The Arizona Cardinals were on the road against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. Going into the game it was understood that this would be an uphill battle for Arizona. Cardinals’ quarterback Clayton Tune was making the first start of his NFL career. This is a daunting task for any NFL player.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Tune’s task was even more daunting than it already would of been because he was going against Myles Garrett and that Browns defense. Cleveland was only giving up 19.9 points per game going into this game against Arizona. The Cardinals were not able to climb that hill at all. They were dominated from the opening kick to the last second of the game. The Browns won the game, 27-0.
Clayton Tune Could Not Hit The Right Note
Tune went 11/20 for 58 yards and three turnovers. He was also sacked seven times for a loss of 41 yards. Tune only had a net gain of 17 passing yards. He finished the game with a quarterback rating of 20.8. The 32nd ranked player in quarterback ranking this season is New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones with a rating of 70.5.
The former University of Houston quarterback was not able to lead the Cardinals into a single scoring opportunity. Arizona did not attempt a field goal, there were no passes attempted in the red zone and no pass attempts that even fell incomplete in the end zone. How did Tune’s performance compare to some of the worst in NFL history?
Tune vs Ty Detmer
Tune turned the ball over three times against the Browns. This is not good but the NFL has seen much worse. On September 23,2001, the Detroit Lions took on the Cleveland Browns. Ty Detmer started that game for the Lions. He went 22/42 for 212 yards, one touchdown and seven interceptions. Yes, you read that correctly, he threw seven interceptions.
Detmer was going against a Browns defense that finished the year ranked 15th in the NFL in points given up. Ironically the Browns gave up 19.9 points per game that season which was the same amount this year’s Browns team was giving up going into the game against Arizona. Tune did a much better job of protecting the ball than Detmer did. Now, in fairness to Detmer, he was asked to pass the ball a lot more than Tune was. The coaches have to shoulder some of the blame as they continued to to put the ball in Detmer’s hands despite the turnovers.
Tune vs Ryan Leaf
Tune only completed 11 passes which is bad but not the worst. Ryan Leaf was the number two overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers. In the third game of his NFL career it was clear that the Chargers made a mistake with that pick. Against the Kansas City Chiefs he went 1/15 for four yards and two interceptions. Leaf was only able to complete one pass!
Another thing that makes Leaf’s performance stand out is that their running back was good in that game. Natrone Means had 22 carries for 165 yards and a touchdown. Leaf had much more support in the running game than Tune did. Tune was the leading rusher for Arizona with 28 yards. The second leading rusher was Keontay Ingram with eight yards on nine carries.
Leaf was also protected more than Tune. Tune was sacked seven times compared to two for Leaf. Leaf had the help of a very good performance from his running back and good protection from his offensive line. Even with those advantages Leaf still only completed one pass for four yards.
The NFL has been around for more than 100 years and there are lots of bad performances to point to in NFL history. As bad as Tune was, this was not close to the worst performance of all-time from a quarterback. Ty Detmer and Ryan Leaf’s performances are just scratching the surface of all-time bad showings. Tune was horrible but there were a lot of things that went wrong that were outside of his control. He was bad but one of the worst.
