Dave Sez

Can't Stump The Schaub

Don't look now, but former Virginia quarterback Matt Schaub is having an incredible preseason with the Atlanta Falcons. Backing up the paper mache Michael Vick, Schaub has had back-to-back games with 3 touchdown passes and no interceptions. In the first of those two games (his second overall), he completed 16 of 19 passes.

As a point of comparison, Philip Rivers and Eli Manning, the two rookie quarterbacks that everyone is watching, threw for exactly 0 touchdowns, 4 interceptions and one fumble in their last preseason games.

In fairness, that game was Rivers' first and Schaub wasn't too hot in his first game either, but then little was expected of Schaub. You may remember that last year, he was the second best quarterback in the ACC behind Rivers. While Schaub had a very good season, Rivers clearly was better, winning all the major conference awards. The year before though was just the opposite. Rivers had a great junior year, but Schaub was even better and Schaub went on to be first-team All-ACC and ACC Player of the Year. His senior year got off to a rough start when he was injured early in Virginia's first game and missed most of three games. He still went on to have a very good year and finished his college career as the second most accurate passer ever (behind Tim Couch of Kentucky).

So, anyway, back to the NFL. Like I said, Schaub passed for 3 touchdowns and no interceptions in each of his last two games. You want to guess how many times the great Michael Vick has done that in his entire NFL career? Never. In fact, Vick has never thrown three touchdown passes in a game, period.

Don't get me wrong, I know that this is preseason and it doesn't really count. Real games are different, but still. It looks to me like Matt Schaub has shown that he belongs. And since he's playing behind a very fragile player, he might just get to prove that earlier than anyone thought. And for the Falcons, that might not be such a bad thing.