2009/01/15

Breaking Down the QB's


This NFC Championship features a match up of two very good quarterbacks, who are both still playing at the top of their game, despite both being over 30. McNabb and Warner have matched up head to head against each other five times, including the playoffs. McNabb has always been on the Eagles, while Warner has played against the Eagles as a member of the Rams, Giants, and Cardinals. Here is how they match up against each other head-to-head.

McNabb
15-32 179 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT
32-48 312 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
18-30 171 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
26-36 330 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT
27-39 260 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT
TOTAL
118-185 1252 yards, 14 TD, 4 INT

Warner
12-24 141 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT
28-42 308 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT
22-33 212 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT
16-28 203 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT
21-39 235 yards, 3 TD, 3 INT
TOTAL
99-166 1099 yards, 7 TD, 7 INT

As you can see from this, McNabb has outplayed Warner in each team's head-to-head matchup, especially recently. McNabb has a better completion percentage of 63.8% to Warner's 59.6%, has more passing yards, more passing TD's, and fewer INT's.

Also, if you look at each quarterback's career stats, it is interesting as they are fairly similar, and both probably borderline hall of famers. Here are both QB's stats for the regular season and the playoffs.

McNabb
2534-4303 29320 yards, 194 TD, 90 INT
Playoffs
294-493 3147 yards, 20 TD, 15 INT

Warner
2327-3557 28591 yards, 182 TD, 114 INT
Playoffs
209-332 2712 yards, 19 TD, 12 INT

McNabb has better career numbers than Warner in every category except for completion percentage, which is one of Warner's strengths. It is an interesting debate as to which if either of these QB's will go into the hall of fame one day. McNabb will soon pass 30000 career passing yards, and 200 TDs, and has the lowest interception ratio in NFL history. He also has a lot of rushing yards and rushing TDs for a quarterback, and is very good at escaping pressure. However, he has never won the Super Bowl, and is seen as a QB who has come up small in some big games. While Warner's overall numbers aren't as good as McNabb's, Kurt Warner has won a Super Bowl, as well as a Super Bowl MVP, and two regular season MVP awards. These two QB's will face off for a 6th time head-to-head for the right to represent the NFC in this year's Super Bowl.

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