Sep 23, 2014
1:55:51pm
Some context on completion of long passes
Back in 2011 I took a look at 42 past BYU games for which I had at least partial information about length of the pass (relative to LoS). For those games, these were the completion percentages on passes over 10 yards:

57% 11-12 (147 attempts)
51% 13-15 (146 attempts)
47% 16-18 (119 attempts)
41% 19-21 (117 attempts)
34% 22-26 (101 attempts)
30% 27-35 (109 attempts)
28% 36+ (102 attempts)

That's the percentage actually caught, not the percentage of "well-placed" attempts. Here's the percentage of long throws that I considered completely uncatchable:

19% 11-12
21% 13-15
28% 16-18
28% 19-21
39% 22-26
39% 27-35
32% 36+

The remainder of the throws are drops, non-drops that the player touched (typically off the hands -- poorly thrown but potentially catchable), and pass breakups or interceptions (includes some good throws and some bad throws). Drops increase as a proportion with distance, and throwing drops into the mix I get this percentage of good passes:

60% 11-12 (147 attempts)
56% 13-15 (146 attempts)
50% 16-18 (119 attempts)
46% 19-21 (117 attempts)
38% 22-26 (101 attempts)
37% 27-35 (109 attempts)
35% 36+ (102 attempts)

IOW if only half of Taysom Hill's long passes are "good", that may actually be a fairly typical performance.
Braves Fan
Bio page
Braves Fan
Joined
Feb 4, 2005
Last login
Nov 10, 2014
Total posts
1,627 (6 FO)
Messages
Author
Time

Posting on CougarBoard

In order to post, you will need to either sign up or log in.