Jamalisms

Original post updated to correct the blitz formula that @ctm noted. Biggest change is that Locker is now the most frequently blitzed QB in this group, as a percent of attempts. I'll add that although he did complete 51% of passes when blitzed, he threw 2 TDs and 4 Ints... with a passer rating of 66.3. Thanks @NewsToTom. If you ever get around to crunching numbers from the other site, it'd be interesting to compare that to what Stats LLC has.

I struggle with that for a number of reasons but I'll leave it alone. Interesting contrast, good find.

Haha

Mine was better. It's accurate.

Tyrion's physique + Greyjoy's attitude = Napoleon!

Fair enough, though (for me at least) that would mean not discussing any stats or production because absent expectations (set by comparisons) stats lose relevance.

They do that in the books, too. He goes from evil to likeable very quickly.

@ctm Yeah, there's something funky going on there with some others as well. Probably didn't make the formula relative or something. I'll fix it tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up.

Halfway through season 2... they've managed to make Jon Snow a whiny bitch. He was mostly my favorite character in the books but he's just petulant in the show and it makes me wonder if my reading of descriptions and such missed the mark. They've made Greyjoy somewhat of a sympathetic figure... at least to the point that I get a stronger sense of being torn and in a difficult spot that than I ever did in the books. He still have an ego and abuses women, obviously.

I'm not putting together anything else because I don't see value in comparing Locker to Rodgers or Brees when he doesn't even have a full season of starts under his belt yet and his numbers to date don't even match up to those of rookies... but anyone legitimately interested in something else can put this together with ease. SI.com player profiles have all of these numbers/splits and more.

And the lowest passing attempts (apart from Locker, orgainized from right to left). That completions rates skew to the right is unlikely a coincidence. Not all QB's were full time, but Wilson was... and RGIII essentially was.

How did drops and other factors affect Jake Locker's completion percentage, as compared to other young signal callers? Recently a question arose on TitansReport.com about the number of drops that happened with Jake Locker at quarterback in 2012. The suggestion was that there were so many that it negatively affected Locker’s completion percentage. Assuming so, maybe rampant discussion of his low completion percentage, (56.4%), is unfair. I compared Locker to many young contemporaries – Andrew Luck, Andy Dalton, Cam Newton, Christian Ponder, Russell Wilson, Robert Griffin III, Blaine Gabbert and Colin Kaepernick. These players were chosen on account of youth and relative inexperience. They were also drafted in similar years which means they might have been options for the Titans, had things played out differently. There are many things about a pass that can render it more likely to be caught. It would be foolish to assume that drops are the fault of the receiver alone. For the sake of argument, though, and just to test the theory presented - all drops will be considered equal. To start, let’s look at their actual completion percentages. Of these players, Locker had the second lowest completion percentage. The only player who had a lower completion percentage was Andrew Luck. Locker trailed the leader Robert Griffin III by 9.2%, while Luck was 11.5% behind the leader. The spread is large between best and worst. How much of it was due to drops? Gabbert (8.3%) had the highest drop rate of all players compared. His rate exceeded Locker’s rate by 2.3%. Griffin (7.6%) had the second highest drop rate. This is in spite of having the highest completion percent in this comparison. Kaepernick (7.3%) had the third highest rate. He was a Super Bowl quarterback and had the third highest completion percent. Locker’s drop rate (6.1%) was fourth of the nine passers examined. The average drop rate among all quarterbacks compared is 5.9%. Locker’s rate of 6.1% slightly exceeds that average. Just one fewer drop over the course of the season would have dropped Locker’s rate below the average. Three of the other eight quarterbacks had a higher rate of drops than did Locker, which puts him squarely in the middle of the pack. Locker did have a higher than normal drop rate. Barely. To get an idea of how drops affected the completion rates, the below table shows what completion rates would have been for each signal caller if the drops had all been caught. By passing Newton in this comparison Locker jumps from second worst to third worst among the quarterbacks compared. The spread from Locker to Griffin grew to 10.9%, however, and his completion percentage is still quite low when compared to the other players overall. Another amount we could adjust for is to remove throw aways. If we subtract attempts that resulted in throw aways and combine that with computing all drops as catches, we’ll get an even better idea for whether or not Locker’s completion rate was artificially low. Locker’s throw away rate (2.9%) was actually on the low side, whereas a few players like Wilson (7.1%) and Kaepernick (6.0%) had much higher rates. Ponder (4.6%) and Newton (3.9%) also had a higher throw away rates than Locker. The result is that Locker drops back to the second worst completion percentage and the rich in completions get richer. Two players, Wilson and Griffin, now have completion rates that surpass Locker by more than 10%. Kaepernick’s rate of 74.1% is almost as good, just under 10% better than Locker’s 64.3%. What other strictly statistical things are there to consider? One thing we can look at is inaccurate passing. Based on these numbers alone, the most inaccurate passer of the bunch is Newton (18.8%), followed by Luck (17.7%), followed by (tied) Locker (16.2%). That these are the three signal callers with the worst completion percentages is unlikely to fall under the ‘coincidence’ category. Tied with Locker is Gabbert (16.2%), owner of the fourth worst completion percent in the adjusted chart above. Wilson (11.5%) and Griffin (13.0%) are the least inaccurate passers by a decent margin and are the leaders in completion percentage per the adjusted numbers. Kaepernick (14.2%) has the third lowest rate of inaccuracy and the third best completion percentage. Low inaccuracy rates corresponding with high completion percentages isn’t a coincidence either. There are many things that can cause an inaccurate pass. Distance a ball travels in the air matters as does the proximity and placement of a defender. Sometimes the defender dictates where a pass needs to be located, which can make it a harder throw and a tighter window. Despite these considerations, inaccurate passes align pretty well with completion percentage - especially when drops and throw aways are taken out of the mix. Drops don’t really seem to be as big of an issue as passes overthrown or underthrown or thrown wide of a receiver. There are other things to consider as well. Below are some other totals for each passer. Similar to accuracy measures, some of these factors are probably more compelling than drops. What conclusions can you draw from these amounts? Amounts from Stats LLC, Courtesy of SI.com Follow Titans Report on Twitter: @TitansReport Follow Jamal on Twitter: @Jamalisms Click here to view the article

He didn't make the list, interestingly enough.

Dorne and House Martell will be players in book six. I just hope they don't cut out Fizban.

Potentially he could do with the series what he planned to do with the books in the first place... or at least cut it by doing the big time skip.

That makes more sense, but at the same time doesn't make sense. I figured they'd have to stop doing a book per season but you can only have these children as children for so long. The timetable of how this unfolds will be interesting.

I was reading up and GRRM is releasing a book of Tyrion quite this year and has said he won't e rushed on book 6 and people will need to be patient. As I jump into season two and knowing they're in season 3 already, how are they logistically going to keep producing shows without running out of book content? As chance he has the show pass the books, then releases the books afterwards? If not, they'll have to slow way down with eating up content or he'll have to write faster than he's letting on. Thoughts anyone?

Chris Johnson made the NFL Top 100 list again. How high did he climb after improving from 1,047 rushing yards in the 2011 season to 1,243 in 2012 - from a 4.0 average to 4.5? For the first time in the NFL Top 100’s short three year history, the Tennessee Titans have two current players on the list. After incoming Safety Bernard Pollard’s appearance on the list a few weeks ago, running back Chris Johnson was revealed as the 62nd best player in the NFL, (as voted on by players). On the 2011 list, just a year removed from a 2,000 yard campaign, Johnson was ranked 13th overall. After a second year removed from 2,000 yards, he fell to the very bottom of the list in 2012. The Titans are small market team that doesn’t win often. In both of the former rankings Johnson was the only member of the Titans to be listed. The NFL Top 100 is a hard honor for Titans players to come by. Rising back up the list to 62nd is consistent with Johnson’s improvement in rushing totals between the 2011 and 2012 seasons. It also follows the first year since his 2,000 yard season in which his explosive speed was truly on display. After two down years, fans and media had started questioning how much speed Johnson retained following years of NFL carries without any games missed due to injury. Almost as if flipping a switch just to answer critics, Johnson ran for as many touchdowns of at least 80 yards, (three), in a single year as any other player has in a career. This was the second time he accomplished the feat. The first time was in 2009, putting his career total at six such plays – double that of any other player in history. Not all was golden in 2012, however. Johnson’s lack of production in numerous games called into question his ability to produce and be consistently relied upon. The Titans had a choice this offseason. They could cut Johnson and recoup some salary cap hit while moving on to other, potentially more consistent options or they could retain him and try to fix whatever else wasn’t working. The decision was not as quickly determinable as NFL Top 100 rankings would suggest. In fact, with only 28.3% participation from players, the rankings themselves leave something to be desired. In the end, the Titans retained Johnson and looked elsewhere to fix the run game. The 2013 offseason brought the departure of the Titans two starting guards, the running back coach and the top two backup runningbacks. The Titans hired Sylvester Croom as a runningback coach. They signed Andy Levitre at left guard and Shonn Greene as the secondary ball carrier. They drafted Chance Warmack as a right guard with the 10th overall pick. They signed Jalene Parmele as a potential third back. They drafted Brian Schwenke at center, who many have penciled in as the day one starter over Fernando Velasco. For better or worse, the Titans have decided to try and fix the run game through a scatter-shot approach wherein the only exempt person is Chris Johnson himself. The head coach is even talking about spending more time working with his old position group the offensive line, presumably to improve performance. The team has surrounded Johnson with better players on the offensive line, a different position coach and better backups to push him. They're also allegedly going to return to a run-heavy offense. If the most responsive one fourth of NFL players is any judge, (those players who voted for the NFL’s Top 100), the Titans have made a wise decision. We won’t know for certain who else is on 2013’s NFL Top 100 list until it is fully revealed over the coming weeks, but for what is presumably the third year in a row - Johnson is considered by his peers to be the best player on the Titans roster. He’s also in a fairly small group of all NFL players to make the list all three years. Will a third Titans player make the list this year to top Johnson? If so, who? See Chris Johnson react to his ranking. Follow Titans Report on Twitter: @TitansReport Follow Jamal on Twitter: @Jamalisms Click here to view the article

Sansa is key, yes. Featured, not really. WG53 is right and in terms of Reo's wondering... it's fairly consistent with the books to the best of my recollection. Robb's change doesn't alter the story, but it changes the character of Robb. A marriage to any non-Frey serves the same purpose in the story-telling... but doesn't keep his basic nature as a leader intact. Good or bad, he is a different sort of leader depending on who and why he marries a non-Frey. Not that it matters overly much, but it is what it is... which is different.

Sansa was a stupid and fairly minor character in the books (at least up to this point in the show) too, though less prissy and more head over heels in love with the idea and prestige of courtly ladyship / princess dreamworld status. The love / duty switcheroo on Robb changes the nature of his character dramatically, I think. Not nearly as bad as the Knight of Flowers change-up, but still a big change in overall feel. After that change in nature, I probably won't mind as much in the TV show when Robb decides to sell his sisters and mother into slavery, shave his head and begin a second life as a travelling minstrel in Pentos.

Interesting. I just finally started watching the show and am only towards the end of season 1 at this point so I was unaware they altered this. I'm not sure who the character is that they introduced or what reasons they provided for his motivation to marry her, but guessing and filling in the blanks... I'll agree that it's cleaner, but wouldn't you also agree that it makes Robb a bit more of a poor leader and reckless moron? It's one thing to give consideration to marrying the daughter of another noble family (of some sort)... it's entirely another to marry some random chick with no family connections.

That's what I thought. They very much ruined the Knight of Flowers character.

Not sure where you are in Rob's story... but he marries a random chick for after promising to marry a Frey. They were definitely gay in the books, but I recall that being a reveal later on after the knight of Flowers is established as a hunk and someone the ladies dream of. One way or another, I feel they've portrayed the Knight of Flowers as a weaker character than he was in the books... but again, it's been a bunch of years since Intead the first one.

Watching the show for the first time... I don't remember the Knight of Flowers and the King's brother being gay. Maybe it has been too long since I read the books.