There has been a lot of discussion about the Rice QB, Taylor McHargue (TM), and how well he played in the second half compared to the first. A lot of us were impressed by our defense in the second half but also thinking in the back of our minds that he was injured.

Here is some data to help us with our memories.

Late in the second quarter, with 39 seconds lefts Anthony Barr "D-barred" TM. He went out and Turner Peterson entered the game, completed one pass, was sacked on the next play by Datone Jones, fumbled and Damien Holmes picked it up and tiredly jogged into the end zone. End of the first half.

The injury that took out TM looked to be to his throwing arm and up until that point here were his numbers:

14 of 19 passes (with one INT)

25 rushes (for the whole team)

Also, of the 7 sacks, five of them were on TM, and three of those were in the first half. Though it looked like he absorbed several hard blows in the first half, and not so many in the second half.

In the second half, TM's numbers:

3 of 9 passes

15 rushes (for the team)

That's a big drop in pass plays for TM and much lower completion %.

1st half - 44% of plays were passes, 74% completion rate

2nd half - 38% were passes, 33% completion rate

Now, that could be due to his throwing arm being injured or our improved coverage using the Nickel defense. With some game film we could probably zoom in on his arm and face to see if he was wincing or hurting after the D-Barr.

Without that I guess it comes down to what you believe. His numbers were obviously not the same after the pseudo-injury. Do you think that was because of our improved defense? The offense staying on the field longer? Or, was his throwing arm injured?