Throwing the ball to Ike Hilliard is the surest bet in the NFL, according to Football Outisders, the team of stat geeks who study every single play

Joe confesses. He’s a bit of a math geek. He enjoys a quality numbers challenge or some meaty data to study.

So it’s no surprise that Joe admires the work of Football Outsiders, the team of math wizards that has its own set of statistics to breakdown all things NFL. (Please don’t even bother going to their Web site if you ever hated a math class. Your head might explode)

The Football Outsiders recently released “catch rate” stats for wide receivers, which tracks what percentage of balls thrown a player’s way are caught by the player. For what that’s worth, Ike Hilliard leads the NFL with a catch rate of 87 percent. That means he hauled in 33 of the 38 balls thrown to him. Second in the NFC is Arizona’s Anquan Boldin with 73 percent.

No surprise to see Hilliard on top of the list. He runs sharp routes, has great hands and rarely takes a deep throw. And he’s fearless over the middle, as evidenced in the catch against Seattle when Leroy Hill did his best to dislodge HIlliard’s head.

Keep it up, Ike. We need you.