What seemed to go unnoticed in the discussion about Sunday's victory is that the Ravens only scored 22 points on six Rams turnovers with their backup quarterback in for the entire game. While Kyle Boller performed adequately, he had only taken snaps with the first team offense for most of the week. Now it appears that he will pilot the offense this Sunday in Buffalo and will have the entire week to practice under that premise. Many local fans have been calling for the Ravens to make this switch for weeks, blaming the Ravens anemic scoring and Red Zone offense on McNair. Even though Boller has taken around half the game snaps as McNair, their stats are earily similar, proving that perhaps the QB doesn't matter in this issue. Both are in the 63-65% completion range, with their yards per attempt virtually identical. Their QB ratings are mere points apart, and both have thrown two TD's and two interceptions, although Boller has done so in half the attempts of McNair. That being said, perhaps it's more of a play calling or lack of confidence issue with Billick than whomever is under center in the Red Zone. Either way, we'll get to see what Kyle Boller can do this week when he gets another start against the Bills. However Ravens fans, don't get your hopes up that Boller will be named the permanent starting QB, as according to Billick, this is being done to give McNair's aging, battered body a chance to heal through this week and next week's Bye, in order to be healthy to make the start in week #8 on Monday Night Football against Pittsburgh. Before any of you on the Boller Bandwagon start whining, remember that McNair led the Ravens in their two beatdowns of the Steelers last season. So for now, let's root on Boller and the Ravens next week on the road, where the Ravens have had limited success this season. If and when the Ravens go into the Bye with a road victory Sunday, then we can start up the QB debate once again.
(Complete Boller/McNair stats compared on next page.)
Boller McNair
51 Completions 103
81 Attempts 157
471 Yards 922
63 Percentage 65.6
5.82 Yards/attempt 5.87
37 Long 30
2 TD 2
2 INT 2
76.7 QB Rating 80.2