He did it again. While Vince Young and the Titans did not win their last game, they gave the defending NFL champion Colts all they could handle. Young had the ball near mid field with a chance to win the game before a 4th down turnover ultimately cost the Titans the game 22-20.
By all objective measures, Vince Young’s statistics are terrible (and thus he is a bad fantasy football pickup): He had a passer rating of 66.7 and had the lowest completion percentage of any starting quarterback in the NFL (except teammate Kerry Collins) at 51.5% last season. (The QB’s directly ahead of him in completion percentage last year were Michael Vick, Jason Campbell, Andrew Walter, Drew Bledsoe and Bruce Gradkowski). He also threw 13 interceptions to go along with his 12 touchdowns in 2006. Last year was his rookie season and he has improved a bit in his first two games of 2007, with a passer rating of 76.3 and a completion percentage of 62.2%. Still, these numbers are well below average for NFL quarterbacks.
What passer statistics don’t capture is that VY is 9-6 in games he started, and gives a weak Titans team a chance to win every time he takes the field. These Titans are one of the five least talented NFL teams, yet miraculously Vince Young keeps the word playoffs in the Tennessee lexicon. Young’s winner’s mentality, an intangible that many NFL quarterbacks lack, was on full display at the University of Texas. Young boasted a 30-2 record as a starter at UT and put up back-to-back amazing Rose Bowl MVP performances against Michigan in 2005 and USC in 2006.
While Vince has to trust his arm, work on his accuracy, and the Titans need to upgrade the talent level around him, what we are witnessing is the emergence of a young, talented leader and winner who makes football exciting again in Tennessee.
2 comments:
Vince has a lot going for him but still needs to improve his game. Losing Drew Bennett and Travis Henry can't be good for him at this stage of his career.
VY is definitely a "leader," a man among boys, if you will. The Raiders slogan "Just Win Baby" applies here. You have to applaud the Titans organization for, again, taking what many belived to be a chance in drafting a not-so-polished African American quarterback who just wins ballgames (think also, Steve McNair). I think that VY will lead the woefully inadequate Titans into the playoffs for years to come. If only they played in the NFC.......
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