This post is sponsored by Comcast and their NFL RedZone channel. If you want to see every touchdown from every NFL game as it happens as well as live look-ins to all of Sunday's games in key situations hurry up and get yourself Comcast's NFL RedZone Channel.
Up until now we've broken down the 49ers red zone abilities in a whole assortment of ways. I feel we've reached a point where there will be a lot of repetition in that kind of post. So, I thought I'd mix it up today. We're going to start mixing in a Comcast NFL Red Zone "Stat of the Week." The stat will not necessarily reflect the red zone, but rather some random stat I think is interesting and worth discussing.
Today I thought we'd look at Alex Smith's home and road numbers, as he prepares for yet another tough road battle. This was inspired in part from reading Mike Sando's Final Word post over at ESPN. In his post yesterday Sando wrote about the fact that Smith has a passer rating of 93.3 on the road and 73.8 at home. As most of us know, passer rating is not exactly the greatest indicator of success. So, I thought I'd roll out some more specific numbers for Smith based on his home/road splits.
Home
91/144, 780 yards, 63.2%, 6 TD, 6 INT, 73.8 rating Record: 3-1
Opponents: Tennessee, Chicago, Jacksonville, Arizona
Road
77/132, 941 yards, 58.3%, 9 TD, 3 INT, 93.3 rating Record: 0-4
Opponents: Houston, Indianapolis, Green Bay, Seattle
We've had the debate over and over and over again about wins and losses as a QB stat. Wins and losses are a team stat. So, we've got a QB who is seemingly performing better on the road, but losing much more. Tomorrow he faces a Philly team that has a very solid defense and could conceivably give him fits. The Packers are probably the toughest pass defense Smith has faced this year, but the Eagles defense is not that far behind. I'll take take worse numbers if it can net a road win.