My confidence level in Ryan Fitzpatrick, which has been very solid for a long time, bottomed out this week. But, before abandoning the man completely, I want to look at his stats and see if anything jumps out which might explain the recent nosedive. I have divided Fitz’s Bills career into two eras: the first is from the Ravens game of 2010 (when he convinced me that he could lead our team); the second starts after last season’s Redskins game (when he started looking like he couldn’t lead this team).

From week 7, 2010 (Ravens game) to week 8, 2011 (Wash game)

Passing:

completion/attempt(%)...yards…TD…INT…YPA(yards per attempt)

358/585 (61%)…4144 yds…30 TD…20 INT…7.1 YPA

Record: 9-8

Multiple INT games: 6

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From week 9, 2011 (Jets game) to present

Passing:

216/369 (59%)…2288 yds…13 TD…19 INT…6.2 YPA

Record: 1-9

Multiple INT games: 7

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Obviously, the ugly stat here is the interceptions. Seven multi-interception games out of the last 10. That’s awful. It kills us. The team’s record is 2-11 during this 27 game sample when Fitz throws two or more INTs. He simply CAN’T do that!

The other intriguing stat is the reduction of YPA. Other Rumblers have gotten me to notice this stat more. Could the drop-off mean that Ryan isn’t looking downfield as much? Does this stem from a lack of speed receivers? Stevie has been gimpy for a year now, and the rest of our WRs aren’t exactly HOFers. It may be grasping at straws, but I’d like to see the Bills offense go vertical more. Fitz does better when throwing down the middle rather than toward the sidelines.

Conclusion: Ryan, I’m still in your corner, man, but there’s a limit to everything.

p.s. It wouldn’t hurt if Nix could pull off a trade for a top shelf WR.