The 2016 NFL Playoffs Thread

I think there's no real evidence of it, which isn't quite the same thing.

Players who don't have the psychological makeup to handle pressure probably don't make it to the NFL to begin with, because they have to play lots of games to get here that were, at the time they played them, the biggest games of their lives. And plenty of purported chokers go on to come through in big games after getting hit with the label.

I'm open minded about whether it exists theoretically, or ever happens, but in practice I'm convinced that the overwhelming majority of talk about choking is just trying to create a narrative around random noise.

All this establishes is that they were worse without Brady, which I'm pretty sure everybody already agrees on. The more relevant comparison is how Cassel was without them. If Belichick can wring those kinds of results out of a crappy QB, it's sensible to conclude that any QB playing under him is going to see a significant boost.

Well, it's fun, for one. Most conversations don't have definitive answers, but I think we can come to some reasonable conclusions. We can conclude that Brady would be a good QB with anyone, and that Belichick would be successful with a worse QB, but that something about the combination of the two has produced abnormally good results that probably wouldn't happen otherwise.

Yeah, this is the one argument/metric that Manning has a clear edge on. There's a funny little Venn diagram thing going on with most of the other factors: if you weight playoff wins or championships, that helps guys like Brady and Montana and hurts Manning and Marino. If you weight overall statistics more, it's the opposite. If you weight success above league average, that hurts Brady and Manning but helps Marino. And so on.

The one consideration that isn't really shared among numerous contenders is influence on the position. These days, every elite QB is a little offensive coordinator, but that wasn't the norm when Manning started. I remember lots of jokes about his constant audibles. Nobody makes those any more.

How much should that matter? No right answer. It's a big deal for me, though.

I would agree with that, and my only original point was that Brady has a great track record in big games. You can't say that about all great players.


Relevant to what though? It's not relevant in terms of comparing Cassel's ability to Brady's, which I thought was the point. The two QB's are not comparable, and neither was the team's success, or lack thereof, with each one.

I don't think you can come to any reasonable conclusion. You can guess, and I'm seeing a lot of that here. I could also guess what Brady would do playing most of his career indoors with Harrison, Wayne, Clark, and James. I could also guess what Manning would do playing his entire career in a cold weather city, without those guys, and knowing he hasn't performed as well in cold weather games throughout his career. Again, I couldn't come to any reasonable conclusions, but I could guess.

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not, but he revolutionized the QB position by being one the first QBs to make forward passing a staple in his repertoire. Not to mention one season he led the league in both TDs and Ints, where back then players played both offense and defense.

Just because we weren't alive when he played, doesn't mean we should just throw away all the great things he did. To me that's very unfair. That's like someone saying the Beatles aren't one of the greatest bands because they've never saw them live.

I was being sarcastic for fun, and you're right. Nicely said.

I live in Phx, so Cards fan here and I have a healthy fear for Carolina. The cards are so streaky and the Panthers seem so consistent, the last half of the Seahawks game notwithstanding. I think this game will come down to which team decides to show up. If the rebirds play their game it will be close. If we falter it could get ugly I'm afraid.

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As a Patriots supporter, Arizona is the team I've been most concerned with. The Pat's D seems to have a hard time with those 30 yard lobs down the sideline, and Palmer is very accurate with those.

Brady has had bad play off games for Peyton, The Ravens, and Giants have beaten Brady. they Giants even held Brady too 13 points.

Yes, Brady has lost playoff games, and the Pat's were held to 14 by the Giants once. He's 22-8 in the playoffs.

Boooo to Denver and Booo to New England too


Oh hell Booo to the Cards ...

Belichick likes extreme cinema though.

The referees calls were not the same as what the sports casters said last Saturday. Cricket, your New England team suxs as much as Denver always has.

At least Reid gets to coach the AFC in the Pro Bowl.

Too bad he can't get a lei around his fat head.

I'm suddenly remembering I forgot Alex Smith in my top ten. Classic oversight.

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Never said Reid was our best coach. Schottenheimer and Stram were very good.

You should put him just ahead of Brady, that is if you want to be consistent.

I'm just going to say it. Has anybody ever seen Alex Smith and Ryan Gosling in the same room?

That explains his experimental documentary on the New York Jets.