The reason why Wilson has more interceptions in the 4th quarter is simple, he is forced to throw Hail Mary's or his team will lose. Isn't that where you ideally want your QB to throw interceptions if you are being realistic to the situation? QB's should obviously throw at least slightly more interceptions when they are running out of time in the 4th quarter right?
They have no choice but to force the throw to try to pull their team out of a situation where they have little to no chance to win statistically.
Throwing more interceptions in the 4th quarter is not a flaw in Russell Wilson's game, like I've posted before Wilson has an incredible Touchdown/Interception Ratio behind only Aaron Rodgers. So it's kind of a weak area to try to criticize him in my opinion.
Wilson threw 11 Touchdowns and 1 Interception (Hail Mary with 2 seconds remaining) in the 6 game examples I posted. I'd be surprised if there are very many QB's who don't throw more interceptions in the 4th quarter but you can list them if you know. According to this article 4th quarter interceptions are more prevalent than any other quarters:
http://www.footballperspective.com/analyzing-interceptions-2000-to-2012/
"We can also break interceptions down by quarter. Here’s how to read the next table: Teams have thrown 32.8% of all interceptions in the 4th quarter despite “only” 27.6% of all passes coming in that quarter. That’s because passers have a 3.6% interception rate in the fourth quarter."
5 out of Wilson's 19 Interceptions in his 2 year career have come in situations where he was forced throw because his team was in EXTREMELY BAD SITUATIONS. I am posting all 5 scenarios at the end of this post...
But from all measures of a QB's success Russell Wilson has been the best Quarterback in NFL history in his first 2 seasons.
Wilson has the most wins. He's the only QB to put up over 100 Passer Ratings in his first two seasons.
Wilson also tied Peyton Manning for the 2nd most Touchdowns thrown in NFL history in their first 2 seasons (52), but he did it with only 19 interceptions compared to Manning's 43. The only QB with more Touchdowns in his first 2 seasons is Dan Marino (68). Marino threw 48 Touchdowns in his 2nd season with a 108.9 Passer Rating, which appears to be the best season of his hall of fame career.
It just seems like some people will never give Wilson any credit no matter how good he's been...
I have Aaron Rodgers ranked as my #1 QB but he didn't even start playing as a starter until his 4th season! In Aaron's first 2 seasons as a starter he had 58 Touchdowns and 20 Interceptions (2.9 TD/INT rate), which is pretty similar to Wilson's 52 Touchdowns and 19 Interceptions (2.73 TD/INT rate). However, Rodgers failed to have a 100+ Passer Rating in both of those seasons but still posted a very good 93.8 in 2008.
Including the playoffs as a starter Rodgers went 6-10 his first season and 11-6 his second a total of 17 wins, and no playoff wins.
Including the playoffs Wilson went 12-6 his first season and 16-3 his second a total of 28 wins, and 4 playoff wins.
And I'm not using 4th quarter comebacks to prove a QB's success. I'm simply trying to respond to the post saying Wilson relies on the Run Game and the Defense, that narrative is too common among the NFL media guys and it's simply false. In other words many media guys seem to be under the impression that Wilson is kinda carried by his team, that's he's like a slightly better version of Trent Dilfer or something crazy like that...
4th quarter comebacks are a good way to show that Wilson is capable of putting the team on his back for the win. In 5 out of the 6 game winning drive examples I posted from Wilson's Rookie Season Marshawn Lynch only had a significant role in one of them.
Wilson carried the team in 5 out of 6 of those drives not Marshawn Lynch, so you can't really say he's only good because of the run game.
Wilson is an incredible QB with or without the Run Game and Defense, and with or without arguably the worst pass blocking in the league. He has proven it numerous times in specific games and also with his overall stats for his career.
Finally... here's 5 of the interceptions Wilson has thrown in the 4th quarter. In all cases Wilson was in a very bad situation where the Seahawks were very unlikely to win. I'd rather have an interception when the QB has no choice but to hurl the ball than a QB like Andrew Luck who throws tons of interceptions needlessly.
2012:
Week 4 VS Rams Seahawks behind 13-19 Wilson throws interception with 1:08 remaining and 35 yards to go and no time outs.
Playoffs Week 2 VS Falcons Seahawks behind 28-30 Wilson throws interception with 2 seconds remaining and 48 yards to go.
2013:
Week 5 VS Colts Seahawks behind 28-34 Wilson throws interception on 4th and 15 with 1:31 remaining.
Week 14 VS 49ers Seahawks behind 17-19 Wilson throws interception with 21 seconds remaining and 84 yards to go.
Week 16 VS Cardinals Seahawks behind 17-10 Wilson throws interception with 2:06 remaining and 74 yards to go. This interception was actually bogus because the ball hit the ground first but the refs couldn’t tell and they said that it bounced off of Baldwin’s forearm not the ground. By the laws of physics Doug Baldwins arms would have to be made of rubber or cement for the ball to bounce like that without hitting the ground…
So there's 5 of Wilson's 20 career Interceptions (including playoffs), all of which you can't really fault Wilson because he was put in a nearly impossible situation and was FORCED TO THROW NO MATTER WHAT. That means Wilson has only 15 other interceptions in his entire career from a total of 37 games... I'm sorry but I just don't see your criticism of Wilson's 4th quarter interceptions being a legitimate flaw to his game.