A look at Kevin Riley, Part 3

Okay, this is probably annoying you all to death, but there’s only 2 more left (this one+part 4). So enjoy it while you can. Anyway, we’ve taken a look at him by reviewing his overall stats, his stats by game, and by how he performed against tough (and weak) defenses. Now we take a look at him by down.


Now my prototypical QB would be efficient on all downs, but you’d probably prefer he be at his best on 2nd or 3rd down because those are the more “important” situations. Now here’s his stats by down. (All stats from cfbstats.com, which is probably the greatest college football stat site around.)

1st down: 81-155, 52.3%, 1,434 yards, 10 TD, 3 INT, 41 plays of 15 yards or more, 16 of 25 or more

The easy stuff: 41% of his attempts were on 1st down, and 39% of his completions were on 1st; his completion percentage drops over 2% on 1st downs. But a little bit over 50% of his yardage came on 1st; and 55% of his TDs came on 1st, compared to 38% of his picks. Yards per attempt: 9.25. That’s great.

2nd down: 73-113, 64.6%, 842 yards, 5 TD, 0 INT, 20 plays of 15 yards or more, 5 of 25 or more

Riley played much better on second down, with a 10% higher completion rate, and a yards per attempt at 7.45, which is interesting considering his completion %. It is right at his normal rate. Only 30% of his attempts were on 2nd, and 35% of his completions. 28% of his TDs came on 2nd, while 0% of his INT came there. With all of his stats above seemingly, we’ll see how it bodes on 3rd down.

3rd down (regardless of situation; all 3rd downs): 54-110, 49.1%, 550 yards, 5 TD, 2 INT, 14 15+, 2 20+

29% of his attempts, 26% of his completions, and only 19% of his yards. He was pretty bad on 3rd’s, but I guess most take a hit due to the pass heavy situations. His YPA was only 5 yards! So Riley pretty much was gahawful on 3rd’s.

Looking at these stats, Riley looks like a very very good QB on 1st and 2nd down, and then like a 3rd stringer on 3rd down. While I haven’t gotten the numbers yet, it would appear that Riley struggles when the pressure is ramped up and is very good when his back isn’t shoved against a wall. This could be a guess, but from the looks of these numbers it’s a conclusion you could draw.