Why Jared Goff’s perfect night didn’t result in a perfect passer rating

When it comes to quarterback performances, it doesn’t get much better than what Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff did with the Seattle Seahawks. Goff finished the game 18 of 18 for 292 yards, two touchdowns and apparently zero interceptions. He even added a 7-yard touchdown grab.

Goff’s night set an NFL record for most passes in an entire game without an incompletion.

“I don’t think I ever did,” Goff said of his incomplete night. “I knew I did it in the first half last week, so I was aware of it then, and I was kind of aware of it – halfway through the third quarter I thought I couldn’t think of anything.”

But even though Goff didn’t throw a single incompletion throw, he didn’t finish with a perfect passer rating. His score of 155.8 was just below the “perfect” score of 158.3.

How in the world is an 18-of-18 performance with nearly 300 yards and two touchdowns not a perfect performance? Does it have anything to do with the sacks he took with him? The late security he gave up? The incomplete pass he threw that was negated by an offensive penalty?

The answer is none of these. The answer is that passer rating is an extremely flawed statistic that requires four components for a perfect rating, and Goff only had three of them.

To achieve a perfect passer rating, a quarterback must (with at least 10 passes):

• Have a minimum completion rate of 77.5%
• Averaged at least 12.5 yards per attempt
• No interceptions
• And have a touchdown percentage of at least 11.875%

Goff has apparently met the completion percentage threshold with a 100% completion percentage. He averaged a whopping 16.2 yards per attempt. He didn’t intercept. However, his two touchdown passes out of 18 pass attempts resulted in a TD percentage of 11.1%, less than a single percent away from the “perfect” threshold.

The obvious flaw in this formula is that Goff significantly exceeded the other thresholds. If he had thrown an incompletion throw and gone 17 of 18, he would still have met the completion percentage threshold and his passer rating would not have changed. He also doesn’t receive any additional bonuses for averaging nearly four yards more than the “perfect” threshold per attempt.

In other words, passer rating is a strange, somewhat arbitrary statistic that doesn’t really capture the “perfection” of a perfect passer rating.

If you’d like to learn more about how the passerby rating is calculated and why it’s so flawed, our friends at our sister site Secret Base made a great video about it just two weeks ago.

You’re still perfect in our eyes, Jared.