Alex Smith did not break the NFL record for completion percentage in a game on Monday night.
The 49ers asked for an official review of Smith’s 18-for-19 stat line on Monday night against the Cardinals, arguing that Smith actually went 19-for-20 because he completed a forward pass to Michael Crabtree on a play that the official scorer marked down as a Crabtree run. But the San Jose Mercury News reports that the Elias Sports Bureau, which handles the official statistics for the NFL, reviewed the play and called it a lateral, not a forward pass.
In the NFL record book, the record for highest completion percentage in a game requires a player to throw at least 20 passes. So if Smith had completed 19 of 20 passes he would own the record, but 18 of 19 passes doesn’t merit a mention.
So now that Elias has confirmed that the ruling was correct on Smith’s lateral to Crabtree, Kurt Warner is still the record holder for highest completion percentage in a game. Warner went 24-for-26 in a 2009 game against the Jaguars, a 92.31 percent completion rate that will remain in the top spot in the record book.