According to the box score, last night’s display looks like a supremely efficient display from Russell Wilson but sometimes the stats hide the full story of a player’s performance. His display last night earned him a 110.9 NFL passer rating but that translated into a -2.2 PFF passing grade.
What the box score fails to see were some poor decisions that his receivers bailed him out on and a largely YAC-oriented passing attack. Twice Wilson put the ball in the hands of Green Bay defenders and twice he was bailed out by his targeted receiver.
The first came midway through the first quarter attempting to force a ball into Zach Miller on a hitch which Sam Shields broke up (he might rue not intercepting it) and then Miller had to knock the ball out of Brad Jones’ hands off of the tip.
Toward the end of the second quarter he almost gifted Ha Ha Clinton-Dix an interception on his NFL debut. Throwing late across field, Clinton-Dix was underneath Doug Baldwin down the left sideline and Wilson required Baldwin to turn defensive back for a play to break up the pass. A shot to nothing perhaps, given the game situation, but an ill-advised and poorly-executed shot to nothing.
More than 50% of Wilson’s passing yards (117 of 191) came after the catch with the likes of Percy Harvin (38 of 59 yards after the catch), Ricardo Lockette (23 of 38) and his backs helping to transform short throws into longer gains. He was efficient and accurate on these shorter passes but without the input of his receivers both after the catch and as de facto defenders, Wilson’s stat line would have had a very different look based on the exact same performance by Wilson himself.
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