Why Thad Lewis Should Scare the Crap Out of You

The Bengals – particularly Mike Zimmer and the defense – are licking their chops at the opportunity to play Thad Lewis. A 3^rd year QB with just 1 NFL game in his career. In fact, last week at this time, Lewis was on the Practice squad of a losing team with 2 rookies (one undrafted) in front of him on the depth chart. He was so irrelevant, that when he was named the starter on Monday, his player page on ESPN didn’t even list a height or weight for him! The Bengals should win just by showing up, right? In the words of Lee Corso, “not so fast my friend!”

First, Lewis may only have 1 NFL game to his name, but in said game, he played for a terrible Browns team, on the road, against a good Pittsburgh defense, and completed 68.8% of his passes for 204 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT and a respectable 83.3 rating.

Second, he was a 4 year starter in College with 67 TDs to 40 INTs and more than 10,000 yards. Sure, it was not at a good football school (Duke), but the kid has to be good (and smart) to start all 4 years in college. He is also the Duke record holder for TDs and yards, so he has to have some talent.

Third, and most importantly, have you seen the rookie and backup/bad QBs Lewis has lost against during his 10 year tenure? Let me show you the names (R = Rookie):

2003 - Tommy Maddox, Jeff Blake (AZ), Anthony Wright, Tim Couch

2004 - Kyle Boller (2^nd yr), Ben Roethlisberger – R (2x), Jeff Garcia (Cle), Billy Volek (Ten)
2005 - Byron Leftwich, Kelly Holcomb (Buff)
2006 - Bruce Gradkowski –R (TB), Steve McNair (last full yr as starter – Bal), Jay Cutler – R (4^th start)
2007 - Derek Anderson (1^st yr as starter), Damon Huard (KC), J.P. Losman, Shaun Hill (2^nd yr backup to Dilfer)
2008 - Joe Flacco – R (2x – including 1^st game ever), Kerry Collins (Tenn – last full year as starter), Derek Anderson (benched that year)
2009 - Mark Sanchez – R (2x – post season loss), Kyle Orton, Bruce Gradkowski (Oak – backup)
2010 - Seneca Wallace (backup), Josh Freeman (2^nd yr – 1^st full year as a starter), Chad Henne (2^nd year as starter – last year as starter – Mia), Ryan Fitzpatrick, Mark Sanchez (2^nd year)
2011 - T.J. Yates - R (2x – including postseason –5^th rd pick – 3-4 as a starter – 2 wins against Bengals – 1 300 yard game against Bengals), Kyle Orton (only win – 1-4 – before being benched for good)
2012 - Ryan Tannehill – R, Brandon Weeden – R
2013 - Brian Hoyer (5 yr journeyman backup - 3^rd ever start – 3^rd string QB in AZ last year – 150 career passing attempts coming into the game)

 Impressive! Lewis career record (including playoffs) is 82-86-1….37 of his losses (or 43%) have come against the list of rookies and misfits above (and I didn’t even include his loss to Chad Pennington and 2 losses to a past-his-prime Drew Bledsoe)!

 That, my friends, is exactly why playing the great Thad Lewis on Sunday scares the bejesus out of me - and should scare the bejesus out of all Bengals fans – on Sunday.