01-12-2016, 05:26 PM
(01-12-2016, 05:12 PM)McC Wrote: I think you have to take the nature of that game into account too, though, when judging his performance, just like I would with any QB.
He didn't make a lot of good plays. No one is denying that. He's five games in a thrown into an absolute shit storm, with the weather, the madness the Steelers were bringing, the fact that his line had a lot of trouble controlling the LOS, the Steelers throwing the kitchen sink at him, the insanity that was going on around him.
But I can't give a guy a d who never crumbled in the face if all that.
Fourth quarter, you're down 15 in the Here We Go Again Bowl. The Steelers want to end you. That would shrivel the nuts of a lot of 6th round QB's. But he played with big balls.
The PI call that everyone brings up? Yes, it should have been thrown farther. But AJ was catching that if he wasn't hit. That was not a lame duck.
He walked off the field with the lead and two minutes to play. Of course the defense kept the score low. I believe that's their job.
If a QB does that for me, no matter what the numbers say, that deserves more than a D. Courage alone gets him to a C.
His guts are why I gave him a D+. I can't give a C to a QB that led the offense we saw saturday. I just can't. He was very inaccurate on numerous easy throws that could've kept drives going. 3 fumbles and a pick? He has to handle the weather better than that.
You say that it's the D's job to keep the points low? I get that, but the defense we saw on Saturday wasn't there in any of the previous 4 playoff games. They actually showed up this time. That allowed Mac to stay in the game and make it close even though the offense was AWOL for 3 quarters. Normally 16 points ain't going to get it, sorry.
I'm trying to be as fair about this as possible, but it seems that any critical post about his performance is going to be deemed "hate". For pete's sake he had 3 fumbles, a pick, and put up 16 points against a crap defense. Is it really a stretch for some to not be impressed?
The training, nutrition, medicine, fitness, playbooks and rules evolve. The athlete does not.
