49ers quarterback Alex Smith was asked during a conference call Thursday morning about his controversial comments this spring about Carolina Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton, Cam Inman of Bayareanewsgroup.com reports.
Smith reiterated his belief there is no correlation between passing yards and victories, although he did note that “obviously I got carried away there” by citing Newton’s Panthers as an example.
“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,” Smith added. ” 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.”
Smith set career highs with 3,144 yards passing and a 61.4 completion percentage leading the 49ers to a 13-3 record and the NFC West title last year.
“For me it’s about winning games,” Smith added. “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.”