Like Peyton Manning before and after his bye, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback David Garrard’s first half (weeks 1-3) numbers and second half (weeks 4-6) numbers are like night and day. Garrard, who made a name for himself last season by making smart decisions with the football and throwing 18 touchdowns to just 3 interceptions began the season looking completely different.

In the first three weeks of the season, Garrard threw for at least 200 yards in just one game and had a touchdown-interception ratio of 1-4. He was sacked seven times week one, and his quarterback rating in the first three weeks of the season was between 62.4 and 75.4. Bad numbers for any quarterback; but for someone on a team with serious playoff aspirations, even worse.

But then in week four Garrard began looking like a different quarterback. He completed almost 72 percent of his passes and finished with 236 yards and a touchdown. But more importantly, he didn’t throw an interception. The next two weeks looked eerily similar, as Garrard again passed for more than 200 yards in each and passed for one touchdown, zero interceptions.

Garrard’s quarterback rating for the first three weeks of the season was a 68.1, putting him in the basement among starting NFL quarterbacks. But over the next three weeks he posted an average rating of 98.7. His season rating as of now is 84.5, but it’s clear that his trend is improving and he’s getting better as the season progresses. Perhaps it was because he was trying too hard in the first three weeks of the season to make things happen and to live up to last year’s performance. Whatever the case, Garrard is looking good, now. And to Jacksonville fans, that’s definitely a good thing.

Key Points

• Garrard was terrible in the first three weeks of the season but has been brilliant in his last four games
• He doesn’t throw a lot of touchdown passes (he’s hasn’t thrown more than one in a game this season)
• He’s limiting his mistakes while increasing his pass attempts

Tags: David Garrard, Fantasy Football, Jacksonville Jaguars, QBs

 Email This Post   |    Print   |  Share This

Entry posted on Saturday, October 18th, 2008 at 5:14 pm. Filed under tags: David Garrard, Fantasy Football, Jacksonville Jaguars, QBs,
RSS 2.0 | You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.