NFL Preseason: Manziel-free edition

[Maithanet]

Okay, you've convinced me. Tom Brady's career is a sham. :crying:

Well the kind of surprising thing is that if we look at only Brady's career in the first four years (three SB wins) or only in the 9 years afterwards, you get a really different idea of what he could do. If not for the success of the last 9 years, you might think that Brady was just a system quarterback, getting too much credit for the greatness of his defense. Likewise if Brady didn't have those first few years, his career would be like John Elway only more so - great quarterback, just can't win the big one. It's not that Brady stopped being "clutch", when he lost the AFCCG in '06 or the Super Bowl in '07, only a moron would think so. It's just that it's a team game, and there are other factors involved. "Clutch" Brady threw a 4th quarter interception against the Panthers, which allowed Carolina to take the lead. Likewise "not clutch" Brady led the 2007 Patriots on a touchdown drive with less than 3 minutes left to take the lead.

I guess I don't really have a point here, not many people use "clutch" on this board, fortunately. But it just goes to show how the narrative of who can/cannot win the big one (as Andy Dalton, Matt Ryan, a few others are struggling with) often hinges on factors that are completely outside of a quarterbacks control. And that "narratives" for athletes are almost always bullshit and the result of small sample sizes.

[Kalbear]

Someone did a look at tom Brady's career in reverse, and showed how the stat compiler who could not win the big game finally won but only after having a great defense and running game. It was a lot like elway.