12-22-2021, 01:56 AM
(12-20-2021, 02:06 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: The funny thing is, he never really carried them before. He's always needed a strong running game and defense and he was able to augment that to playoffs and championships. Without those things though, even in his best years, he was never enough to carry them to the top.
Despite my caring less and less by the day for the NFL product I'll give a stab at a response here. Ben may never have carried the team on his back for a whole SB winning season, but he certainly did so during key stretches. Much is made of his relatively poor showing during SB XL, which is fair. What is not fair is ignoring his earth scorching performance that got the team to that game in the first place. This even omits his season saving tackle on the inexcusable Bettis fumble at the end of the Colts game. His performance in the game winning drive of SB 43 is nothing short of masterful. Much is made of Holmes' toe tap catch in the EZ that won the game. What is routinely ignored is the fact that Holmes completely muffed a far easier TD catch earlier in the drive. Of course even on the winning TD pass Ben must be given a huge share of the credit for the TD.
Even in today's watered down, garbage, NFL product a successful running game and a competent defense is needed to succeed in almost every circumstance. Ben has done far more with what he was given than such NFL luminaries as Peyton Manning, a perennial under-performer in the post season. In fact, he's done far better, with generally lesser tools, than John Elway, whose QB game most closely mirrors his. It's certainly fair to criticize Ben for his shortcomings, but to claim he's anything other than a HOF QB who has accomplished far more than most NFL QB's will ever dream of is just amateurish homerism, which I know you're far better than to succumb to.
