Carson Palmer suffered a sprained left thumb; breaking down his performances based on quarters and game-winning drives

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will he be handing off the same way next week?

OchoCinco

by Kirkendall on Oct 12, 2009 11:46 AM EDT in Injury Comment 2 comments

Tape held his left thumb with his index finger, tied outside on a glove to prevent too much movement on his hand. This is what Bengals fans saw. But we didn't know exactly what was going on at the time. Carson Palmer tried to hand off the football with his right hand. It looked uncomfortable. It looked unorthodox. No, it looked down right scary. When he handed the football off, I looked to my right and said, "he's going to fumble it." Thankfully, it didn't affect his throwing hand.

It was later reported that Palmer suffered a sprained left thumb, when "trying to break a tackle by putting his hand on the ground."

His response when he had to hand off right-handed?

"He told me to rip it out of his hand," Benson said.

That would have probably required a Band-Aid and a timeout.

How good is Carson Palmer late in the game? I wanted to break down Palmer's performances, splitting away the fourth quarter from the first three quarters and even the overtime period against the Cleveland Browns. I also wanted to show Palmer's performance during game-winning and game-tying drives. It's very interesting to note that Palmer's rating jumps in the fourth quarter over any other period. Even though his passing percentage drops in the fourth quarter, three of his seven touchdowns this season are in the fourth.

	ATT	CMP	CMP%	YARDS	TDS	INTS	RATING
1st-3rd Quarters	104	64	61.5	766	4	5	76.8
4th Quarter	49	27	55.1	287	3	1	84.3
Overtime	15	6	40	63	0	0	52.9
	168	97	57.7	1,116	7	6	76.9

But how does Palmer perform on game-winning and game-tying drives? I accumulated stats against the Pittsburgh Steelers, both game-winning and game-tying drives against the Browns and the game winning drive against the Ravens.

	ATT	CMP	CMP%	YARDS	TDS	INTS	RATING
Steelers	13	7	53.8	59	1	0	91.5
Browns	10	7	70.0	58	1	0	117.9
Ravens	8	4	50.0	49	1	0	108.9
	31	18	58.1	166	3	0	105.0

I also wanted to include the touchdown drive against the Denver Broncos that took a 7-6 lead with :38 seconds left in the game. Since it didn't end up being a game-winning drive, I had to exclude it. However, if we included that, then:

	ATT	CMP	CMP%	YARDS	TDS	INTS	RATING
Broncos	6	6	100.0	69	0	0	114.6

Palmer is obviously stepping up when he needs to late in the game. This is, in fact, now something that's not new, even though it is, because we now expect it. Aren't we spoiled?

Who's the most reliable receiver during the Bengals game-winning and game-tying touchdown drives?

	REC	YARDS	TDS
Brian Leonard	5	34	0
Andre Caldwell	4	41	2
Chris Henry	3	35	0
Chad Ochocinco	1	2	1

Breakdown by teams.

Carson Palmer in the fourth quarter
	ATT	CMP	YRDS	TD	INT	RATING
Denver Broncos	10	8	84	0	1	62.1
Green Bay Packers	2	1	11	0	0	66.7
Pittsburgh Steelers	17	10	96	1	0	94.2
Cleveland Browns	10	4	47	1	0	88.3
Baltimore Ravens	10	4	49	1	0	89.2
	49	27	287	3	1

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by featherman on Oct 12, 2009 3:25 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Carson Palmer in game winning and game tying drives late in the game

Denver Broncos

Pittsburgh Steelers

Cleveland Browns

Baltimore Ravens

WHile Chad has not been getting touches on the game winning drives, it seemed to me that the Ravens were so scared of him that they decided to take a pass interfernce rather than let him touch the ball late.

by jim0ijk on Oct 13, 2009 1:14 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs