Good morning and welcome to our weekly quick-trigger analysis of quarterback play in the NFC North. We'll once again incorporate both passer rating and QBR into this post, and this year I want to add an additional component of QBR -- action plays -- to the mix.

Essentially, this number is the amount of plays a quarterback made that contributed to the outcome of a game, win or loss. A quarterback is always the most important single player in a game, but this will give us a better sense of how involved he was on a relative scale. I hope it will give us a tool to differentiate overall evaluations that might appear similar on the surface. I hope. I think. We'll see.

Beginning next week, I'll also include a chart that will provide NFL rankings and cumulative season statistics.

Christian Ponder

Passer Rating: 105.5

QBR: 66.9

Action plays: 31

Comment: Ponder settled down after a shaky start, completing 74 percent of his passes and committing only one turnover. His low number of action plays reflects his slow start and the offense's minimal possession in the first half.

Jay Cutler

Passer Rating: 98.9

QBR: 62.0

Action plays: 44

Comment: According to ESPN Stats & Information, Cutler's 3-for-12 start included five passes that were judged to be underthrown or overthrown. After the first quarter, only one of his 23 passes were deemed inaccurate. His QBR after the first quarter was 98.9.

Aaron Rodgers

Passer Rating: 93.3

QBR: 55.1

Action plays: 63

Comment: Rodgers couldn't get downfield against the 49ers' strong defense. In Week 1 so far, 15 quarterbacks had a higher average of yards per attempt than Rodgers (6.89). He completed only 9 of 20 passes that traveled more than 5 yards in the air past the line of scrimmage.

Matthew Stafford

Passer Rating: 69.4

QBR: 51.2

Action plays: 50

Comment: Three interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown, will mar any statistical analysis. In the end, though, we know something the statistics can't account for: Sunday was Stafford's seventh game-winning drive in his career, including six when the Lions were trailing.