David White points out an unflattering statistic about Sunday's 13-10 Raiders win over the Chiefs on his San Francisco Chronicle blog.
It wasn't just the worst statistical performance of JaMarcus Russell's Oakland Raiders career. It was the worst statistical performance of JaMarcus Russell's entire life playing organized football at any level -- high school, college or pro.
Russell had completed only three passes -- three! -- prior to the final two minutes of Sunday's game. During one stretch, he threw 10 straight incomplete passes. If you started JaMarcus Russell this week on your fantasy team, then as your starting quarterback JaMarcus scored you all of 2.03 fantasy points.
But Russell never fumbled or threw an interception, so he was spared the infamy of a 0.0 quarterback rating. He earned a still-dismal 46.0 QB rating. There has not been a 0.0 rating in the NFL since Chris Redman earned one for the Atlanta Falcons in 2007.
Russell's 29.2% completion rate Sunday on a nightmarish 7-for-24 performance was the worst completion percentage of Russell's Raider career. His previous most-awful completion rate was 31.6% in last season's 24-0 loss to the Falcons.
Going back to Russell's college days at LSU, his worst performance was a 13-for-29 outing in a 2005 game against Arkansas. That game earned him only a 44.8% completion rate, but Russell still threw two touchdowns and won the game.
And he never had such a poor game in high school, where to this day Russell still holds the record for the most career passing yards for any Alabama high school quarterback.
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But Russell deserves credit for somehow pulling that final touchdown drive out of his rear end and winning the game. He definitely helped the Raiders in the most important statistical category, the win-loss column.
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who didn't know until just now that Joseph Addai also played on those JaMarcus Russell-era LSU teams.
