Time to again look at the passing game from this past game.
On Sunday, Trent threw 25 passes, including those 2 terrible interceptions that I'll refuse to talk about for the sake of making myself sick. One problem I had was that of those 25 passes, Chris Chambers was targeted a season low 5 times, which is just 20% of the time. I'm not sure if it was the playcalling, Trent's vision, or Chris not being able to get open. Whatever it was, though, needs to be fixed. The team's best receiver needs to be more involved, much like he was in the previous 3 games. The backs and tight ends were targeted 60% of the time, meaning the receivers only saw 40% of Trent's passes thrown in their direction. This is disturbing to say the least, as the receivers had been playing relatively well up until this point. Maybe it was the wet field. Maybe they just had a poor game. Hopefully, though, this isn't the beginning of a trend. We'll find out in 5 days.
Green's Targeting
Here's Trent's targeting breakdown through the first 4 games of the season:
Chris Chambers: 44 targets (33%)
Marty Booker: 26 targets (19%)
Ronnie Brown: 24 targets (18%)
Jesse Chatman: 11 targets (8%)
David Martin: 11 targets (8%)
Justin Peelle: 8 targets (6%)
Derek Hagan: 6 targets (4%)
Ted Ginn: 3 targets (2%)
Reagan Mauia: 1 target (less than 1%)
Receiver Success
Here are the success figures of each player. Remember that this is simply the percentage of passes caught by each receiver based on their opportunities.
Jesse Chatman: 91%
Ronnie Brown: 83%
Justin Peelle: 75%
David Martin: 64%
Chris Chambers: 52%
Marty Booker: 50%
Derek Hagan: 50%
Ted Ginn: 33%
I've said before that the main reason I'm doing the receiver success is because a lot was made of Chris Chambers' 39% rate last year, which was the worst figure in the last 5 years. But this year he's up to 52% at this point in time. Let's compare that to some top NFL receivers:
Derrick Mason: 66%
Marvin Harrison: 63%
Chad Johnson: 58%
Larry Fitzgerald: 58%
Steve Smith: 57%
Braylon Edwards: 54%
Terrell Owens: 50%
Lee Evans: 41%
This random sampling shows that, clearly, Chambers isn't exactly elite with his 52% rate. But he is improved and, by no means, is he terrible like some believed last year. Also keep in mind that only 4 players in the league have been targeted more than Chambers: T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Derrick Mason, Chad Johnson, and Larry Fitzgerald. What that means, I don't know. But it's food for thought.
Oh, and if you want to hear the most ridiculous NFL stat I've come across in a long time, here it is:
Randy Moss leads the league with 505 yards receiving and 7 touchdowns. He also has a receiver success rate of just over 91%. That's truely insane and is why I'll say, like I've said before (just not on this site), that Randy Moss is the most talented receiver of all-time. He isn't the best (at least not yet) because of his attitude and how he took plays off. But he's the most physically gifted receiver ever.
Thoughts below...