Alright, let’s talk about this whole Texans quarterback thing. It’s funny, I got kinda sucked into it more than I usually do with sports stuff a while back. Wasn’t just about watching the games, you know?
I remember thinking, okay, everyone’s got an opinion on who should be starting, who the next big guy is gonna be. Analysts, fans, my neighbor Dave… everyone’s a genius. So, I figured, why not try and figure it out myself? Not like, professionally, just for kicks.
Getting Started – The ‘Brilliant’ Idea
My big plan? I decided I’d track some basic stuff. Nothing fancy. Didn’t have access to any secret sauce data or anything. Just grabbing numbers off the main sports sites.
- Completion percentage.
- Touchdowns.
- Interceptions.
- Maybe yards per attempt? Seemed important.
I thought, maybe I can spot a pattern, you know? See if the eye test matched the simple numbers. I fired up a spreadsheet, felt real smart about it for a hot minute.
The Messy Middle
Man, that got complicated fast. First off, just finding consistent numbers week-to-week was a bit of a chore. One site calls a play one way, another calls it slightly different. Then you got injuries, guys rotating in and out. My neat little spreadsheet started looking like spaghetti.
I tried comparing potential draft picks too. Watched some college highlights, jotted down those stats. It was even worse! College game is different, level of competition is all over the place. My genius system wasn’t looking so genius anymore. It felt like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall.
I spent a few evenings on it, trying to make sense of my own notes. Got kinda obsessed, comparing QB A from Week 3 against QB B from Week 5, factoring in who they played against… it was a rabbit hole.
What I Figured Out (Sort Of)
Here’s the kicker: After all that messing around, my grand conclusions were… pretty much useless. My predictions were basically guesses, same as everyone else’s. The numbers didn’t tell the whole story. Stuff like leadership, how the guy handles pressure, how the offensive line is playing – none of that showed up easily in my basic stats.
It kinda reminded me of this project I worked on ages ago. We had all this data, charts, projections. Looked great on paper. But then reality hit, unexpected problems popped up, and the ‘human element’ threw everything off. Same deal here.
So, what did I really learn? Mostly that tracking this stuff is harder than it looks, and maybe just enjoying the game is the way to go. It’s easy to be an armchair quarterback, way harder to actually figure things out. Gave me a bit more respect for the guys actually making the decisions, even when I totally disagree with them. Now, I just watch the games, yell at the TV like a normal person. Much simpler.
