Loyalties are hard to break, and in asking the question of which quarterback will be better between the Arizona Wildcats' Nick Foles and the Washington Huskies' Keith Price, the answer will likely come down to which team you're rooting for.
Delving into the numbers, however, we can see that Saturday's contest will be a high-scoring, fun-to-watch affair. That's partially because Arizona's defense has been horrible until last Thursday's shellacking against the UCLA Bruins. It's also partially because Husky fans REALLY, REALLY don't like their defensive coordinator, Nick Holt, and his struggling defense that got blasted by Stanford.
But in the end, it's going to be a shootout because both teams have damn good quarterbacks.
Just check out the numbers. Come Saturday, we pretty much know what to expect from Foles and Price.
While Foles is fourth in the nation with 2546 passing yards and second in attempts, Price easily takes the cake in passer rating. The UW signal-caller is sixth in the nation with a 168.7 rating while Foles' name doesn't show up until the 20th spot, where he has a 153.2 rating, according to ESPN.Granted, quarterback ratings should be taken with a grain of salt; Andrew Luck is fifth in the nation, though he's behind some legit players like Robert Griffin III of Baylor, Russell Wilson of Wisconsin, Case Keenum of Houston and Kellen Moore of Boise State.
There's the touchdown-to-interception ratios to deal with in this match-up as well.
Foles has a solid 18-to-5 ratio with Price coming in with a 22-to-5 touchdown to interception stat. Red zone offensive struggles have definitely hurt Foles' cause for Arizona in that regard.
Completion percentages? Again, both quarterbacks are pretty solid here as well. Foles hits 70.9 of his throws for a 8.0 passing average while Price completes 68.4 percent of his passes for 8.3 yards per play.
Here's another interesting look at the two QBs.
Foles' numbers progressively drop in completion percentage as he marches toward a goal, and that's pretty common considering the field shortens and gives quarterbacks less space (plus, Arizona's run game has been shoddy). But Price's stats jump out -- his completion percentages increase dramatically as his field position gets closer to the end zone this season. See below:
Keith Price
BY FIELD POSITION
CMP
ATT
YDS
CMP%
YPA
LNG
TD
INT
SACK
RAT
ATT
YDS
AVG
LNG
TD
OWN 1-19
6
11
108
54.5
9.82
59
0
0
1
137.0
1
-10
-10.0
0
0
OWN 20-39
42
64
552
65.6
8.63
70
1
0
3
143.2
9
-1
-0.1
13
0
BETWEEN 40'S
33
50
433
66.0
8.66
52
1
3
1
133.3
6
19
3.2
8
0
OPP 39-20
38
55
444
69.1
8.07
38
6
1
7
169.3
12
-1
-0.1
10
0
OPP 19-GOAL
22
26
176
84.6
6.77
17
14
1
1
311.5
3
-1
-0.3
1
0
OPP 9-GOAL
9
10
42
90.0
4.20
9
7
0
0
356.3
0
0
0.0
0
0
Nick Foles
BY FIELD POSITION
CMP
ATT
YDS
CMP%
YPA
LNG
TD
INT
SACK
RAT
ATT
YDS
AVG
LNG
TD
OWN 1-19
24
32
363
75.0
11.34
47
0
1
1
164.0
2
-7
-3.5
0
0
OWN 20-39
68
89
647
76.4
7.27
44
0
1
4
135.2
6
-26
-4.3
2
0
BETWEEN 40'S
67
93
801
72.0
8.61
54
1
3
5
141.5
7
-31
-4.4
7
0
OPP 39-20
44
69
568
63.8
8.23
34
6
0
3
161.6
8
-8
-1.0
6
0
OPP 19-GOAL
24
37
167
64.9
4.51
18
11
0
1
200.9
3
-10
-3.3
3
0
OPP 9-GOAL
8
13
39
61.5
3.00
7
7
0
1
264.4
2
-13
-6.5
3
0
Now that I've vomited all that out, we can look at intagibles.
Foles is a senior. Price, a sophomore. Foles usually has no run game. Price does. Foles was called by Mel Kiper on Twitter as a possible first-round NFL pick. Price? Nobody is looking that far ahead in his career quite yet.
I don't have an answer for who will prevail and lead their team to victory. I think it's safe to say the quarterbacks won't struggle, though.