by Vincent Verhei

You know your quarterback is having a good day when he goes 52 minutes before throwing his first incompletion -- and by then, you're already ahead by 21 points and the competitive portion of the game is over. Such was the case for Miami's Ryan Tannehill against the Houston Texans on Sunday. By the time he finally gave way to Matt Moore, Tannehill had put together what in many ways will be the best statline of his career: 18 completions in 19 attempts for 282 yards, with four touchdowns and no interceptions. That's a 94.7 percent completion rate, 14.8 yards per throw, and a perfect NFL passer rating of 158.3. On the surface, it looks like about as great a game as a passer could ever have. Our advanced stats, though, were not blown away. In fact, as you'll note in the tables below, Tannehill didn't have the best game of the week. Or the second-best. Or the third. In fact, Tannehill didn't even make the top five quarterbacks this week, finishing behind an all-time great; a veteran enjoying a late-career peak; a journeyman who gets a new job every season; two youngsters still learning their way in this league; and Kirk Cousins, however you want to label him.

This seems impossible. Among quarterbacks who threw only one incomplete pass in a game since 1960, Tannehill tied the record for most completions and had the most yardage in the last 34 years. And if anything, that's underselling his dominance, because his only incompletion came on his last pass of the day. If he had just taken a seat after his 18th completion, he would have shattered the records for completions and yardage among quarterbacks who completed 100 percent of their passes. And these weren't short completions, either -- three of his touchdowns went for 50 yards or more, and he had a 23-yard gain to convert a second-and-18 as well.

So how did a quarterback with those kind of raw numbers finish sixth in DYAR this week? A large part of it is that he had only 23 dropbacks, fewest of any starting quarterback this week. Seven passers in Week 7 doubled that up with 46 dropbacks or more. Tom Brady, the top passer of the week, had 57. If Tannehill could have maintained his level of production over 40 or more dropbacks, he would have clearly had the most DYAR of the week.

And opportunity only tells part of the story. Even if we used passing DVOA instead of DYAR, Tannehill would have been the second-ranked starter this week behind Jameis Winston (!). And despite his nigh-perfect completion rate, he was third in success rate behind Winston and his counterpart on Sunday, Kirk Cousins. (Because when Jameis Winston squares off against Kirk Cousins, you expect nothing less than machine-like efficiency.)

While completing passes wasn't difficult for Tannehill, he didn't always have time to pass. The Texans sacked him four times on Sunday (including sacks on three straight dropbacks -- one at the end of the second quarter, two early in the third). It's never a good thing to get sacked on 17 percent of your dropbacks. If we remove all sacks from all quarterbacks this week, Tannehill ranks second in DYAR behind Brady.

Further, not all of Tannehill's completions were necessarily good plays. Five of them qualified as failed completions, including a 3-yard loss on second-and-2 and three third-down completions that came up short of the sticks. In fact, Tannehill converted just one of his five third-down opportunities, although that one conversion was a 10-yard touchdown. He was second in DYAR on first and second down this week, but ninth in DYAR on third or fourth down.

The last factor hurting Tannehill's DYAR totals is opponent adjustments. In Week 7, we bump opponent adjustments up to 70 percent strength, and they are starting to have a major effect on the weekly standings now. Tom Brady's DYAR rises by 66 after opponent adjustments are factored in; Sam Bradford's rises by 60. On the other end of the spectrum, EJ Manuel, Teddy Bridgewater, Andrew Luck, and Cousins each saw their DYAR drop by 30 or more due to opponent adjustments. Houston's defense isn't terrible (it's hard to imagine that a team with J.J. Watt would ever be terrible), but it's not very good, and Tannehill gets dinged for facing them.

There's something else about Tannehill's game against the Texans that has no bearing on his DYAR, but it's so unusual I have to point it out. When you hear about a quarterback averaging 14.8 yards per throw, with a trio of touchdowns that covered at least half the field, you assume that he's launching rainbows into the deeper portion of the secondary. But that's not the case for Tannehill -- he was mainly content to dump the ball off and wait for Houston to miss tackles. He didn't throw a single deep pass against Houston on Sunday. His deepest pass traveled only 14 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Only five of his passes traveled 10 or more yards downfield, while ten were thrown to receivers at or behind the line of scrimmage. You'll recall that Tannehill only threw 19 passes, so yes, more than half of them didn't even cross the line of scrimmage. Those 10 passes were all completed for 103 total yards; his five deepest passes resulted in four completions for 96 yards. We'll save you the trouble of doing the math: on passes between those two distances, Tannehill went 4-of-4 for 83 yards.

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Even Tannehill's touchdowns were all short passes. Tannehill's four scores were thrown to receivers an average of 5.8 yards past the line of scrimmage, and those receivers then gained an average 36.0 yards after the catch. And that latter number is actually skewed low by a red zone touchdown with 8 yards after the catch. His other three scores all came after at least 36 yards after the catch.

All in all, Tannehill's average pass on Sunday traveled only 3.4 yards past the line of scrimmage, and his average completion came just 3.1 yards downfield, both the lowest of any quarterback this week. On the other hand, his average completion produced 12.6 YAC, the highest of any quarterback this week, by more than 4 yards over any other starter.

When you chart each quarterback's "air" yards per completion this week against his YAC per completion, Tannehill is such an extreme outlier it's laughable:

(I've also labeled some of the other outliers for your amusement.)

No, these results are not typical. Of the 32 quarterbacks with at least 70 completions this year, Tannehill's average completion has gained 6.6 yards through the air (13th-highest) and gained 5.3 yards after the catch (19th), so he's close to average in both categories. We shouldn't draw too many conclusions from this week's numbers, but they are fun to look at.

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Some other quick notes on full-season pass distance, since I've already looked them up: Brian Hoyer's average completion this season has come 8.55 yards past the line of scrimmage. That's the most in the league among quarterbacks with at least 70 completions; he's followed by Carson Palmer and Jameis Winston. The shortest completions have been thrown by Brandon Weeden at 4.4 average "air" yards, followed by Drew Brees and then Philip Rivers.

As for YAC, no quarterback has gotten more help from his receivers than Alex Smith, whose average completion has gained 7.0 yards after the catch. (That number fell to 5.9 this week with Jamaal Charles on the sidelines.) Smith is followed by Aaron Rodgers, Brees, and Rivers. At the bottom end there's the strange case of Ryan Mallett. His average completion has gained only 2.7 yards after the catch. That's the lowest in the NFL by a wide margin; every other qualifying passer falls somewhere between Smith's 7.0 and 4.2 YAC per completion. However, the next-lowest quarterback is Mallett's teammate, Hoyer, which suggests that Houston's scheme and/or talent have something to do with Mallett's trouble getting YAC from his receivers.

For all qualifying quarterbacks, the correlation between "air" yards per completion and YAC per completion is -0.567, so the numbers fit with common sense: the shorter your passes, the more likely your receivers are to gain yards after the catch.

Quarterbacks Rk Player Team CP/AT Yds TD INT Sacks Total

DYAR Pass

DYAR Rush

DYAR Opp 1. Tom Brady NE 34/54 355 2 0 3 133 131 1 NYJ As you may have heard, the Patriots gave Brady almost zero run support in this game. New England running backs only had five carries in the entire game, gaining exactly 1 net yard, with no carry longer than 3 yards, and only getting one first down, which came in the final three minutes of the game. Brady dropped back to pass on each of New England's first 12 plays. He also had streaks of 15, 13, 11, and five snaps where he passed or ran on every play. Brady was definitely better after halftime. In the first two quarters, he went 13-of-24 for 122 yards and only four first downs and three sacks. After that, he went 21-of-30 for 233 yards and 13 first downs (including both of his touchdowns) and no sacks. Brady was also effective on deeper passes against the Jets, going 8-of-13 for 168 yards and seven first downs on passes that traveled at least 10 yards past the line of scrimmage. To his right (presumably where the Jets use Darrelle Revis), he went just 7-of-13 for 37 yards and one first down. To his left, he went 17-of-26 for 229 yards and 12 first downs. Remember also that Brady gets a big bump from opponent adjustments. Even after this game, the Jets have allowed the lowest completion percentage and the fewest yards per attempt of any defense in the NFL. 2. Kirk Cousins WAS 33/40 317 3 0 1 125 110 15 TB Is there such a thing as a terrible play that still builds momentum? Like, can you be so ashamed of a bad play that it lights a fire under you and motivates you to play better? That's what appeared to happen to Cousins here. Midway through the second quarter, Cousins was sacked on a third-and-7. He fumbled, and the Buccaneers returned the ball for a touchdown that put Tampa Bay ahead 24-0. Up to that point, Cousins had been pretty brutal, going 6-of-8 for 44 yards, but only one first down and four failed third-down plays (including the sack-fumble). From that point forward, he went 27-of-32 for 273 yards and 15 first downs, including all three touchdowns. He also converted four of his six third-down plays, after the fumble going 5-of-6 for 72 yards and two touchdowns. When you're leading a comeback like Cousins did, it helps to hit some deep balls; Cousins went 5-of-7 for 127 yards on throws that traveled more than 15 yards past the line of scrimmage. 3. Ryan Fitzpatrick NYJ 22/39 295 2 0 2 125 117 8 NE It's interesting to see how the New England defense adjusted to the Jets' attack. Fitzpatrick completed each of his first five passes to the left side of the field (four in the first quarter, one in the second), gaining 69 yards in the process, with every completion going for a first down, including a 5-yard score. At that point New England adjusted, and from then on Fitzpatrick only went 3-of-9 for 33 yards and three first downs to that side of the field. However, Fitzpatrick adjusted to New England's adjustments and started finding more success on the right side. In the first quarter, he went 2-of-10 for 28 yards and two first downs to that side; in the last three quarters, he went 5-of-7 for 41 yards and three first downs (including a 9-yard touchdown), plus a DPI that added 18 more yards and another first down. The whole game, though, the middle of the field was wide open: Fitzpatrick went 7-of-8 for 124 yards and six first downs up the middle. 4. Jameis Winston TB 21/29 307 2 0 1 125 141 -16 WAS In passing dyar alone, winston was the top quarterback of the week; his only rush was a 5-yard gain and a fumble on third-and-14, which knocks him down the rankings. Still, it's a great turnaround for a guy who was nearly the worst quarterback in football just six weeks ago. Winston was tremendous on deeper passes against Washington, going 9-of-12 for 197 yards on passes that traveled at least 10 yards downfield; each of those nine completions picked up a first down. Anything shorter than that, though, and Winston struggled, going 12-of-17 for 110 yards and only three first downs. 5. Derek Carr OAK 24/31 289 3 0 1 110 108 1 SD Carr's day was somewhat similar to Tannehill's, at least on his scoring plays. His three touchdowns were caught an average of 5.7 yards past the line of scrimmage, and then gained an average of 28.0 yards after the catch. However, unlike Tannehill, he at least tried some deep balls, going 4-of-6 for 102 yards. 6. Carson Palmer ARI 21/29 275 2 0 2 102 103 -1 BAL 7. Ryan Tannehill MIA 18/19 282 4 0 4 96 97 -1 HOU So how about that Dan Campbell? 8. Alex Smith KC 21/32 251 1 0 2 59 56 2 PIT 9. Blake Bortles JAC 13/29 182 2 1 2 54 59 -5 BUF 10. Teddy Bridgewater MIN 25/35 316 2 0 4 34 48 -15 DET Bridgewater was actually better in long-yardage situations than in short-yardage. He converted four of his nine plays with more than 10 yards to go for a first down, picking up five completions for 84 yards in the process. However, he converted just three of eight plays with less than 7 yards to go, completing three passes for 42 yards there. 11. Nick Foles STL 15/23 163 0 0 2 26 26 0 CLE Foles was very bad at the start of this game and very bad at the end, but very good in the middle. On the Rams' first five and last three drives, he went 9-of-14 for just 51 yards and no first downs, with one sack. On the three drives inbetween, he went 6-of-9 for 112 yards and five first downs, plus a DPI for 26 more yards and another first down, and one sack. 12. Matthew Stafford DET 18/26 256 2 0 7 24 25 -1 MIN Stafford was Foles, in reverse. On the Lions' first two and last two drives, he went 13-of-16 for 224 yards and nine first downs, including both scores. On the seven drives inbetween, he went 5-of-10 for 32 yards and no first downs, with a 26-yard DPI, but also with seven sacks for a combined loss of 59 yards. Pretty hard to win when your quarterback gains -1 net yards over a good stretch of the game. Rk Player Team CP/AT Yds TD INT Sacks Total

DYAR Pass

DYAR Rush

DYAR Opp 13. Joe Flacco BAL 26/39 252 1 1 3 24 24 0 ARI 14. Josh McCown CLE 26/32 274 0 0 4 21 11 10 STL McCown did a great job getting the Browns out of trouble. Inside his own 40, he went 19-of-22 for 237 yards and 11 first downs, with one sack. Once he crossed that 40-yard line, though, he was doomed, going 8-of-11 for 62 yards and only two first downs, with three sacks. He also fumbled twice on the day. 15. Russell Wilson SEA 18/24 235 1 2 5 -6 -12 5 SF 16. Eli Manning NYG 13/24 170 0 0 2 -9 -9 0 DAL Manning struggled badly to finish drives -- very badly. On the Dallas side of the field, he went 2-of-9 for 10 yards and a sack. His only first down on that side of the 50 was on a 5-yard DPI. 17. Matt Ryan ATL 22/38 251 1 2 0 -15 -15 0 TEN As noted in Audibles, Ryan was quite terrible in a myriad of short-yardage opportunities. With 4 yards or less to go for a first down, Ryan went 2-of-8 for 24 yards and only one first down, with an interception and two failed fourth-down plays. 18. Cam Newton CAR 14/24 197 1 3 1 -16 -37 21 PHI Newton wasn't especially accurate against Philadelphia, but he made his completions count. Eleven of his 14 completions picked up first downs, and his only failed completion was a 5-yard gain on third-and-7. 19. Philip Rivers SD 39/58 336 3 2 1 -29 -29 0 OAK Through three quarters, Rivers had ammassed a total of 110 net yards three first downs, and two interceptions. Only Andrew Luck had a worse DYAR this week through three quarters. At that point the Chargers were down by 31 points, and Rivers spent the next 15 minutes doing some serious stat-padding, gaining 221 net yards and 13 first downs (including all three of his touchdowns) in the final period. Only Tom Brady had a better DYAR in the fourth quarter or overtime this week. 20. Matt Cassel DAL 17/27 227 1 3 1 -54 -55 1 NYG In three starts and one relief appearance, Brandon Weeden has produced seven 20-yard pass plays for the Cowboys this year. Cassel produced five 20-yard plays against the Giants alone. Cassel's no savior, but for a Dallas team that is pretty desperate to move the ball these days, it definitely looks like he's the better of two bad options. 21. Brian Hoyer HOU 23/49 273 3 1 4 -59 -59 0 MIA Sixteen minutes into this game, the Texans were down 28-0 nothing and Hoyer had yet to complete a pass for a first down. Then he threw for a touchdown -- unfortunately, a Miami touchdown, as Reshad Jones intercepted Hoyer for a 23-yard pick-six. Hoyer's first play after that was a sack-fumble. Hoyer did not pick up a first down until the Texans were down 35-0. All told, 14 of his 18 first downs came after Miami took a 41-0 lead. That includes all three of his touchdowns, each of which came in the last 24 minutes of a game that was well into garbage time by that point. 22. Sam Bradford PHI 26/46 205 0 1 5 -66 -61 -5 CAR Rk Player Team CP/AT Yds TD INT Sacks Total

DYAR Pass

DYAR Rush

DYAR Opp 23. Drew Brees NO 28/44 255 1 1 2 -68 -68 0 IND Six yards or less to go for a first down: 9-of-10, 125 yards, eight first downs, one sack. Seven yards or more to go: 19-of-34, 130 yards, three first downs, one interception, one sack. 24. Landry Jones PIT 16/29 209 1 2 2 -83 -83 0 KC Inside the Pittsburgh 30: 9-of-10, 146 yards, eight first downs. Rest of the field: 8-of-20, 63 yards, two first downs, with an 18-yard DPI, an interception, two sacks, and a fumble. 25. EJ Manuel BUF 24/42 301 2 2 4 -85 -103 18 JAC Manuel had a third-and-9 with 12:30 to go in the second quarter and the Bills down by 4. He was sacked and fumbled, and the Jaguars returned the ball for a touchdown. Manuel's very next pass was intercepted and also returned for a touchdown. His very next pass after that? Also intercepted, and that led to another Jacksonville touchdown. Manuel had almost single-handedly stretched the Bills' deficit from 4 points to 24 in just three snaps. The Bills would later get two Manuel touchdowns and their own defensive score to take the lead before giving it back, but if you want to know the biggest reason they lost, it was that sequence right there. 26. Colin Kaepernick SF 13/24 124 0 0 6 -100 -100 0 SEA Kaepernick only threw for five first downs in this game: two on back-to-back throws in the second quarter, three on back-to-back-to-back throws in the third. He only had five throws in Seattle territory: He went 2-of-5 for 9 yards and no first downs. On third downs, he went 4-of-9 for 24 yards and only one first down. He threw 11 passes to wide receivers. One was caught by Anquan Boldin for 27 yards and a first down. The others resulted in three completions for 14 yards and no first downs. 27. Zach Mettenberger TEN 22/35 187 1 2 1 -137 -137 0 ATL Mettenberger actually played fairly well in the first half, picking up eight first downs, including a touchdown. His last pass of the half, though, was an interception on second-and-goal from the 6. Still, the Titans were up 7-3 at the break. His first pass of the second half was a 13-yard gain to Justin Hunter. After that play, he went 8-of-13 for 57 yards with one first down, one sack, one interception, and one fumbled snap. He completed five passes in his nine third- and fourth-down throws, but only one of those completions picked up a first down, and together they gained only 33 yards. His short game was also pretty dire. On passes to receivers within 2 yards of the line of scrimmage, he went 5-of-9 for 25 yards with no first downs and an interception. 28. Andrew Luck IND 23/44 333 3 2 4 -149 -149 0 NO Man, there were a lot of bad starts this week. Luck started off going 0-for-5 with an interception and a sack as the Colts fell behind 20-0. And things hardly got better from there. On Indianapolis' first 10 drives, Luck went 12-of-24 for 100 yards and only four first downs, with two interceptions and four sacks. Luck finished the next two drives with touchdown passes of 87 and 46 yards and the Colts threatened to make a game of things, but then Luck went right back in the deep freeze, going 2-of-8 for 15 yards and one first down as Indianapolis punted on three straight drives. Luck was able to drag one more touchdown drive, hitting Donte Moncrief with an 8-yard score with 3:10 to go, but the Saints took the ensuing kickoff and held the ball till the end of the game. They might never have had that opportunity if Luck had fared better on third downs, where he went 4-of-8 for 29 yards and two sacks and just one conversion -- the Moncrief touchdown at the end of the game. Remember, this was all against a lousy Saints defense. Luck completed 52 percent of his passes against New Orleans, while the other six quarterbacks who have faced the Saints have completed 59 to 71 percent of their throws.

Five most valuable running backs (Total) Rk Player Team Runs Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR Opp 1. Lamar Miller MIA 14 175 1 3/3 61 1 79 58 21 HOU DYAR wasn't in love with Ryan Tannehill's game this week, but it sure loved Miller's -- this was the best-scoring game for a running back thus far in 2015, and Miller didn't even play in the second half. If he had, he might have challenged some all-time records. Miller's longest run was his 85 yard-touchdown. He also had gains of 29 and 13 yards, plus two other shorter first downs. Nine of his 14 carries gained 5 yards or more, and just one resulted in a stuff for no gain. His receiving numbers are highlighted by his 54-yard touchdown catch. 2. Darren McFadden DAL 29 152 1 2/2 10 0 59 61 -2 NYG The model of reliability, only one of McFadden's 29 runs failed to gain positive yardage. He gained 5 yards or more 13 times, including gains of 10, 15, and 22 yards. 3. Danny Woodhead SD 5 26 0 11/12 75 2 54 15 40 OAK All five of Woodhead's carries gained 4 to 6 yards, and two of them converted third downs. His receiving value came mostly from his touchdowns of 6 and 8 yards, but he had two other first downs and eight total successful catches. 4. Mark Ingram NO 14 143 1 2/2 5 0 51 55 -4 IND Ingram had gains of 11, 17, 20, 35, and 44 yards against the Colts, plus two short-yardage first downs. He was hit for no gain or a loss just twice. 5. Doug Martin TB 19 136 0 3/3 35 0 50 32 18 WAS Martin's day was highlighted by runs of 49, 23, and 18 yards, while getting hit for a loss just twice. All three of his catches gained at least 10 yards.

Five most valuable running backs (Rushing) Rk Player Team Runs Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR Opp 1. Darren McFadden DAL 29 152 1 2/2 10 0 59 61 -2 NYG 2. Lamar Miller MIA 14 175 1 3/3 61 1 79 58 21 HOU 3. Mark Ingram NO 14 143 1 2/2 5 0 51 55 -4 IND 4. Jonathan Stewart CAR 24 125 0 0/1 0 0 41 45 -4 PHI Though he had only four first downs on the ground, 17 of his carries gained 3 yards or more, capped off by a 36-yarder. Only three of his carries failed to gain yards. He also gains an enormous bump from opponent adjustments, more than doubling his DYAR total. The Eagles have all kinds of problems on offense, but their defense is really good -- just as you'd expect from a Chip Kelly team. 5. Charcandrick West KC 22 110 1 2/5 19 0 31 45 -13 PIT Jamaal Charles' replacement in Kansas City, West played six games with Kansas City last year as an undrafted free agent out of Abilene Christian. He was a perfect short-yardage weapon against Pittsburgh, converting on each of five carries on second- or third-and-1, including his touchdown. He also showed some speed, with runs of 11 and 36 yards.

Least valuable running back (Total) Rk Player Team Runs Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR Opp 1. Adrian Peterson MIN 19 98 0 3/3 12 0 -29 -24 -5 DET Those are some of the best raw numbers you'll ever see from a "least valuable running back." Peterson burned the Lions for a 75-yard run and added gains of 15 and 12 yards. His other 16 carries, though, each gained 3 yards or less, including nine stuffs for no gain or a loss. To recap: 102 yards on three runs, -4 yards on his other 16 carries. Oh, and one of his receptions was a 5-yard loss on first-and-10 for good measure.

Least valuable running back (Rushing) Rk Player Team Runs Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR Opp 1. Toby Gerhart JAC 6 8 0 0/0 0 0 -29 -29 0 BUF All six of Gerhart's carries against Buffalo came with exactly 1 yard to go for a first down. He converted the first two on a pair of 4-yard runs, but then got four carries at the 1-yard line and was stuffed for no gain all four times.

Five most valuable wide receivers and tight ends Rk Player Team Rec Att Yds Avg TD Total

DYAR Opp 1. Calvin Johnson DET 5 7 86 17.2 1 63 MIN In addition to his five receptions, Johnson gained 26 yards and a first down on a DPI. He had five total first downs on the day, including a goal-line touchdown and a 46-yard gain on third-and-3. 2. Amari Cooper OAK 5 6 133 26.6 1 63 SD Cooper's first four receptions all went for first downs; his fifth was a 16-yard gain on first-and-20. His two biggest plays could hardly have been any more different, stylistically. One was a 44-yard gain on third-and-14, a deep-pass jump ball with zero YAC. The other was a 52-yard touchdown on a screen pass with 53 YAC. Yes, Cooper can do it all. 3. Jarvis Landry MIA 5 5 83 16.6 2 62 HOU All five of Landry's receptions were successful, including touchdowns of 50 and 10 yards, plus a first down on second-and-9. Landry had 54 DYAR receiving, 8 rushing for his only carry, a 5-yard gain on second-and-3. 4. Mike Evans TB 8 12 164 20.5 1 60 WAS All eight of Evans' receptions resulted in a first down, with four gains of 20 or more yards, including a 40-yard touchdown. 5. Danny Amendola NE 8 9 86 10.8 1 55 NYJ Five of Amendola's receptions produced first downs, including his 8-yard touchdown, and only one was an unsuccessful play. New England threw him the ball on third down four times, and he converted three of them.