How would you feel about your team if you saw they only gained 188 yards, with 49 passing yards, controlled the ball for 25 minutes and committed 2 turnovers? Then what if I said your opponent had twice as many yards and almost 3 times as many first downs?
You'd probably be feeling pretty good, because I'd be asking about the 2005 Chicago Bears who just won their 8th straight, beating their biggest rival and preventing a HOFer from entering the endzone.
How could they possibly win with such lopsided stats? A defense that comes around once every 20 years or so, that can dominate another team while still giving up good numbers. It's hard to completely prevent another team from gaining yards when your offense is so terrible.
And make no mistake about it, Orton and the entire "offense" are terrible. 0 for 10 on 3rd down conversion. Which just makes the defensive performances so impressive. When the offense can't stay on the field, it should wear a defense out. When an offense moves the ball so poorly, it oftens drains the momentum of the defense. But this Bears D forcers turnovers and scores points at crucial points, at the ends of both halves today.
Which reminds me, I am so sick of hearing how great Orton is, that he should be MVP or rookie of the year, or that he is "leading the team to victory." Today they showed a graphic: "most wins by a rookie qb." Generally I am against giving the teams w-l record to represent a qb's record. (ex: Bledsoe is 4-0 against the Redskins.) You should never say that about any other player on a football team (Vanderjagt is 1-6 lifetime at New England) or in any other team sport (Pujols is 12-4 against the Cubs this year). So why do people say that about QB's? Because we envision Montana and Elway driving the team to victory and think that the leader of the offense must be responsible for the entire team's performance.
This echoes back to the argument of Marino vs. Super Bowl winning QB's & Peyton vs. Brady. It's a team sport. And unlike other team sports, Marino couldn't exactly play defense either. So somehow Trent Dilfer is going to be ahead of him on the QB food chain because Marino couldn't get a ring. I understand winning championships is everything. I'm glad people think rings are more important than stats. But since we know defense wins championships, how can you disrespect Marino with stuff like "He never won the big one." Well, if by "he" you mean the Miami Dolphins never won the big one, then that's true. But it sure wasn't the QB's fault.
Look I love Brady. And he's shown he's clutch time and time again. If I was building a team to win the Super Bowl this year, he's #2 on my list. But #1 has got to be Peyton. I don't care that Brady has the hardware. Manning's better. That's no knock on Brady. But it's a team sport. It's not Manning's fault that while he's throwing 49 touchdowns, he's defense was trying to match it. But once the defense starts playing well, everybody is ready to proclaim Manning the best QB of all time.
But this all started with Orton. And the fact that he stinks. He's got the lowest passer rating in the NFL. And whenever he throws the ball more than 5 yards downfield, you just kind of wince. Even if you're like me, and you don't care about the Bears, it's almost like a drunk driver doing 60 floating across the hashmarks. You can't take your eyes off it, but you have this feeling that this can't end well. And when the ball harmlessly falls 10 yards overthrown, you kind of sigh thinking, that turned out pretty good.
Let me repeat that, he has the lowest passer rating in the NFL. Joey Harrington is performing better and he's getting benched. Aaron Brooks is performing 17% better, and people are calling for his head. A fellow rookie by the name of J.P. Losman is performing better. And yet "Orton for RotY", "Orton for MVP". If the Bills had the Bears D, would that make Losman the Rookie of the Year.
Also, in case you were wondering if Orton's stats were hurt by the Bears' run first mentatlity, Roethlisberger has thrived in his first 2 years in a similar system, with a passer rating currently 3rd in the league, and over 50% better than Orton's.
The fact that the Bears have been able to carry such a miserable QB to 8 straight wins is beyond impressive. But it doesn't make Orton's shitty throws smell any better.
Well said. I only take exception to one point. The Manning vs. Brady debate. This isn't really a measurable statistic, but Brady is more clutch than Manning. Somehow, he always makes the plays when it counts and when his team needs it. One way of measuring this is with championships. Of course, his dynastic team has put him in the position to be able to make the plays to put them over the top.
ReplyDeleteNow that Manning has an amazing team, we'll see what he can do come January.
I can't fault someone for taking Brady over Manning. He's obvliously clutch factor. If I was making a video game, his CLCH rating would be 99. Like when it was 29-29 with a minute to go in the Super Bowl against the Panthers, he made a couple killer throws to get Vinatieri in range to be a hero.
ReplyDeleteAnd if we were GM's with a challenge to build a team from scratch, I'll take Manning, you'll take Brady, and I bet it will be darn close.