Foles vs McCarron

[Shake n Blake]

(01-23-2018, 03:42 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Meh, maybe if McCarron plays more than 1 quarter of competent football that fumble doesn't ruin our entire franchise and blah blah blah.  Team game, and all that.  I will say McCarron SHOULD have won that game, but it would be a game McCarron won despite playing like meh.  Brady's RB lost a fumble in that Jags game and for some reason it didn't destroy their entire season.

I get what you're saying and if we don't want to use Brady, I think there might be another example or 1,378 of a team overcoming a turnover or 2 in the playoffs. Maybe even more turnovers than that. Many teams have won games with a dominant rushing attack (150-200+ yards) or maybe forcing multiple turnovers themselves.

Pig Ben has won playoff games with these performances:

  9/21 (42.9%) 123 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT (22.6 rating)
10/19 (52.6%) 133 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT (35.5 rating)
17/30 (56.7%) 181 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT (57.8 rating)
20/31 (64.5%) 224 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT (72.5 rating)

These are Ben's 4 worst playoff games, by passer rating. Yet his team went 4-0 in these games. Compare these stats to Dalton... or Merv's non-Dalton playoff QB's:

Ben: 56/101 (55.4%) - 165.3 yards per game - 1 TD to 7 INTs (50.0 rating) --- team went 4-0
Andy: 88/158 (55.7%) - 218.3 yards per game - 1 TD to 6 INTs (57.8 rating) --- team went 0-4
Non-Andy: 61/117 (52.1%) - 185.0 yards per game - 3 TDs to 4 INTs (59.6 rating) --- team went 0-3

Now how did Ben go 4-0 in these games where he played even worse than our guys? Here's how:

The Steelers rushed for an average of 178 yards in these games, on 4.6 YPC. They limited opponents to 15.5 points per game, forcing 5 turnovers in 4 games.
The Bengals rushed for an average of 103.4 yards in these games, on 4.9 YPC. They limited opponents to to 25.1 points per game, forcing 4 turnovers in 7 games.

When our QB's struggle (they always do), we respond by putting more on their plate. When Ben has struggled, the Steelers respond by pounding the football upwards of 35-40+ times per game. They play sound defense, we don't. They force turnovers. We don't.

Any team can be carried by a QB. A good team often carries it's QB. It really is strange that we've averaged 4.9 YPC in the playoffs and haven't stuck with that, instead passing ourselves into oblivion with all of our QB's playing like doo-doo. Makes no sense. We're placing all of the pressure squarely on our QB's. They know that if they can't get it done, the rest of the team isn't going to step up. I'm sure it helps Ben's confidence to know that if he doesn't have it, the rest of the team has his back.