Top YACers meet

Mike -

I'm just curious, for reference, do you know how much of the passing yardage last season was from YAC?

Not that Welker isn't great after the catch, but his numbers might be ballooned a bit due to all the swing/screen passes he gets, which basically turn him into a running back.

Difference is Wes is a shifty little guy that seems to find space even where there is none, Boldin is fast and shifty, yet large enough to run over folk, including most of our little CBs. Its a match-up nightmare for the Pats. Hopefully they can figure out a way to contain him (pray for snow and high winds??) or else this game could be a big time shoot out that favors the Cards...

RW. The Patriots had 2,052 YAC last season. They had 4,859 total receiving yards, which makes for a 42.2 percentage of YAC.
--Mike

Boldin is a "nightmare" match-up for our CB (BTW, with a couple notable exceptions, Pats CBs are pretty much the same size as most others).

But it always seems to me that snow favors the receivers, especially if your name is either Jermaine Wiggins or David Patten.

Rain favors defense, and so does wind except maybe on the long deep ball, if you believe the underthrown ball on a go route favors the receiver, against single coverage.

I'm glad its the Cardinals in December @Gillette. But, IMO, Pittsburg is now the best fowl weather team, a distinction the Pats shared with Packers for the first half of this decade.

This brings up a point that I have made very often regarding who ghets credit for the yardage. It is now that BOTH the QB and receiver get credit and that, for all intents and purposes, is double dipping.
Say the QB throws a 10 yard pass, the receiver catches it and then runs 40 yards. Both the QB, AND the receiver get credit for 50 yards. That, IMO is wrong.

The QB should get credit for 10 because that is how far he threw it, and the receiver should get credit for 40 cause that is how far he ran with it.

Jerry Rice, for example, was great with YAC and because of that he actually made his QB's look much better lthan they really were as far as yards passing stats go.

Mike allen,

I think both the receiver and QB should get credit for the first 10 yards, and then only the receiver should get YAC.

Good point gick, that same thought had crossed my mind.

Thats a tough call. A lot of YAC is due to good receivers, but it also requires the QB to put the ball in a spot at allows for it. Say a slant pass, if the QB is constantly throwing the ball high and behind the receiver, he must adjust to make the catch and therefore probably misses out on any YAC. If the throw is in a spot where it can be caught in stride, without the receiver leaving his feet, he can continue at full speed forward and be allowed to make those yards. You could also argue that its good block (Welker's long one vs. Miami) that leads to YAC. So I personally think its too hard to break down in such a simple manner, but in general its a statement that a teams offense has a well executed gameplan; receiver runs a good route, QB puts the ball in a the right spot, and good blocking down field.