Patrick Peterson's Coverage Stats Shocking (And Not In A Good Way)

by Jess Root on Jan 13, 2012 11:00 AM MST in Arizona Cardinals Stats Posts

Arizona Cardinals fans were treated to a great rookie season by Patrick Peterson. He made the Pro Bowl and the All-Pro first team -- as a returner. As a cornerback, his season can be characterized as a struggle overall. Yes, we can see that he saw great improvement and was even considered by Cincinnati Bengal rookie receiver A.J. Green as the best corner he faced.

However, as Pro Football Focus found in their coverage stats showing the best and worst, Peterson fared among the worst statistically. Let's take a look.

Peterson was picked on a lot by opposing quarterbacks. Only four other corners were thrown at more. He was targeted 113 times and allowed 67 catches, the third highest total in the league. That converts to an almost 60 percent completion against rate. The completion rate isn't near the worst, but it is definitely below average.

Another stat to note is that Peterson also allowed the third most yards in coverage. He allowed 869 yards.

On the bright side, he was not among he worst in everything. His QB rating against was right around average. When throwing at PP, their rating was 85.0. The very best rating was a paltry 45.6 (Darrelle Revis) and the worst was 129.9 (Quentin Jammer).

He was also penalized 10 times.

Now, if you look at his game logs, you will see inconsistency. There were four games in which he gave more than 90 yards. They were Week 1, 4, 11 and 13. Then there was Week 16 against the Bengals when he was only thrown at twice and did not give up a catch.

If by simply watching him over the year, you will noticed this -- after the first few weeks, when he was asked to cover down the field, he did well. He stayed hip-to-hip with the opponents' top receivers. It was underneath he had issues with tackling and spacing.

The good thing is that he showed flashed of becoming a very good cornerback. A full offseason with OTAs and minicamp will do him a lot of good.

Hopefully next year he isn't showing up in these stats again.

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Comments

There was a noticeable difference in his play between the first and second half of the season.

I think numbers may be skewed a bit in this case. Our whole secondary was atrocious while trying to learn the new steeler style D. Our safeties were constantly out of position and not doing their jobs in coverage. And when you think you will have safety help over the top, and you don’t, that’s usually a big play for the other team that counts against the corner even though it wasn’t his fault. I can think of numerous times this happened during the season off the top of my head.

Couple that with absolute horrendous pass rush and a D line that initially could not stop runners…. It’s a recipe for disaster!

Not saying Peterson didnt have his fare share of coverage issues, but I’m not gonna look to much into these numbers as they are sorta misleading.

by cgcardzfan on Jan 13, 2012 11:59 AM MST via mobile reply actions

+100%

Exactly what I was thinking, but I didn’t feel like typing all that. Thanks.

When life gives you lemons... Bag them up and sell them. Fruit can be expensive these days.

by hevchv on Jan 13, 2012 2:03 PM MST via mobile up reply actions

Not many rookies....

are asked to cover the other teams best reciver from day 1. With no offseason. Few rooks would have good numbers with the fourth highest target’s as well. I’m not concerned at all.

by J Steezy on Jan 13, 2012 1:18 PM MST reply actions

Exactly

How many corners are shut-down corners their rookie years? It’s called one of the toughest positions on the field for a reason – some even call it the toughest after QB.

PP did ok for a rookie and showed flashes and development. All you can really expect at this point. Not disappointed in him at all, other than he needs to learn to tackle instead of bumping or diving at the feet. But I’m sure in a Horton D that will be addressed.

by CardsFan1976 on Jan 13, 2012 1:26 PM MST up reply actions

This right here

Not only was he learning a new defense with the team but he was asked to cover the best player day in and day out. He looked bad at the beginning of the season but he really started to turn it around as our entire defense made a 180 on the season. Next year I expect pretty big things out of him in CB play as well as PR.

"If Gortat pulls off a real Dream Shake in-game this year I will shave my head.
Mark my words." Piotr Szczesniak 12/12/11 2:12 PM
Cardinals, Suns, D-backs for life!

by Airwave on Jan 13, 2012 1:59 PM MST up reply actions

Penalties

Every time a throw covered by Peterson is incomplete, I frantically look for a flag. No seriously, if he was penalized 10 times out of 46 incompletes, that’s about 22% of the time his “successful coverage” results in a flag! Of course you don’t need stats to prove it because I feel it every single game.

by KholdStare88 on Jan 13, 2012 2:59 PM MST reply actions

Well, the NFL does seem to have the guys throwing flags every time an imcomplete pass is thrown now

I look for it too in every game

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by JoeCB1991 on Jan 13, 2012 4:09 PM MST up reply actions

This is why,

Stats<Not as good of judgement as what you see on the field. Peterson wasn’t terrible in coverage, but then again having Clark Haggans and Joey Porter as your primary pass rushers won’t do you any favors either. Scho and Cho will remedy that next season and while a shutdown corner status is still a few season out, I’d like to see a handful of INT’s from him.

Formerly known as Cardsfan928, If you wanna grab a quick game of madden, my screenname is also my Xbox name.

by INSOMAN1ATIC on Jan 13, 2012 7:14 PM MST reply actions

Stats are good.

But you have to take them in context. Every completion and touchdown are not created equal.

There was an NFL Films article after the second 49rs game where they actually broke down game tape and we have been using Patrick Peterson on an island, Revis style.

So in context of that, there probably aren’t many CB’s who could perform as well as he has in that position.

by GraydonS on Jan 14, 2012 9:28 AM MST up reply actions