Talk » ck in the league, while Wentz is connecting

SEOUL, South Korea -- Police in South Korea are investigating Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang over whether he crashed a luxury car while driving under the influence of alcohol and then left the scene early Friday.Police are also investigating whether Kang asked a friend to falsely report who was driving the vehicle, according to an official at Seouls Gangnam district police station, who didnt want to be named, citing office rules.According to police, Kang didnt stop after driving a rented BMW into a guardrail at around 2:48 a.m. while returning to his hotel in southern Seoul. The crash damaged the guardrail, and the vehicle, and the debris hit a car parked nearby, whose driver reported the matter to police.A 29-year-old man who was in Kangs vehicle initially claimed he was behind the wheel. But police questioned Kang after the vehicles security camera showed him driving it.Police said Kangs blood alcohol level at the time of the crash would have been 0.084 percent, beyond the countrys 0.05 percent legal limit. Kang has so far denied asking or intimidating the friend into falsely reporting to police, said the police official.Kang, 29, signed a four-year, $11 million deal with the Pirates in 2015 after Pittsburgh paid his Korean club, the Nexen Heroes, $5 million to negotiate with the slugger. He hit .287 with 15 home runs and 58 RBI for the Pirates during his rookie season, which ended abruptly on September when Kang injured his left knee while at the receiving end of a takeout slide by Chris Coghlan of the Chicago Cubs.Kang hit 21 home runs and 62 RBI in 103 games in 2016, but his second season in the majors also included an off-the-field incident in Chicago in June when a 23-year-old woman reported being assaulted by Kang inside a hotel. The woman said she blacked out, and then drifted in and out of consciousness as he sexually assaulted her. The womans name has not been released and Kang has not been charged.The incident in Seoul adds to a turbulent week for the Pirates, who are also exploring trade offers for All-Star centerfielder Andrew McCutchen. The 2013 NL MVP, a five-time All-Star, is coming off the worst season of his career and still has two years remaining on a contract that will pay him $14 million in 2017 and carries a $14.75 million club option for 2018.---Associated Press reporter Will Graves in Pittsburgh contributed to this report. Richard Dent Jersey . Cote was eligible to become a free agent Feb. 15. Cote helped running back Jon Cornish run for a league-high 1,813 rushing yards en route to being named the leagues most outstanding player. Kyle Juszczyk Jersey . As he recorded his 23rd and 24th points of the evening, a segment of the sellout Air Canada Centre crowd expressed their appreciation for the Raptors point guard with a smattering of MVP chants. http://www.custom49ersjersey.com/custom-trent-dilfer-jersey-large-1948d.html . DAmigo scored twice in regulation and added the shootout winner as the Toronto Marlies edged the San Antonio Rampage 5-4 in American Hockey League action. Freddie Solomon Jersey . - Oakland Raiders running back Rashad Jennings was speaking to a group of local high school students earlier this week when the conversation turned to the importance of being prepared when opportunities in life arise. Charlie Garner Jersey . Defenceman Yannick Weber scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and the Canucks breathed a sigh of relief with a 2-1 win on Saturday night. The raw passing numbers of rookies Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys and Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles look fairly similar:Prescott: 68.7 completion percentage, 7 passing touchdowns, 1 interception, 103.9 passer ratingWentz: 63.8 completion percentage, 8 passing touchdowns, 3 interceptions, 92.7 passer ratingBut through the lens of Total QBR, a significant difference emerges. Prescott leads the league with an 82.9 QBR, while Wentz ranks 29th with a 49.9. Both quarterbacks have been good enough to win (the Cowboys are 5-1 heading into their Sunday night showdown against the 4-2 Eagles), so where do the differences in their performances lie?Context is keyTotal QBR is opponent-adjusted, so a?good performance against a bad defense is weighed as such. Wentzs numbers are hurt by the fact that hes faced the easiest set of QBR defenses in the league thus far.For example, in Week 1, Wentz had an unadjusted QBR of 66.1, which looks pretty good by itself, but if we take into account that it came at home, the opponent was the Cleveland Browns and that it was the second-lowest opponent QBR allowed by the Browns this season, it gets adjusted down to a 53.2 -- just about average. This isnt isolated to just the Browns game. Wentz has the lowest QBR allowed by the Lions and the Redskins as well. A look at the strength of Wentzs performances for each team Philadelphia has played:Prescott has also faced a fairly easy set of opponents (28th easiest of 31 qualified quarterbacks) but has exceeded what other quarterbacks have done against those defenses:Its worth noting that the duo shares a pair of common games so far, having both played Washington and Chicago. In both cases, Prescott had a vastly superior raw QBR (98.8 to 58.8 against Chicago and 88.2 to 30.7 against Washington) to Wentz.Moving the chains on third downOne big spot in which Prescott has separated himself from Wentz is third down. Prescott has the sixth-best raw QBR on third down, with a 72.0, while Wentz ranks 22nd with a 36.8.The big driver hhere is their conversion rates when passing.dddddddddddd Both have converted their only third-down scramble attempt and have taken five sacks apiece, but when they do throw on that down, Prescott has converted 48 percent of his attempts into first downs, where Wentz has converted only 35 percent of his attempts -- less than the league average of nearly 40 percent.Overall Prescott is completing 73.1 percent of his third-down pass attempts, best of any quarterback in the league, while Wentz is connecting at a 56.3 percent rate, slightly less than the league average (59.4 percent).Wentz reliant on short passesNo qualified quarterback has a higher percentage of pass attempts come on screen plays than Wentz at 16 percent, and only Matthew Stafford has attempted more screen passes overall (32 to Wentzs 29). Wentz also has the second-highest percent of attempts at or behind the line of scrimmage of qualified quarterbacks, slightly behind Alex Smith at 27.6 percent.These shorter passes by design are set up to help the quarterback, and QBR takes that into account when dividing credit on the play. So when Wentz connects with running back?Darren Sproles 5 or 6 yards behind the line of scrimmage and Sproles ends up with a big gain, most of the credit there is given to Sproles and the offensive line, not Wentz. Meanwhile, Prescott is in the bottom third of the league in passes at or behind the line of scrimmage, with just 17 percent of his attempts in that range, less than the league average of 20.7 percent.When we add everything up, we see that Wentz has not outplayed other quarterbacks who have faced the same defenses, is not converting third downs at a high rate and is reliant on having his receivers make plays for him on short passes, all in contrast to Prescott.All of the above tells the QBR story -- even if the raw numbers and team records would suggest the players are equal.? ' ' '