NFL playoff thread

Well, other than the fact that three of the four QBs playing this week haven't been to a Super Bowl . . . and QBs such as Mark Sanchez and Rex Grossman and Jake Delhomme and Matt Hasselbeck have all made cameos in conference title games and/or Super Bowls in the past decade.

We shouldn't have to say "if," but as long as people continue to base a QB's legacy on two dozen variables he can't control, those "if" questions will keep coming up.

This was a BYH post about Flacco:

"But Flacco is the worst kind of QB: A guy with first-round pedigree who is good enough to post a lot of empty wins when everything around him is clicking and mislead you into thinking he might be The Guy....but nowhere near good enough to actually be The Guy."

Three AFC title games in five years . . . playoff performances that exceed his regular-season performances . . . and "nowhere near good enough to actually be The Guy." Not just "not good enough", mind you, but "NOWHERE NEAR good enough." Uh, whatever.

This is the kind of idiocy I keep railing against.

 

BTE, we are very much on the same side regarding Flacco. I've never understood the writing off of him.

 

Flacco's the kind of guy — big arm, questionable touch on short passes — who would have been a legend had he played in the AFL. He'll throw out a 20-for-41, 140-yard, 2-INT game once in a while against the Steelers, but I agree he's much better than his reputation.

 

I saw something on Twitter last night comparing Flacco's playoff record in five seasons to Peyton Manning's... I know it's hardly Apples to Apples, but still, pretty amazing...

 

And I'll remember that third-and-19 to Brown a couple of playoffs ago.

This has been debated to death, but how many great quarterbacks never won a Super Bowl and how many never even played in one?

You play all season to put yourself in position to make a play in the playoffs. Some guys make those plays, and some do not.

 

This is where I dislike being on Devil's side on the small point (Peyton Manning, or last year Tim Tebow) because I do not like that larger point at all.

I never saw Dan Fouts as an underachiever. I never saw Dan Marino as one. Nor John Elway at the time that, I've just learned, that was a widely held opinion. Nor did I think Dilfer or David Woodley was a quality quarterback because they made the Super Bowl.

To say Flacco needs to go into New England and beat the defending AFC champs and 10-point favorites, or else his reputation and legacy will suffer, is ridiculous.

 

Agree completely. There's a big difference between having the record that Tony Romo has in big games and what Matt Ryan had until last weekend and Flacco, who is apparently guilty of not making it to a Super Bowl.

 

Flacco is McNabb

 

if flacco had come out of usc or a big 10/sec school he'd be much more celebrated. but coming out of delaware means he's been fighting an uphill battle between perception and reality. he's still a baby in 'qb years' -- a mighty accomplished (playoff tested) baby at that. he gets tons more heat than he should.

 

To be a great quarterback, in my mind, in this league you need to be able to go on a three to four game winning streak in January and February. Sure, winning one game is nice, and you can have a ball bounce your way one or two times in another game, but to win those games, in order, against the best of the best playing their asses off separates some quarterbacks from others.

Each QB has a window to do this that is either a couple years long or, like Brady 10-12 years, but you have your chances. Many of them.

Dan Fouts had his chances. Warren Moon had his chances. Archie Manning had his chances. Dan Marino had his chances. Randall Cunningham had his chances. Philip Rivers has his chances. Tony Romo has his chances.

And right now Joe Flacco has a chance, and he should have many more in the upcoming years, but he blew a couple in Pittsburgh the past few seasons.

 

So suppose Flacco goes wild and throws for 375 yards Sunday and the the Ravens upset the Pats. But then he throws two picks in the Super Bowl and the Ravens lose. Does that mean he got to be great for the two weeks before the game, then went to being a mediocrity?

 

If...

If...

He won three games in a row in January. To me, that says a lot.

Hell, winning in Denver last weekend was a big step forward for him.