pressure.

 

 

7 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

This analysis precludes the whole idea of progress.  For example, he argues that passing efficiency from a clean pockets is both stable and predictive.  I'm sure if you're looking at a QB in mid-career that's true.  But don't tell me that young QBs don't often get better at passing efficiency from a clean pocket over time.   The author, btw, never mentions whether or not Allen has made progress in the predictive metrics from 2018 to now.  He doesn't look to see if there's any upward trend.  If these metrics are truly predictive, wouldn't we expect an upward trend to continue?   

 

 

 

This is another excellent point. A fair comparison would be going back in history 10-20 years and seeing where all the 3rd year QB's ranked in these metrics. 

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7 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

Furthermore, he makes the ridiculous argument that Allen achieved his statistical heights this year against weak opponents.  How - statistically speaking - do we know the Jets and Fins have weak defenses at this point in the season?  Not counting the Bills game, each had only played one opponent.  What conclusions can you base off of that?  Both the Jets and Fins defenses may have had bad statistical performances against the Bills simply because Allen and the Bills offense are that good.  We just don't know yet.  

 

Especially that Dolphins defense. In fact the Dolphins overall as a team actually might even be good, when we look at their 3 games now and the teams they have played and how they played them. 

 

 

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Article isn't unfair, especially when you consider the author, Hermsmeyer.  Guy has never been an Allen fan, he's extremely critical.  It's only week 2, jury is still out, I think that's fair enough to say.  But it's also fair to think that Allen may be a bit better than most predicted predraft, including myself.  Still a long season. 

 

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Stats are for losers.   They don't give you context about how a play unfolds, obstacles overcome or competitive situation at critical points in time.

 

For example, the drive Josh led following Miami's go ahead score in Q3 to make it 20-17:   

  • First play--47 yard completion to Diggs
  • Second play--7 yard completion to Moss
  • Third play--10 yard penalty on Morse
  • Fourth play--Allen sacked for 4 yard loss
  • Fifth play--24 yard completion to Beasley
  • Sixth play--Singletary up the middle for 10 yards
  • Seventh play--Singletary up the middle for 2 yards
  • Eighth play--pass incomplete to Beasley
  • Ninth play--TOUCHDOWN to Gabe Davis

The stat line says Allen was 4-5 for a net 80 yards and a TD.    That's clearly good.   But even better--and the most impressive thing about Josh on that drive--is that (1) he made a statement throw on the very first play of the drive, (2) he overcame a third and 24 with a great read on the Beasley toss, and (3) he put the TD in the only place it could be thrown and trusted his WR.

 

Those are all things that stats freaks like FiveThirtyEight or PFF can't evaluate by just looking at the game log.  And why these kind of analyses miss the point of the human element so often...

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