San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith: For me it's about winning games – NFL News
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith has said that only victories matter to him and that no other thing in the National Football League (NFL) is more important than winning games.
Talking to Mercury News, Smith reiterated that the most important thing for him is to win games.
A couple of months ago, Smith criticised Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton for registering gaudy statistics in the 2011 season without leading the team to more victories.
Newton had played his first professional season last year and he shocked everyone by his brilliant performance. He ended up the season completing 310 passes of 517 attempts for 4,051 yards while scoring 21 touchdowns and throwing 17 interceptions.
The statistics were good, but Smith cited the team’s overall record of 6-10 and mentioned that playing games while registering more yards did not count if the team lost the game.
Smith was trying to make a point that yards-per-attempt matter more than the overall yards gained by any quarterback and he has now said that he did not want to bring Newton’s example up.
When asked about his remarks about Newton, he said: “Obviously I got carried away there”.
That being noted, Smith is still on his words and believes that overall yards do not matter. He said:
"I was going after more of the passing-yards statistic and I don't really believe there's a great correlation to winning in the NFL. I don't. I don't buy it. If you're looking for a statistic that has a better correlation to winning, it's probably yards-per-attempt."
The 49ers quarterback, who himself had a remarkable season last year, cited his team’s playoff game against the New Orleans Saints’ whose offence was led by quarterback Drew Brees, another quality quarterback. Brees registered over 5,000 passing yards last season.
Smith said:
"I said the same thing last year when we played the Saints in the playoff. Yeah that offense is pretty prolific and threw for 5,000 yards. For me, I'm trying to score more points than the other team. I don't really care how we do it."
Smith also said that his personal record does not matter for him as long as he is able to secure victories.
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