NFL playoff thread

Probably not. But I'll annoy the people who do it in the meantime. Win some, lose some.

 

Yeah, I'd say "What RickStain says" is pretty far down the list of importance re: decisions on sports statistics.

 

I would have to see some links on that, because I just don't remember it. The general narrative I recall, as Mizzougrad does, is "how in the hell are they even getting there and oh my God are they in for trouble." The fact they were beating the Giants at halftime of their first Super Bowl was a minor miracle.

 

I'd be interested to learn how many commenters on this thread evaluate starting pitchers by their win-loss records in the regular and post-season.
It was widely recognized that the '80s Broncos had some major weaknesses. I remember interviewing Greg Kragen, their nose tackle, at Super Bowl XXII and thinking "this guy isn't THAT much bigger than I am." But Elway got his share of flak, too. Anybody remember the "Simpsons" episode where Homer daydreams he's Elway scoring a last second touchdown, and the announcer's voice says "thanks to John Elway's last minute magic, the final score of the Super Bowl is San Francisco 55-Denver 6!"

 

Rick's going to have to start with pro-football-reference.com, which gives W-L records for quarterbacks but nobody else.

 

I think you're both right, actually.

 

I hope he shares his e-mails to them and baseball reference with all of us here.

 

I remember them just fine, but the Super Bowl performances are what will last.

 

Probably the best way to put it.

Go back through the archives of say 90 - 97 and you see the same reference again and again. Often in the lede. Elway defined by the Super Bowl he hasn't yet won:

www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct1997/nf71031c.htm

articles.latimes.com/1993-03-09/sports/sp-1023_1_john-elway

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1009290/4/index.htm

www.nytimes.com/1996/11/17/sports/the-mile-high-pedestal-denver-is-elway-s-city.html

"Let's get a few things straight about John Elway. He can be impatient, unaccommodating and rude. He can be insensitive and a prima donna. He has never won a Super Bowl and, in fact, has lost three of them. And, of course, he is not in the Hall of Fame. Not yet, anyway."

 

Elway's numbers are also a particularly bad comparison with Manning. He only went over 60% completions three times his whole career; Manning has only been under 62 percent once, as a rookie. And during his entire pre-Shanahan time his TD high for a season was only 25, and he only went over 3,500 yards three times. (After his rookie year, Manning only finished under 4,000 yards once, and that was in 2005 when he essentially sat out the final two games.)

Totally different style of play on the risk-reward ratio. So Elway not getting to 200 or 250 yards in a playoff game would not be particularly telling or out of the ordinary.

 

You mean they don't do that for offensive linemen?