Arizona Cardinals: The Good and Bad From Josh Rosen’s First Win
The Bad
He Wasn’t Incredibly Accurate
To start, it must be noted that Rosen has suffered from several dropped passes by receivers in both of his first two starts.
#AZCardinals rookie QB Josh Rosen completed only 55.6% of his passes. However, after adjusting for drops and throwaways, Rosen's completion percentage rises to 72%
— PFF ARZ Cardinals (@PFF_Cardinals) October 1, 2018
On this flip side, though, Rosen wasn’t very accurate in his second start against San Francisco. There were maybe three drops by Arizona receivers in said game, so if they take those away he would have still been a woeful 10-for-22 (45 percent).
There were at least five throws that Rosen either missed an open receiver or was just throwing into no man’s land. Luckily, when he is throwing into no man’s land, it’s in a spot where they’re not near-interceptions.
As time goes on and he gets more comfortable with his receivers, or when his receivers get better, his overall completion percentage (49.2) will go way up.
Crummy On Third Down
This sort of ties into his inaccuracy and his receiver’s propensity for dropping passes but Rosen and company were dreadful on third down against San Francisco. On 12 third-down situations, they were able to convert twice. With that said, it really should be 2-for-10 because one was on a failed spike to end the first half and another was at the end of regulation when he took a knee. Still, though, 2-for-10 is not good.
Of their eight failed third-and-whatevers, five came via incomplete passes. One, late in the first quarter was a near-interception by Richard Sherman on an awful throw, and another should have been converted had Chase Edmonds not dropped a ball right on the money. The others, for the most part, never really had a chance.