That D had 3 injuries in their Secondary GOING INTO THE GAME then lost a key player DURING the game. NOT APPLES TO APPLES. Edelman would be great in Denver or Indy, so would Vereen so would Amendola, so would LaFell. Just stop. And you're still ignoring the fact that the players they have ARE PERFECT FOR THE SYSTEM THEY RUN! So stop with Manning had better talent the Brady bullshit. It's all about how you utilize the talent you have, and Brady has been fortunate to have coaches who can identify players that they can use in their system and then put them in places where they can succeed. It's not a knock on Brady. You say this all the time, but overall talent doesn't matter if coaches use the talents they have correctly. The Patriots are the best at doing this. They have the best coaches in the NFL and it's not even close. Belichick is the one of the top 3 greatest coaches of all time. No doubt about it. Seattle had two HUGE players get hurt at the end of the GB game and Chancellor got hurt in practice leading up to the SB. They weren't healthy in the SB. NOT APPLES TO APPLES BB had an old team in CLE, made one playoff run then Modell took the rug out from under him. He inherited a disaster of a team and had a gun shy quickly aging QB who was not a good fit for their system. Brady was perfect for what they ran
Dungy was a mediocre/overated HC. He never won the big one before Manning (Gruden takes his roster over and wins the SB the very next year) and Fox is okay, but like Dungy a big game choking HC.
he would have won w/o Manning and het got a team to a title game which was something Belichick never did w/o Brady. Not to mention Dungy's SB win was won w/ defense. ok so big game choking and HC and big game choking QB is not a good combo but the last time Fox was in the SB he had a journeyman QB lead his O to 29 pts in a 32-29 loss against a supposed great defense.
I don't know how anyone can say that. The AFC remains theirs to lose and Brady just proved that you can dink-and-dunk your way to a Super Bowl win (which is a depressing in it's own right). Brady's throwing 87% of his pass attempts under 10 yards, as long as he stays healthy it will take a while for him to regress to the point where he can't complete all these whips, drags and dump offs to RBs. Not to mention their D is young, they have one of the best CBs in the game and the best head coach in NFL history. I imagine they'll be favorites to win the AFC next year. Excuse me, I need to go shower now...
did they play? Gronk was hurt in 2011, those are the breaks. Brady was sick, he played and played well. the talent level is mid of the pack, he has Gronk and a bunch of average players. he didn't have Thomas, Thomas, Decker, Sanders, etc... an old team? he took over in 1991, why couldn't he get younger? made one playoff run then was 4-5 before Modell announced move. it's not like they were good before the announcement. a disaster of a team? he inherited 8 starters on their first SB team including 5 on D and thought so highly of Drew Bledsoe gave him a $100 mil deal after the 2000 season. he got lucky w/ Brady and it saved his HC career.
Quarterbacks regress rapidly, and do so when no one thinks it will happen. .. the breaks went in favor of New England this season. They escaped Baltimore, ran into a Colts team that they matchup well against , and they ran into a banged up Seattle defense. They were on the other end of this a few years, so it evens out. They should be the favorites to win the AFC season , but I just don't think they'll return to the big game and there's no guarantee Revis or Devin will be Patriots next season.
Dungy was a good head coach. Notably very conservative and by the book. Fox is mediocre, defensive head coach that is even more conservative than Dungy. Just look at the tactic he used in the Ravens playoff loss 2 years ago, he chooses OT and sits on the ball with 30 seconds and 2 TOs left. Pitiful. Belicheck never does that in a million years. McCarthy is a top head coach? On what planet? Dude makes blunder after blunder, and plays ultra-conservative even with a HoF QB. If the better QB wins, why didn't it happen yesterday? Wilson had a higher passer rating, higher QBR, and turned it over less than Brady, yet the Seahawks lost. One word: coaching.
Yeah, LaFell was a really hot commodity. Everyone was trying to snatch him. Same with Amendola, who has spent more time being injured than being on the field. Edelman is a 7th round pick who played defense the last time they were at the SB. I mean how could Denver keep up with such firepower? Poor poor Manning, maybe he can get some help next year. Welker went to Denver. Peyton had an all star cast of wide receivers and tight ends, better than anything Brady has ever had, including the team with Moss. How did he fair against the Seahawks? He looked as confused as he always does when he gets bounced out of the playoffs. And two years later Edelman is better than what Welker is/was. But it's all about the coaching. Stick 12 to that Denver team and there is no way in hell they lose to the JV club the Broncos lost this year in the playoffs. But again, Manning is never at fault when he does his one-and-done routine. Defense failed him or the refs were bad or the weather was a factor or he was hurt or fill-in-the-blank. You want 6 td's in November versus the Raiders? Manning is your guy. Want someone to run the last minute drive to win a playoff game? Brady all the way.
he saw his QB keep Baltimore in the game, didn't want him to blow it in regulation. it turned out he blew it in OT. in order to be a top HC you have to be overly aggressive like when BB went for it on 4th down deep in NE territory handing Indy a game a few years ago? you think Wilson was better than Brady yesterday?
Yes, Wilson was more effective on a per play basis. Look at yards per attempt, look at the big rushing gains, look at the consistent big plays down the field. Despite less than half the passing attempts of Brady, had almost as many passing yards. A good chunk of Brady's yards were YAC too, guys like Edelman, Amendola, and Vereen making Seahawk defenders miss. It was close because of Brady's 4th quarter, but I still think Wilson had the better game overall. I don't recall any drops by the Pats WRs too. Kearse dropped an absolute killer in the late 3rd quarter which would have probably sealed the game for Seattle on a beautiful deep ball by Wilson. That incompletion alone was a better pass than anything Brady threw all night. I think Brady is a better QB than Wilson and had a better season, but Wilson was more dynamic in this game, he made the more difficult plays.
Another Strawman. The argument that the system is of greater importance than Brady doesn't equate to Brady being meaningless and interchangeable. He's a master at that system and one of the greatest of all time. Not all QB's are going to be. But you continue to argue success as an indication of ability. When you look at the reads and throws he is tasked to make he simply is not the greatest -- as an indication of ability not success -- QB to ever play. He is extremely limited.
"Remember: It's not a lie, if you believe it." Jetblue: how is Brady limited? He went from managing a running game to throwing long bombs to Moss to two tight end set and now dink-and-dunking his way down the field. Manning has been exactly the same since he came out. Brady has evolved from one offense to another without a hitch. When he finally got a big play receiver I think the stats show what he did with him. He took a horrible horrible team with multiple major injuries to the AFC title game last year. Very limited indeed.
"it was close b/c of Brady's 4th qtr" when he led his team to 14 pts and from 10 down against an all time great defense and completed more passes than I think Wilson completed all game. Wilson played well, he wasn't as good as Brady. I am incredibly impressed w/ Wilson, he is kind of the next Brady but w/ legs and I was very impressed w/ the way he handled defeat last night. Easy guy to root for.
It doesn't matter, does he execute? if it was easy everyone would be doing it. Some games he throws short, other games downfield. He's only had 1 legit deep threat his entire career and that was Moss who he had for 2 years. The bottom line is he was great last night and is in the discussion for greatest of all time whether people think he's 1,2,3,4 or 5 he's up there.
Well don't forget that Brady made 2 very big errors in the first 3 quarters while Wilson had been mostly flawless (other than taking a couple sacks, which were really coverage sacks). So Brady had a lot of ground to make up in that 4th quarter. If Seattle runs in that TD at the end, Wilson stands a good chance to be named MVP with something like a 130 passer rating and no turnovers. True, we know it ended very differently, but on a quick-hitter play like that, it's hard for me kill Wilson for running the play that was called, for his WR not really attacking the ball, and for the defender making a great play. Brady was asked to do more in this game, but his errors were mental errors and bad decisions, which makes them worse than the error Wilson made at the end (if you think the throw could have been better). It's a moot point, really. Brady won SB MVP and Wilson has the game-losing mistake go on his stat sheet. I thought Brady was a lot better in the Ravens game, he didn't do anything that wowed me in this game. When his OL held up, he made a large number of mostly low difficulty underneath completions. When the Seahawks got a rush, Brady looked awful. I think you're overrating this performance a bit.
I'm not arguing he isn't one of the greatest of all time -- his accomplishments warrant that. I am talking about the greatest of all time which is a discussion of ability, of which success is also an indicator of but which is also a team metric. In Brady's case he hasn't shown the same ability of other QB's even though he has had greater team success.
INT in 1st qtr was atrocious by Brady but he rebounded. If, if, if but he threw the pick. Both QBs were really good, both teams were really good. I thought this was the best SB matchup in a long time btw 2 truly big time teams. No upsets, no hot teams just the 2 best in the league this year. Brady didn't look comfortable early on even though he was completing passes, as the game went on he looked very comfortable ending w/ the 8 for 8 GW TD drive.
we need to judge greatest of all time on ability not production? so is Joe Namath in this discussion? not many as physically gifted as he was. I am not following you here.
Which is why this argument is so silly to me. If you can take prime Rodgers or prime Brady, look at the skillsets, I take Rodgers every day of the week. If you want to look at the numbers, Rodgers is better in the regular season and the playoffs than Brady. I'm pretty sure the majority of people who know football would take Rodgers and his abilities too. So what is there even to argue? If Brady isn't even as skilled as one of his contemporaries, how can he really be the GOAT? The argument is stupid.