Germany: Berlin Rebels QB James Harris almost perfect in win over Hamburg Huskies

| American Football | 06/01/2017

Berlin Rebels quarterback James Harris was as close to passing perfection as he could be Saturday in the Rebels 63-6 win over the Hamburg Huskies in Germany Football League action.

On a team with a reputation for running the ball down opponents’ throats, Harris had a passing game to remember. He simply picked apart the Hamburg second en route to a 14 of 15 – 93.5%! – passing day throwing for 242 yards and six touchdowns.

His only incompletion came early in the second quarter on his fourth attempt of the game, a deep ball. By that time Berlin had already taken a 14-0 lead and Harris had completed all three of his pass attempts. He went on to complete three more on the same possession leading to the Rebels third touchdown of the day and then he did not miss again the entire game.

Harris also ran for a touchdown while running back Lawrence McCoy added another.

For his performance, the German Football League named him a Top Performer for Week 6.

According to Harris, he was not even thinking about his completion rate:

“I wasn’t thinking about the completions, I was just trying to execute each play the best that I could. And the incompletion came on a deep ball that I did not throw far enough. I am happy I was able to play well and we got the win.”

By comparison, on Tom Brady’s best day passing in the NFL,  he completed 26 of 28 passes for 262 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2008. 

The best single game completion percentage in NFL history was is by Ryan Tannehill of the Miami Dolphins. He hit 18 of 19 (94.7%)  in a game against the Houston Texans two years ago in a Dolphins 44-26 victory.

This is Harris’s first year playing in Europe. The 25 year old played for three years at the California University of Pennsylvania (NCAA Div. II) where he amassed 7,349 yards passing and 56 touchdowns. He is a gifted athlete and actually started his collegiate career at Wake Forest on a baseball scholarship where he played for three years before transferring to Cal to play football.

So far in his three GFL games, Harris has completed 46 of 68 passes for 619 yards and eight touchdowns (no interceptions).

Photo: Christian Gosslar

Roger Kelly is an editor and a writer for AFI. A former PR Director the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League for 7 years, he now lives in Sweden writing about and scouting American Football throughout the world.