Joe Montana is regarded by many as the greatest NFL quarterback (including NFL coaches and players). His stats were good for the era, but have been eclipsed. He didn't have the arm that a lot of quarterbacks had.. like ..Marino, Elway and many others. But if the game's on the line you'd want Montana on your team. Montana had the benefit of a lot of great players too, but I don't see how that would diminish his rating as a QB (and I'm not looking to get in a junc-esqe argument, so I'll be clear and say THIS IS MY OPINION). But the fact is: No quarterback can carry the whole team on his back. Someone has to block, someone has to catch the goddam ball, and the defense needs to make the tackles. And they all rely on the coaches and front office to build the team. But how do you measure a QB? I'm not a big fan of football stats. On a stat sheet, a 10 yard throw to win a game in the last seconds looks exactly like a 10 yard throw on 3rd and 20 that is short of the first down. And they are clearly different. Wins are the only really stat that matter in the long run. A QB that is on a team that has a balanced offense is never going to have the stats as a QB that has to pass 50 times every game to have any chance of winning. That's the reason I see that many QB's have inflated stats (Brady). What I most appreciate Sanchez is an 'intangible'. If the Jets are down by a score and we get the ball with 2 minutes left, I have every reason to believe that he will do what it takes to win the game. It happens more often than not. Though he may seem to get flustered and wild at moments in a game, he seems to never get overwhelmed with the game on the line. I appreciate people that can maintain focus and keep their cool under fire. As opposed to the goofy smile that Romo gets on his face after a botched play to lose a game. Romo has great stats though. Zzzzzzzz.
The Jets were not a great team last year. They were a good team. The fact that they got to the AFC Championship game again is largely attributable to the fact that Sanchez had a great game against the Pats, Jerrico Cotchery made a ridiculous catch and run late with a bad disk and having had a groin pull midway through the season and Shaun Ellis played the game of his life that day. The Jets have not been close to a great team in the Rex Ryan era. They've been a good one. To become a great team a lot more needs to happen than just Mark Sanchez turning into a great QB. They need much better play inside on both sides of the ball. They need to be able to dominate on the ground when the situation calls for it, as in when the most important factor on the day is keeping the ball out of the opposing QB's hands. They need to be able to put consistent pressure on the QB. Right now the only thing on the Jets that's looking like it might be great at some point is Mark Sanchez. Everything else is regressing. That's the problem.
Excellent post. Winning games, especially in the playoffs when it's win or go home, is a team effort. Some great QBs have played on pretty crappy teams for most or all of their careers. Fran Tarkenton, Archie Manning, and Carson Palmer are three that come to mind, and never really got the opportunities to even play in the playoffs like many lesser QBs.
I just realized in that Brown catch to seal the game against us, the LB at the end rushed Big Ben instead of sitting back in coverage. He EASILY could've been sitting there to pick the pass, or cause Ben to throw it away. Wow. Still stings to this day. Anyone catch the LB? Can't tell from the angle, looks like Thomas or Pace though. on edit, I see it was Pace. Damnnnnnnn.
Tarkenton did play in 11 playoff games. It took him a while to appear in a playoff game, though. He was 33 when he saw his first postseason action.
