Blaming the three and out on Graham when he threw a perfect ball for a first down that was dropped seems a bit unfair. I also wish you would hold Sims to the same standard as Graham. Sure Graham needed to convert some 4th downs. Sims also needed to convert a 4th down on one of his scoring drives and only did so because of an idiotic roughing the passer penalty. For some reason you don't bring that up when talking about his PPD.
Sims was working with the same receivers, and I also didn't mention the dropped passes when he throws them also. I also don't bring up that Mason was responsible for one of the drives ending when talking about his ppd or that his INT very likely shouldn't have been ruled an INT either.
Graham isn't just being judged for his play this year. We saw him extensively last year where he had issues sustaining drives. What he needs to show is the ability to sustain drives consistently. Now there is only so much you can address in terms of consistently in 4 drives overall, but the 3 and out, even if not entirely reliant on his play, doesn't support the idea that he has improved in that area and the other drives, to me, don't really impress me in that regard. The situation has to be considered. We almost certainly don't go for a 4th and 7 from our own side of the field with the game on the line. If you want to point out we don't go for it on 4th in Sims' case either then I would see the point although I would point out we did go for it on our first drive in pretty much that exact situation.
But if you want to take those points away from both and look at ppd or give a FG instead for both and look at ppd then be my guest. If we punt in both cases then Sims is at 1.75 and Graham is at 0. If we give them credit for FGs on those two drives then Sims is at 2.125 to Graham being at .75. If we give them both credit for the drive ending in FG range that we didn't get a FG for then Sims is at 3 ppd to Graham's 2.5. We could take away the TD from each and give each credit for the FG. In pretty much any scenario the ppd favors Sims.
I am not sure of your point. If it is that Graham was not great, I probably agree. But the question (I think) is whether Graham should be given more of a shot. If anything, the data above suggests he should. The key point is that he did not turn it over and got some production. I personally think the production was as much as Sims, given that Sims's second touchdown relied on a dumb roughing the passer penalty,
And Graham's relied on the pass interference as well. Like I mentioned above, Sims has the better PPD in pretty much any case. Sims over the course of the year has produced significantly more than Graham was able to last year. Against BC when they both played Sims produced more as well.
Sims was in for 39 plays over his 8 drives (not including the last run out the clock drive of the first half) and those 8 drives produced 286 yards or 7.3 yards per play. Now obviously that includes some penalty yards so if we were to be as precise as possible we'd go back and take that out, and if you want be my guest).
Graham was in 4 drives, 23 plays and produced 126 yards for 5.5 yards per play (again penalties included).
Sims is simply more effective than Graham. Graham doesn't turn the ball over, but that isn't enough for what we need. Not turning the ball just to punt isn't going to win us anything with our defense. And in terms of being given more of a shot, QB isn't proportional. It's not like players earn 20% of the snaps. If we go with Graham then we go completely with him, but that should only be if he's the better option than Sims, which he isn't. Now if you mean he should be getting the minutes that Yates had gotten previously, then whatever. He did look better than Yates, although Yates had less than great situations to come in to say the least.
I just see turnovers as killing any momentum and confidence, and we need to focus on reducing those.
Yes, we need to reduce thoughts, but not at the expense of being able to somewhat consistently move the ball. That's what we had last year, and it was worse than what we have now.
