I wanna see Freeman go into Indy, and New England for a primetime playoff game. yes he is obviously playing better than Sanchez, but I haven't seen Freeman pull wins out of his ass.
Let's look at his comebacks last year: Overcame an incredible 4 pt deficit w/ 30 mins to play in week 1 vs. Cleveland. Won 17-14 Led 14-13 heading into 4th vs. Cincy, fell behind by a whole TD w/ only 12 mins to play. TB picked off Palmer twice, once to set up game tying TD and once to set up GW FG for 24-21 win. Down by a whopping 6 pts heading itno the 4th vs. the mighty Rams the pull out an 18-17 win. Down by 4 pts vs. AZ(after leasding by 10 in the 3rd) w/ an entire qtr to play, he led them all the way back for the 38-35 win Down by an entire point heading into the 4th vs. Washington he led them to the 17-16 win Not one of those "comebacks" was as impressive as Sanchez down 10 at Detroit w/ about 4 mins to play leading his team to 10 pts to force OT and the GW FG in OT OR down 4 vs. Houston w/ :49 secs to play, NO timeouts and the ball inside the NYJ 30.
Jets defense makes the stop on 3rd and short with under 2 minutes to allow the comeback. Sanchez is a leader. Bucs defense cannot stop Drew Montana Stanton from driving 60 yards with no TOs to tie the game or from driving another 60 yards in OT to win the game. Freeman didn't lead.
So in one of Freeman's big comebacks where TB INTs set up both the game tying and game winning scores that was all Freeman? He's obviously not Marino but Dilfer is a very underrated QB. Dilfer couldn't carry mediocre teams like Marino did but he was perfect for that great Bal D which hasn't come close to a SB w/o Trent.
Didn't watch that game and I've never talked about whose comebacks are more impressive or who did more. Just talking about the one game you've grilled Freeman over a few times. One QB got the help from his defense to eventually lead his team to victory. The other didn't. It's that simple.
If he's that good maybe he should have taken over the game earlier? This was the bigest game of his pro career against a team that hadn't won a road game in 3 years. After their 1st TD drive which ended ina TD pass(started at their 40), Blount had a 39 yd TD run to give them a 14-7 lead w/ just under 4 mins left in the 1st half. The rest of the game he led them to just 2 FGs.
I could care less what these guys think, I'll take my QB who wins games over one who puts up great fantasy numbers. Some of them make me laugh though, Carson Palmer? Really based on his fantasy numbers? How many games did the Bengals win last year? Oh yeah and didn't Sanchez beat the Bengals twice in a row in 09? Sorry but winning 4 road playoff games is quite an accomplishment but it's a team game so it's not all Mark but if you really want to see how good the guy has been in the playoffs this is one occasion when I say look at his stats because aside from the wins his numbers are much better then a lot of those guys in the top 10.
To write that Freeman has played meaningless games is patently unfair. His team was in the playoff race till the end of the season. Was Freeman in a playoff game yet? No. Has he been playing in the weaker of the two conferences? Yes. We know this. But be fair about it. Freeman was a member of a 10-6 team last season. The Bucs were not 1-15. **** I don't rank Freeman way above Sanchez. I wonder if people were thinking that. I rank Freeman above Sanchez. I don't believe there is a huge gulf between the two. Furthermore, I believe it is possible Sanchez will have the better career of the two. I don't care what anybody writes here. Based upon what I've seen out of these two guys, I believe Freeman is the better quarterback. When I see more, I very well may change my mind. Football games featuring these two quarterbacks might do it. Message board posts will not do it. Remember, these guys have only been in the league two seasons. There is a small sample of work here. I have not sat down to construct an actual list, but I bet if I did Freeman would only be a spot or two above Sanchez. Would that be egregious on my part? I don't think so. Freeman should have numbers that are better than Sanchez's going forward for the simple fact that he's going to play in better weather than Sanchez for as long as these fellows stay with their current teams. However, Freeman's numbers shouldn't dwarf Sanchez's numbers going forward. Sanchez should be able to close the gap a bit. His numbers are too low right now and I believe any honest Jets fan will admit that. Also, I'm not a huge stat guy. I dislike Schaub and Palmer, I was not a Culpepper fan at his height, I hated Elvis Grbac even when he was putting up fancy stats for KC and tricking Brian "Brain" Billick into signing him to huge money, etc. I preferred Montana over Young, but if you put their numbers side-to-side Young would win out in pretty much every category. I believe Freeman is a more accurate quarterback. Both Freeman and Sanchez seem to be fine leaders. I can't give anybody an edge there. Obviously, Sanchez has directed the Jets to playoff victories and Freeman hasn't even played in a playoff game yet. Is that Freeman's fault? I don't believe it is.
Jake Delhomme also has four playoff road wins. Again, Sanchez has all the intangibles, he gets it done when it counts, he just knows how to win, he is The Balls, he's a magician, he comes through in the clutch, he pulls it out of his ass, he has "it", blah blah blah. I like his potential. He has a lot of room for improvement. To be considered a top flight QB he is going to have to become consistently good. He has been highly erratic thus far. Good for him that he has played better in the postseason than in the regular season.
I think you are referencing the Cincy game. Yeah Bucs defense forced two interceptions which were the major reason for that win, but I am sure Freeman had to drive 50 yards or so tie the game. After the 2nd interception, there were like 10 seconds left in the game and bucs had the ball at like Cincy's 40 yd line. Only one offensive play could be executed and there were no timeouts. Freeman had a 20 yard completion followed by the receiver stepping out of bounds to set up a game winning field goal. If you can somehow watch the final minutes of Bucs vs Bengals highlights video (cannot post links because of my account restrictions), you will see how accurate and clutch that throw he made is. No. The Cincy win wasn't all Freeman, it was the Bucs team who happen to be not such a good team and needed to battle it out to the end against another bad team. Freeman is good though.
I think the Lions fan nailed it in his response. How is Freeman responsible for the loss to Lions when the Bucs defense could not stop Stanton TWICE, once in sub 2 mins of 4th qtr and once more in OT. It is not like Freeman had the ball and did not score after the Lions took a lead.
Freeman and Sanchez having identical stats against top 10 defenses is a bad thing for Sanchez. Bucs are inferior at almost every position in talent and/or experience against the teams like the Steelers and Ravens. Also Freeman's stats getting better by the end of season is looked up on as him facing soft defenses or bad teams. Ever consider if the guy was GROWING as the season progressed? Freeman had a training camp for the first time in his career as a QB and that helped him grow as the season progressed, unlike in 09 when he was the 4th string during off-season, 3rd string around mid season and starter the very next week.
That good? I never said he as an elite QB. Like Cakes, I think Freeman is a little better than Sanchez at this point. I don't think that that opinion is that far out there based on their play thus far.
At this moment Freeman is better than Sanchez. I think when all is said and done though , Sanchez will be known as the better quarterback. His work ethic and intangibles are through the roof. Freeman may be similar but I honestly have no ixdea, I dont follow thr bucs.
The same stuff is said about every NFL starter. The head coach wants to build up the QB for the team, the fans, and the media so they say that he understands the offense, works hard, has the faith of the team, etc.
Come to think of it, two years into his career, we were still hearing that stuff about Ryan Leaf. Every QB does get talked about like that by his team and then the word gets out to the media, the scouts, players on the other 31 teams, fans who had interactions with the player, etc.
