Comparing The Wide Receivers To Adam Sandler And Not In A Good Way

by Mark Sandritter on Nov 12, 2011 2:26 PM PST in 2011 WSU Football News

Remember when the wide receivers used to be so fun to talk about? Marquess Wilson was putting up video game numbers while eight others got involved in the action. There was a week where the receivers as a group averaged double digit yards per target.

As I was running the numbers for the Cal game, I was trying to think of a good analogy for the wide receivers up then down season. Then I noticed Kyle and BigWood were discussing Greek mythology and literature (OK more like video games and terrible movies) on Twitter and their tweets led me to the following conclusion. The wide receivers performance in 2011 has followed the same path as Adam Sandler's career, and that's not a good thing.

Let's take a look at how they compare.

The wide receivers started the season with their four best performances of 2011. Their first four YPT averages of 8.42, 12.88, 9.68 and 8.05 ranged from slightly above average to elite. Very similar to Sandler's early career with movies like Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy. Those were the days.

Then the wide receivers performance and Sandler movies start to go down hill. In their next four games, the wide receivers put up YPT of 6.09, 5.05, 7.45 and 7.17. Ranging from bad to below average. At the same time, Sandler's career shifted into the Anger Management, 50 First Dates, Spanglish and You Don't Mess With the Zohan phase.

This brings us to the most recent performance against Cal. The WSU receivers set a new low for futility with a YPT of 4.29. Ouch. I would have said not even Sandler's career could dip that low, then I saw the trailer for Jack and Jill, which may be in the discussion for worst movie ideas of all-time.

Player	Targets	Catches	Yards	Drops	1st Downs	YPT	Catch%	Drop%	1st Down%
Isiah Barton	7	1	16	1	1	2.29	14.29	14.29	14.29
Bennett Bontemps	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Henry Eaddy	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Jared Karstetter	8	2	26	1	2	3.25	25.00	12.52	25.00
Isiah Myers	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Bobby Ratliff	2	1	6	0	0	3.00	50.00	0.00	0.00
Gino Simone	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Kristoff Williams	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Marquess Wilson	14	7	85	1	3	6.07	50.00	7.14	21.43
WR Totals	31	11	133	3	6	4.29	35.48	9.68	19.35

That is about as ugly a wide receiver chart as you will ever see. Karstetter and Barton combined for three catches on 15 targets. If you only glanced at the YPT numbers you would probably think these guys play baseball and have a decent ERA.

Wilson's 6.07 YPT is his second straight week with a sub 7.0. This makes me sad.

Player	Targets	Catches	Yards	Drops	1st Downs	YPT	Catch%	Drop%	1st Down%
Isiah Barton	73	42	483	10	22	6.62	57.53	13.70	30.14
Bennett Bontemps	2	1	10	0	1	5.00	50.00	0.00	50.00
Henry Eaddy	9	4	35	0	1	3.89	44.44	0.00	11.11
Jared Karstetter	71	30	444	8	25	6.25	54.93	11.27	35.21
Isiah Myers	13	7	76	0	3	5.85	53.85	0.00	23.08
Bobby Ratliff	32	21	213	1	14	6.66	65.63	3.13	43.75
Gino Simone	7	3	37	0	2	5.29	42.86	0.00	28.57
Kristoff Williams	10	7	113	1	4	11.30	70.00	10.00	40.00
Marquess Wilson	93	59	974	8	37	10.47	63.44	8.60	39.78
WR Totals	310	183	2385	28	109	7.69	59.03	9.03	35.16

After a couple weeks of hovering around average, the wide receivers have officially dropped to below average production levels. Both their yards per target and catch rate are below NCAA averages.

After producing at an elite level for most of the season, Wilson's YPT has dropped to merely very good. He averaged 10.59 yards per target in 2010 so he has actually dropped below his freshman average despite a higher catch rate and significantly more targets. A lot of the recent decline in his numbers can be attributed to the lack of big passing plays. Wilson does not have a catch of at least 50 yards since he caught the game winning 63-yard touchdown against Colorado.

Of all the other wide receivers, only Ratliff's catch rate and Williams' small sample size inflated numbers are not below average. Take away Wilson's numbers and the other wide receivers average 6.5 YPT with a 57.1 catch rate. Yikes.

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Comments

Dink and donk

Generally speaking, if you don’t throw the ball down field the yards per catch are pretty low. And against Cal most of the passes were of the short, dink variety…at least until the game was out of reach.

by coug79 on Nov 12, 2011 3:10 PM PST reply actions

Pretty sure BigWood and I always have deep, intellectual discussions via twitter.

Why, just last week we were conversing about the origins and non-sexual nature of his name. He is excellent at chopping wood into large pieces.

twitter | CougCenter

by Kyle Rancourt on Nov 12, 2011 3:40 PM PST via mobile reply actions

11 catches and 3 drops on 31 pass attempts

Do these numbers not indicate that Lobster missed his target 17 out of 31 times? If so, can we really hang the crappy stats solely on the receivers?

Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits

by Say Howdy Kid on Nov 12, 2011 5:25 PM PST reply actions

It's certainly not all on the WR's

If I had the time and the video to do it I would love to break down each throw to find out how many are catchable passes. That being said, when the receivers do catch passes they aren’t doing as much with them as they did previously.

CougCenter I Twitter

by Mark Sandritter on Nov 12, 2011 5:41 PM PST up reply actions