It is something of a Statistical Summer here at Touchdown Wire.
Over the past few days, we unveiled a “Metrics that Matter” series, looking at one key statistic for each team from the 2019 season, highlighting why that matters for the team in 2020, and illustrating what the team has done — if anything — to improve in that area. Doug Farrar has also been looking at different statistics, such as the recent piece on the best quarterback for each type of throw.
While Doug was working through that piece, he noticed something. Andy Dalton, formerly of the Cincinnati Bengals and now with the Dallas Cowboys, led all quarterbacks with seven spikes last year. The “stop the clock” kind, not the Gronk kind.
Now, football is obviously a serious business and every bit of information, film and data is worthy of analysis. To that end, here are those seven spikes, graded, and ranked from worst to best.
First, some ground rules. Quarterback spike plays will be graded on four sets of criteria, on a scale of 0 to 10.
First: Situation. Not all spike plays are created equally. A spike play that comes in the waning moments of the first half, or at the end of a blowout, will not have the same import as a spike executed in the closing seconds of a tight contest.
Second: Decisiveness. A quarterback must never hesitate when executing the spike play. If a QB lollygags on his way to the line of scrimmage before executing the spike, then points will be deducted. We are talking time conservation here friends, every tick of the clock counts.
Third: Style. Does the quarterback go into the windup, or give the ball a two-handed shove to the turf? This is your time to shine, passers! Show a little flair!
Finally, result. Sure, you got the clock stopped by bouncing the football off the ground near your foot in one way or another, but what did you do on the next play? Did you convert a third down situation, throw the game-winner, or throw an interception?
(We are workshopping a name for that. Perhaps “The Winston?” Suggestions are welcome).
Now, without further ado, here are Andy Dalton’s 2019 spike plays, graded and ranked:
7. Week 8 vs. the Los Angeles Rams
We kick things off with the first of three – yes three – spikes from this Week 8 contest between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams, played in front of 83,720 raucous fans in London’s Wembley Stadium. Dalton executed three spikes on the game’s final drive, and the spike that lands in last place on this countdown is actually the second of the three:
Now, let’s work through the situation here. The Rams lead the Bengals 24-10 with under a minute remaining, and the Bengals are out of timeouts. So, Cincinnati is not exactly going to win this game. Dalton spikes the ball after completing a 52-yard pass play to wide receiver Alex Erickson, that was made possible because (as Trent Green pointed out in the booth) Jalen Ramsey was not exactly focused at the snap. Here is the scoring breakdown for this spike:
Situation: 3 points. Sure, you might give the London crowd one more score here, and you just hit a 52-yard passing play, but odds are Cincinnati is not pulling out a win.
Decisiveness: 2 points. It took a while for the Bengals to get to the line of scrimmage here, probably becuase everyone at Wembley was already thinking about getting home.
Style: 3 points. There is not much to see here. Dalton gets the ball snapped and to the turf quickly, but with minimal flair.
Result: 3 points. As we will see the drive ended in Bengals fashion, but at least Dalton did not turn the ball over on the next play.
Total Score: 11 points.