For the first time in 6 years, the 2007 NFL season featured a team that won but a single game. Unfortunately, that team happened to be my team, the Miami Dolphins. But this post isn't about the Dolphins. First I need to update the list I previously created of every single one-loss NFL team of the modern era. In parenthesis are the teams that lost to the one-loss teams.
1960: Washington Redskins (Dallas Cowboys)
1961: Washington Redskins (Dallas Cowboys)
1962: Oakland Raiders (Boston Patriots)
1962: Los Angeles Rams (San Francisco 49’ers)
1966: New York Giants (Washington Redskins)
1967: Atlanta Falcons (Minnesota Vikings)
1968: Buffalo Bills (New York Jets)
1969: Chicago Bears (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1969: Pittsburgh Steelers (Detroit Lions)
1971: Buffalo Bills (New England Patriots)
1972: Houston Oilers (New York Jets)
1973: Houston Oilers (Baltimore Colts)
1980: New Orleans Saints (New York Jets)
1982: Houston Oilers (Seattle Seahawks)
1989: Dallas Cowboys (Washington Redskins)
1990: New England Patriots (Indianapolis Colts)
1991: Indianapolis Colts (New York Jets)
1996: New York Jets (Arizona Cardinals)
2000: San Diego Chargers (Kansas City Chiefs)
2001: Carolina Panthers (Minnesota Vikings)
2007: Miami Dolphins (Baltimore Ravens)
The teams in parenthesis are the teams I'm interested on here; one in particular. Note that the New York Jets appear four times having been the lone victim of four of the worst teams in NFL history. And those four losses happened in 1968, 1972, 1980 and 1991. That's right, once in each of the last four decades! But the Jets' streak is now in real danger of ending. Heading into Week 9 of the 2009 season, just three teams have a chance of finishing the season with one loss. The Kansas City Chiefs have won only game so far, but the Jets weren't the team they beat. (They lost to the Jets in fact). The Detroit Lions haven't won a game but they don't get to play the Jets this year. And the winless Cincinatti Bengals. Oh the Bengals. This was it. This was the chance. And of course the Jets blew it! They played in Week 6 and wouldn't you know it, the Jets had to go and beat them. Damn it! So to extend their streak into a fifth decade the Jets must be somebody's only win in 2009. Or else it's all over. Please, please don't let it end.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
The Greatest Upset in Miami Dolphins History
On September 21, 2008, the Miami Dolphins traveled to Foxboro to face the New England Patriots. Miami had lost 20 of their last 21 regular season games. New England had won 21 straight. Understandably, the oddsmakers made Miami a double-digit underdog. Final score: Miami 38 New England 13. A complete beatdown. I later read somebody online call it the Greatest Upset in Dolphins History. Now, normally I hate the knee-jerk reactions of fans unsteeped in sports history and, especially, the loud-mouth sports “journalists” who can’t wait to anoint a game, a team, a player, anything as the greatest ever before the dust settles and we can impartially weight what we’ve just seen. But the more I think about, the more I’m convinced Miami indeed pulled off the biggest upset in team history when they crushed the Pats.
The simple truth is Miami’s rarely pulled off any big upsets in their 42-plus year history. What other candidates exist? Well, we can quickly dispense with any big postseason upsets; Miami’s never had any (sad but true). They’ve never been a big home underdog in a playoff game. And they’ve won exactly three postseason road games ever: beating Kansas City in the 1971 divisional round, Pittsburgh in the 1972 AFC title game and Seattle in a 1999 wild card game. The first of those might be considered a surprise since KC was the established power at the time, but both teams were 10-3-1, and Miami the team on the rise, so the win was a mild upset at best. Certainly nobody was surprised by the time the game ended; you couldn’t have a more evenly played game (double overtime). Now I’ve read that the 1972 Dolphins were actually a slight underdog heading into Super Bowl VII. Even if that were true however, nobody could possibly have been shocked when the undefeated team came out on top that day.
A regular season upset needs to be pretty memorable if anybody’s going to remember it after the thrill of victory wears off. I can only recall exactly one huge and memorable upset sprung by the Dolphins in the regular season. One of the most famous games in NFL history in fact. In week 13 of the 1985 season, the Dolphins shocked the 12-0 Chicago Bears 38-24 on Monday Night. Da Bears were big favorites, winning their previous three games by a combined 104-3 score, but on that night they were no match for Dan Marino’s offense (IMO Marino’s finest moment). Miami halted the Bears’ march to an undefeated season but honestly nobody should have been that shocked. The 1985 Dolphins were defending conference champions, they were at home on Monday Night, and they were 8-4 at the time. Compare that team to the 2008 Dolphins--a winless joke (at the time). And they had to beat the defending conference champs on the road. The point spreads reflected the different circumstances. If I remember correctly, Miami was about an eight-point dog to the Bears while the 2008 squad were double digit underdogs.
There just aren’t any other contenders for the honor. 2008, Week Three: Miami 38 New England 13. The Greatest Upset in Miami Dolphins History.
The simple truth is Miami’s rarely pulled off any big upsets in their 42-plus year history. What other candidates exist? Well, we can quickly dispense with any big postseason upsets; Miami’s never had any (sad but true). They’ve never been a big home underdog in a playoff game. And they’ve won exactly three postseason road games ever: beating Kansas City in the 1971 divisional round, Pittsburgh in the 1972 AFC title game and Seattle in a 1999 wild card game. The first of those might be considered a surprise since KC was the established power at the time, but both teams were 10-3-1, and Miami the team on the rise, so the win was a mild upset at best. Certainly nobody was surprised by the time the game ended; you couldn’t have a more evenly played game (double overtime). Now I’ve read that the 1972 Dolphins were actually a slight underdog heading into Super Bowl VII. Even if that were true however, nobody could possibly have been shocked when the undefeated team came out on top that day.
A regular season upset needs to be pretty memorable if anybody’s going to remember it after the thrill of victory wears off. I can only recall exactly one huge and memorable upset sprung by the Dolphins in the regular season. One of the most famous games in NFL history in fact. In week 13 of the 1985 season, the Dolphins shocked the 12-0 Chicago Bears 38-24 on Monday Night. Da Bears were big favorites, winning their previous three games by a combined 104-3 score, but on that night they were no match for Dan Marino’s offense (IMO Marino’s finest moment). Miami halted the Bears’ march to an undefeated season but honestly nobody should have been that shocked. The 1985 Dolphins were defending conference champions, they were at home on Monday Night, and they were 8-4 at the time. Compare that team to the 2008 Dolphins--a winless joke (at the time). And they had to beat the defending conference champs on the road. The point spreads reflected the different circumstances. If I remember correctly, Miami was about an eight-point dog to the Bears while the 2008 squad were double digit underdogs.
There just aren’t any other contenders for the honor. 2008, Week Three: Miami 38 New England 13. The Greatest Upset in Miami Dolphins History.
Friday, October 3, 2008
How The Miami Dolphins Hit Rock Bottom
As you might suspect from some of my posts, I’m fascinated by how successful football teams are put together, like the most successful team ever: the 1972 Dolphins. Yet somehow, I'm almost equally fascinated by how truly terrible football teams are put together. And this decade’s Miami Dolphins have been one truly terrible football team. I’ve tackled the topic several times—the bad drafts, the bad trades, the bad free agent signings. I’ve leveled blame against Dave Wannstedt, Rick Spielman, and Nick Saban among others. But there’s one person who I haven’t talked about much because, until recently, I hadn’t realized just how much of the blame he deserves.
When Wayne Huizenga became the Miami Dolphins’ new owner back in 1990, he appeared to be a welcome change from previous owner Joe Robbie. Miami achieved great success under Robbie, but Robbie was a well-known cheapskate and, though he was shrewd enough to steal away Don Shula from the Colts to coach the Fins, the two men had a terrible personal relationship. After Huizenga entered the picture he upgraded the Dolphins’ facilities and I don’t know that he and Shula ever had words with each other (at least not until 1995). Miami stopped having ugly contract holdouts and when the free agency era dawned the Dolphins weren’t shy about splurging. Despite Huizenga’s freer-spending ways though Miami never reached the same heights they had when Robbie ran the show. Yeah the team consistently won but Super Bowl appearances were becoming a distant memory. Tiring of the embarrassing postseason losses to Buffalo, Huizenga forced Shula out and replaced him with Jimmy Johnson. When a burnt-out Johnson quit four years later, Huizenga inserted Johnson’s right-hand man, Dave Wannstedt.
Huizenga preferred to put all the power over the football side of things in the hands of one person. In turn Shula, Johnson, and then Wannstedt each called all the shots. Unfortunately, Wannstedt lacked both Shula’s coaching ability and Johnson’s personnel acumen. As the fortunes of the team crumbled Huizenga changed his philosophy of giving a single man the reins of power. Mike Tanier lays it all out beautifully in his essay on the Miami Dolphins in the 2008 Football Prospectus. As Miami began to crumble under Wannstedt’s “leadership”, the team underwent a succession of disastrous front-office moves as Huizenga frantically sought undo past errors and restore the team to greatness. Or at least goodness. First Rick Spielman was brought in to assist Wannstedt with personnel decisions. That didn’t work. Huizenga then brought in Dan Marino (?!?!) to oversee football operations but luckily for his reputation and his sanity Dan realized his enormous mistake and ran back to his CBS and HBO gigs before it was too late. Huizenga then promoted Spielman over Wannstedt. Then he fired Wannstedt. Then he brought in Nick Saban to coach while keeping Spielman. Then he fired Spielman and brought in Randy Mueller as the personnel guru to work with Saban. When Saban quit, Huizenga hired Cam Cameron to coach the team but he kept on Mueller. Finally, Huizenga brought in Bill Parcells to be his chief football guy and had Parcells just blow up the whole team. Parcells canned Mueller and Cameron and brought in his own coach and GM, men who’ve worked with him before and who answer to Parcells.
As Tanier points out, from the time Huizenga first brought in Rick Spielman, the team kept changing coaches and general managers but never at the same time. Every time somebody new came in he had to work with someone already there, somebody already partly responsible for the mess the team was in. Huizenga made it impossible for the team to start rebuilding as each new person he brought in was tasked with winning right away and each new person had their own idea of just how to make that happen. Unlike the long and successful Shula era no one person was ever fully in charge (except maybe Nick Satan for a year). What a disaster; a disaster lasting years. How did I miss this pattern? I’ve concentrated most of my fire over the years on the bad decisions by Wannstedt and the others but clearly, not only did Wayne H. hire a series of fools, he created a situation where nobody could possibly succeed regardless of their abilities. It’s Huizenga who deserves most of the blame! I think deep down I was rationalizing all the false starts and disappointments on the grounds that Huizenga was at least trying (the Dan Snyder syndrome). That at least he was willing to spend big bucks without morphing into your classic interfering owner a la Jerry Jones or George Steinbrenner. Huizenga was content to let his football people make all the personnel decisions. Huizenga’s only role was just to hire GM’s and coaches (and write the checks) but he screwed up those choices every single time and, while putting one incompetent in charge is never good, Huizenga kept compounding his mistakes by forcing multiple incompetents with different agendas to work together at the same time. The result: 1-15 in 2007, a play away from the worst single-season team performance in NFL history.
Hopefully, the hiring of Parcells and the imminent departure of Huizenga from the ranks of NFL owners at long last brings this pathetic era to a close.
When Wayne Huizenga became the Miami Dolphins’ new owner back in 1990, he appeared to be a welcome change from previous owner Joe Robbie. Miami achieved great success under Robbie, but Robbie was a well-known cheapskate and, though he was shrewd enough to steal away Don Shula from the Colts to coach the Fins, the two men had a terrible personal relationship. After Huizenga entered the picture he upgraded the Dolphins’ facilities and I don’t know that he and Shula ever had words with each other (at least not until 1995). Miami stopped having ugly contract holdouts and when the free agency era dawned the Dolphins weren’t shy about splurging. Despite Huizenga’s freer-spending ways though Miami never reached the same heights they had when Robbie ran the show. Yeah the team consistently won but Super Bowl appearances were becoming a distant memory. Tiring of the embarrassing postseason losses to Buffalo, Huizenga forced Shula out and replaced him with Jimmy Johnson. When a burnt-out Johnson quit four years later, Huizenga inserted Johnson’s right-hand man, Dave Wannstedt.
Huizenga preferred to put all the power over the football side of things in the hands of one person. In turn Shula, Johnson, and then Wannstedt each called all the shots. Unfortunately, Wannstedt lacked both Shula’s coaching ability and Johnson’s personnel acumen. As the fortunes of the team crumbled Huizenga changed his philosophy of giving a single man the reins of power. Mike Tanier lays it all out beautifully in his essay on the Miami Dolphins in the 2008 Football Prospectus. As Miami began to crumble under Wannstedt’s “leadership”, the team underwent a succession of disastrous front-office moves as Huizenga frantically sought undo past errors and restore the team to greatness. Or at least goodness. First Rick Spielman was brought in to assist Wannstedt with personnel decisions. That didn’t work. Huizenga then brought in Dan Marino (?!?!) to oversee football operations but luckily for his reputation and his sanity Dan realized his enormous mistake and ran back to his CBS and HBO gigs before it was too late. Huizenga then promoted Spielman over Wannstedt. Then he fired Wannstedt. Then he brought in Nick Saban to coach while keeping Spielman. Then he fired Spielman and brought in Randy Mueller as the personnel guru to work with Saban. When Saban quit, Huizenga hired Cam Cameron to coach the team but he kept on Mueller. Finally, Huizenga brought in Bill Parcells to be his chief football guy and had Parcells just blow up the whole team. Parcells canned Mueller and Cameron and brought in his own coach and GM, men who’ve worked with him before and who answer to Parcells.
As Tanier points out, from the time Huizenga first brought in Rick Spielman, the team kept changing coaches and general managers but never at the same time. Every time somebody new came in he had to work with someone already there, somebody already partly responsible for the mess the team was in. Huizenga made it impossible for the team to start rebuilding as each new person he brought in was tasked with winning right away and each new person had their own idea of just how to make that happen. Unlike the long and successful Shula era no one person was ever fully in charge (except maybe Nick Satan for a year). What a disaster; a disaster lasting years. How did I miss this pattern? I’ve concentrated most of my fire over the years on the bad decisions by Wannstedt and the others but clearly, not only did Wayne H. hire a series of fools, he created a situation where nobody could possibly succeed regardless of their abilities. It’s Huizenga who deserves most of the blame! I think deep down I was rationalizing all the false starts and disappointments on the grounds that Huizenga was at least trying (the Dan Snyder syndrome). That at least he was willing to spend big bucks without morphing into your classic interfering owner a la Jerry Jones or George Steinbrenner. Huizenga was content to let his football people make all the personnel decisions. Huizenga’s only role was just to hire GM’s and coaches (and write the checks) but he screwed up those choices every single time and, while putting one incompetent in charge is never good, Huizenga kept compounding his mistakes by forcing multiple incompetents with different agendas to work together at the same time. The result: 1-15 in 2007, a play away from the worst single-season team performance in NFL history.
Hopefully, the hiring of Parcells and the imminent departure of Huizenga from the ranks of NFL owners at long last brings this pathetic era to a close.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Roger Staubach: Road Warrior
You know whose name never comes up in Greatest QB of All-Time conversations? Roger Staubach. But why shouldn’t he? He won two Super Bowls, played in two more, and retired as the NFL’s most accurate passer. Staubach clearly earned the “quarterback of the decade” honor for the 1970’s. His only other rivals for that title would be Fran Tarkenton and Terry Bradshaw. And while Tarkenton’s career stats dwarf Staubach’s he never won a title and Bradshaw won twice as many Super Bowls as Staubach but he never came close to Staubach’s accuracy or consistency.
Quarterbacks from each decade's NFL All-Decade Team are candidates for greatest QB of all-time except for the 1970's. Baugh in the 40’s, Graham in the 50’s, Unitas and Starr in the 60’s, Montana in the 80’s, Favre in the 90’s. But no Staubach. Of course Staubach’s left out in the cold because of his relatively short career and because he “only” won two Super Bowls. As to the former, that happened because Roger the Dodger did not dodge military service in wartime and fulfilled his four-year commitment to the United States Navy after his college career ended. He’s got to get some credit for the stats he might have put up if wasn’t busy serving his country. Staubach was good enough to play until he was 38 and he was still playing at a very high level when he retired. As for winning just two championships, Staubach did make it to four total Super Bowls, as many as anybody ever has, but had the misfortune to twice face maybe the greatest team ever, and both games were four-point nailbiters.
Maybe he didn’t play as long as other great quarterbacks. Maybe other great quarterbacks won a few more championships. But Staubach did something no other great QB can match. Check out his 5-1 road playoff record!
Only three of the 19 men on this list even have winning road playoff records, and Starr and Brady are “only” 2-1 (and who knows if Brady finishes his career over .500). Staubach blows away everybody. Five and One! Incredible. Montana didn’t come close to Staubach. Neither did his Super Bowl nemesis Terry Bradshaw. Steve Young never won a playoff game on the road. No, Staubach’s the NFL’s greatest postseason road warrior. Two of those games were the very biggest road wins you could have: conference championship games.
On the downside, Staubach’s home playoff record appears a tad subpar compared to most of the other top QB’s of the past several decades. Staubach lost three playoff games at home and must take some blame for losing those games. The first was the 1973 NFC Title Game against Minnesota where Staubach’s four interceptions helped doom his team. In the other two, Roger’s Cowboys were knocked out by the Rams. Interestingly Staubach beat, crushed really, the Rams on the road in both the 1975 and 1978 NFC Championship Games, but each time the Rams got their revenge the following season by edging the Cowboys in their first-round matchups in 1976 and 1979. Staubach tossed three picks in the earlier matchup and one more in the latter one (his final postseason game). Dallas lost by two-point margins in both games so Staubach’s picks hurt his team badly. He probably cost himself a chance at one or two more Super Bowl appearances. And with one more big game win he’s probably in all the conversations about the best ever.
But he did what he did and if he wasn’t the best he’s in the Top 10 for me. Classic comebacks. An accurate arm. Great mobility. Consistent success. Multiple Championships. And deadly on the road. Roger Staubach—The Road Warrior.
Quarterbacks from each decade's NFL All-Decade Team are candidates for greatest QB of all-time except for the 1970's. Baugh in the 40’s, Graham in the 50’s, Unitas and Starr in the 60’s, Montana in the 80’s, Favre in the 90’s. But no Staubach. Of course Staubach’s left out in the cold because of his relatively short career and because he “only” won two Super Bowls. As to the former, that happened because Roger the Dodger did not dodge military service in wartime and fulfilled his four-year commitment to the United States Navy after his college career ended. He’s got to get some credit for the stats he might have put up if wasn’t busy serving his country. Staubach was good enough to play until he was 38 and he was still playing at a very high level when he retired. As for winning just two championships, Staubach did make it to four total Super Bowls, as many as anybody ever has, but had the misfortune to twice face maybe the greatest team ever, and both games were four-point nailbiters.
Maybe he didn’t play as long as other great quarterbacks. Maybe other great quarterbacks won a few more championships. But Staubach did something no other great QB can match. Check out his 5-1 road playoff record!
| QB | Home | Road | SB | Record | PCT |
| Starr | 4-0 | 2-1 | 2-0 | 8-1 | .889 | Brady | 8-0 | 3-2 | 3-1 | 14-3 | .824 | Bradshaw | 8-2 | 2-3 | 4-0 | 14-5 | .737 | Montana | 10-2 | 2-5 | 4-0 | 16-7 | .696 | Aikman | 7-1 | 1-4 | 3-0 | 11-5 | .688 | Staubach | 5-3 | 5-1 | 2-2 | 12-6 | .667 | Unitas | 3-0 | 1-2 | n/a | 4-2 | .667 | Elway | 9-2 | 3-3 | 2-3 | 14-8 | .636 | Griese | 3-1 | 2-3 | 2-1 | 7-5 | .583 | Young | 7-3 | 0-3 | 1-0 | 8-6 | .571 | Favre | 8-3 | 3-6 | 1-1 | 12-10 | .545 | Tarkenton | 5-1 | 1-1 | 0-3 | 6-5 | .545 | Stabler | 5-1 | 1-5 | 1-0 | 7-6 | .538 | Kelly | 8-1 | 1-3 | 0-4 | 9-8 | .529 | Manning | 4-3 | 2-4 | 1-0 | 7-7 | .889 | Marino | 7-3 | 1-6 | 0-1 | 8-10 | .444 | Fouts | 1-2 | 2-2 | n/a | 3-4 | .429 | Anderson | 2-1 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 2-4 | .333 | Moon | 2-3 | 1-4 | n/a | 3-7 | .300 | Total | 106-32 | 33-60 | 26-17 | 165-109 | PCT | .768 | .355 | .605 | .602 |
Only three of the 19 men on this list even have winning road playoff records, and Starr and Brady are “only” 2-1 (and who knows if Brady finishes his career over .500). Staubach blows away everybody. Five and One! Incredible. Montana didn’t come close to Staubach. Neither did his Super Bowl nemesis Terry Bradshaw. Steve Young never won a playoff game on the road. No, Staubach’s the NFL’s greatest postseason road warrior. Two of those games were the very biggest road wins you could have: conference championship games.
On the downside, Staubach’s home playoff record appears a tad subpar compared to most of the other top QB’s of the past several decades. Staubach lost three playoff games at home and must take some blame for losing those games. The first was the 1973 NFC Title Game against Minnesota where Staubach’s four interceptions helped doom his team. In the other two, Roger’s Cowboys were knocked out by the Rams. Interestingly Staubach beat, crushed really, the Rams on the road in both the 1975 and 1978 NFC Championship Games, but each time the Rams got their revenge the following season by edging the Cowboys in their first-round matchups in 1976 and 1979. Staubach tossed three picks in the earlier matchup and one more in the latter one (his final postseason game). Dallas lost by two-point margins in both games so Staubach’s picks hurt his team badly. He probably cost himself a chance at one or two more Super Bowl appearances. And with one more big game win he’s probably in all the conversations about the best ever.
But he did what he did and if he wasn’t the best he’s in the Top 10 for me. Classic comebacks. An accurate arm. Great mobility. Consistent success. Multiple Championships. And deadly on the road. Roger Staubach—The Road Warrior.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Starr, Staubach, Elway, and Brady
The 19 QB's in the chart below are the greatest QB's of the Modern Era (post-1960). Of the former players on that list, all are in the Hall of Fame but Ken Anderson and Ken Stabler and both men have good cases for enshrinement (at least Anderson does in my opinion). Of the three active players, Favre, Manning and Brady will all be in the Hall one day.
Despite the collective greatness of these 19, we see how very difficult it is to win road playoff games. As a group these 19 QB's won barely a third of their road playoff games. Only four of the QB's have at least a .500 winning percentage in their road games: Starr, Staubach, Elway and Brady. And Starr has a unique accomplishment among QB's of the modern era: his two road wins both came in NFL Championship Games! Starr (my pick for the greatest QB of all-time) is the only QB of the modern era to win two championships on the road (at New York in 1962 and at Dallas in 1966).
Of course, no QB today could hope to match that accomplishment. Since 1970, all NFL Championship Games have been played on neutral sites. You may have heard of a little game known as the Super Bowl. So the next closest thing a QB can do to match (or better) Starr would be to win two conference championship games on the road. And strangely enough, the other three modern-era QB's with winning road playoff records have all done just that. Staubach beat the Rams in Los Angeles in both the 1975 and 1978 NFC Championship Games while Brady beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh in both the 2001 and 2004 AFC Championship Games. It's interesting that each man's second road triumph came three years after his first with the same opponent serving as his repeat victim. Elway took a more unique path, beating Cleveland in 1986 (the Drive) and then beating Pittsburgh eleven years later. Pittsburgh sure seems to have lost an unusual number of AFC title games at home.
If we include QB's of the pre-modern era, we do find one other QB who matched Bart Starr's accomplishment. Chicago Bear great Sid Luckman won NFL titles in Washington in 1940 and in New York in 1946. Let's see Kyle Orton do that!
Despite the collective greatness of these 19, we see how very difficult it is to win road playoff games. As a group these 19 QB's won barely a third of their road playoff games. Only four of the QB's have at least a .500 winning percentage in their road games: Starr, Staubach, Elway and Brady. And Starr has a unique accomplishment among QB's of the modern era: his two road wins both came in NFL Championship Games! Starr (my pick for the greatest QB of all-time) is the only QB of the modern era to win two championships on the road (at New York in 1962 and at Dallas in 1966).
Of course, no QB today could hope to match that accomplishment. Since 1970, all NFL Championship Games have been played on neutral sites. You may have heard of a little game known as the Super Bowl. So the next closest thing a QB can do to match (or better) Starr would be to win two conference championship games on the road. And strangely enough, the other three modern-era QB's with winning road playoff records have all done just that. Staubach beat the Rams in Los Angeles in both the 1975 and 1978 NFC Championship Games while Brady beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh in both the 2001 and 2004 AFC Championship Games. It's interesting that each man's second road triumph came three years after his first with the same opponent serving as his repeat victim. Elway took a more unique path, beating Cleveland in 1986 (the Drive) and then beating Pittsburgh eleven years later. Pittsburgh sure seems to have lost an unusual number of AFC title games at home.
If we include QB's of the pre-modern era, we do find one other QB who matched Bart Starr's accomplishment. Chicago Bear great Sid Luckman won NFL titles in Washington in 1940 and in New York in 1946. Let's see Kyle Orton do that!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Great QB's in the Playoffs at Home and on the Road
Ever wonder how much home-field advantage in the playoffs means to a great quarterback? (You don't? What's wrong with you?). Wonder no more. Here's a list of the NFL's greatest post-merger QB's and their playoff home and road won-loss records, plus their won-loss records in the Super Bowl (played on neutral sites of course). Subsequent posts will analyze some of the fascinating info to be found in this table:
| QB | Home | Road | SB | Record | PCT |
| Starr | 4-0 | 2-1 | 2-0 | 8-1 | .889 | Brady | 8-0 | 3-2 | 3-1 | 14-3 | .824 | Bradshaw | 8-2 | 2-3 | 4-0 | 14-5 | .737 | Montana | 10-2 | 2-5 | 4-0 | 16-7 | .696 | Aikman | 7-1 | 1-4 | 3-0 | 11-5 | .688 | Staubach | 5-3 | 5-1 | 2-2 | 12-6 | .667 | Unitas | 3-0 | 1-2 | n/a | 4-2 | .667 | Elway | 9-2 | 3-3 | 2-3 | 14-8 | .636 | Griese | 3-1 | 2-3 | 2-1 | 7-5 | .583 | Young | 7-3 | 0-3 | 1-0 | 8-6 | .571 | Favre | 8-3 | 3-6 | 1-1 | 12-10 | .545 | Tarkenton | 5-1 | 1-1 | 0-3 | 6-5 | .545 | Stabler | 5-1 | 1-5 | 1-0 | 7-6 | .538 | Kelly | 8-1 | 1-3 | 0-4 | 9-8 | .529 | Manning | 4-3 | 2-4 | 1-0 | 7-7 | .889 | Marino | 7-3 | 1-6 | 0-1 | 8-10 | .444 | Fouts | 1-2 | 2-2 | n/a | 3-4 | .429 | Anderson | 2-1 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 2-4 | .333 | Moon | 2-3 | 1-4 | n/a | 3-7 | .300 | Total | 106-32 | 33-60 | 26-17 | 165-109 | PCT | .768 | .355 | .605 | .602 |
Friday, August 22, 2008
The Tuna's Approach
The Washington Post’s Mark Maske wonders “What is Parcells’ Approach in Miami?” The Dolphins and Parcells’ two biggest post-draft personnel moves have been the trade of star DE Jason Taylor and the signing of former Jets QB Chad Pennington, who now looks to be Miami’s starter for 2008. To Maske, these moves contradict each other--the Taylor trade seemingly exhibiting the desire to rebuild with youth while the more recent signing of Pennington, a veteran QB well past him prime, showing exactly the opposite. Yet to me what Parcells has done makes perfect sense--there's nothing confusing about it. Maske makes the mistake of looking at what Taylor and Pennington have in common, their age, while ignoring the things they don’t have in common, their trade value and the positions they play.
Concerning trade value, simply put Taylor has it and Pennington obviously doesn't. Taylor could start for any NFL franchise right now while Miami, with the worst QB situation this side of Chicago, might be the only place where Pennington has a shot at starting. Miami received a second-round pick for Taylor and, since Taylor likely plays two more years tops, if Miami hits on the pick they come out way ahead. Meanwhile, Pennington, a waiver-wire casualty of the Favre deal, costs the Dolphins virtually nothing. He comes cheap salary-wise plus he’s a clear upgrade over McCown as the starter. From every angle Parcells’ moves were coldly logical.
Now Maske admits Miami “at least got something” for Taylor but he implies the trade only became necessary because Parcells “alienated” Taylor. Now clearly Parcells wasn’t crazy about Taylor’s decision to dance with stars instead of reporting to camp but it was just as clear that Taylor wanted out of Miami badly, maybe even more than Parcells wanted him gone (for the right price). Taylor knows he’s near the end of his career and why would he, or anyone, want to spend one more minute playing for one of the worst teams of all-time? Plus Parcells already had cut loose his best friend on the team, Zach Thomas. As for Parcells, sure he could have said some nice things about Taylor but any long-time football fan ought to be familiar with Parcells’ mind games by now. The man loves messing with player’s heads but there’s always a method to the Tuna’s seeming madness. In this case, Parcells got to take a hard line with Taylor and more importantly sent a message to the rest of the team that no one’s expendable. Everyone knows who’s in charge now. If that alienated Taylor so what? Parcells held all the cards with Taylor under contract to Miami. If no team offered Parcells what he wanted for Taylor then no amount of bitterness between Taylor and Parcells was going to make Taylor sit out and forfeit millions of dollars in salary. In the end everybody won. Taylor wanted one more shot at the playoffs; Parcells wanted a high draft pick for Taylor. Parcells got his second-round pick and Taylor landed on a playoff contender. Well, everybody won except for Dolphin fans who’ve rooted for Jason Taylor his whole career. It’s tough to say goodbye to arguably the finest defensive player in Dolphins history but we all know the team has to be rebuilt from the ground up. The trade was necessary although I disagree with the snotty tone HERE. Taylor deserves more after all the years of tremendous effort he put forth. The man could play some ball. Nobody did anything wrong here. Taylor acted in his own best interests and Parcells acted in the long-term best interests of the team.
Maske says the team would be better off to “choose one of the team's young quarterbacks, John Beck or Chad Henne, to be the starter and give him a chance to develop in hopes that he'd be a capable quarterback by the time the club around him was ready to be a playoff contender” instead of bringing in “a 32-year-old quarterback with a history of arm troubles”. It sure looks to me like Miami is going to give Henne a chance to develop. He'll be taking over soon enough, that much is obvious. But quarterback isn’t like any other position. There's a huge learning curve and promising talents have been destroyed by being thrust into the starting lineup too soon, especially when surrounded by less than stellar talent (See: David Carr). Have you checked out Miami’s receiving corps lately? Even Dan Marino didn’t start until the 6th game of his rookie season and Henne probably isn’t going to be another Dan Marino. We all know the injury-prone noodle-armed Pennington will only start for one year at the most, but a has-been like Pennington is still an upgrade over a never-was like McCown (Josh or Luke). Rushing Henne into the lineup before he's ready could easily be counterproductive to his development. Letting him watch Pennington from the bench for awhile doesn't demonstrate a lack of commitment to rebuilding. It shows intelligence. Parcells will make the move to Henne when the time is right just like he pulled the trigger on the Taylor deal.
Maybe Parcells' moves will work and maybe they won’t, but you can’t say they don’t make sense. For the first time in years the team finally has someone in charge with a straightforward clearheaded approach. It's been awhile.
Concerning trade value, simply put Taylor has it and Pennington obviously doesn't. Taylor could start for any NFL franchise right now while Miami, with the worst QB situation this side of Chicago, might be the only place where Pennington has a shot at starting. Miami received a second-round pick for Taylor and, since Taylor likely plays two more years tops, if Miami hits on the pick they come out way ahead. Meanwhile, Pennington, a waiver-wire casualty of the Favre deal, costs the Dolphins virtually nothing. He comes cheap salary-wise plus he’s a clear upgrade over McCown as the starter. From every angle Parcells’ moves were coldly logical.
Now Maske admits Miami “at least got something” for Taylor but he implies the trade only became necessary because Parcells “alienated” Taylor. Now clearly Parcells wasn’t crazy about Taylor’s decision to dance with stars instead of reporting to camp but it was just as clear that Taylor wanted out of Miami badly, maybe even more than Parcells wanted him gone (for the right price). Taylor knows he’s near the end of his career and why would he, or anyone, want to spend one more minute playing for one of the worst teams of all-time? Plus Parcells already had cut loose his best friend on the team, Zach Thomas. As for Parcells, sure he could have said some nice things about Taylor but any long-time football fan ought to be familiar with Parcells’ mind games by now. The man loves messing with player’s heads but there’s always a method to the Tuna’s seeming madness. In this case, Parcells got to take a hard line with Taylor and more importantly sent a message to the rest of the team that no one’s expendable. Everyone knows who’s in charge now. If that alienated Taylor so what? Parcells held all the cards with Taylor under contract to Miami. If no team offered Parcells what he wanted for Taylor then no amount of bitterness between Taylor and Parcells was going to make Taylor sit out and forfeit millions of dollars in salary. In the end everybody won. Taylor wanted one more shot at the playoffs; Parcells wanted a high draft pick for Taylor. Parcells got his second-round pick and Taylor landed on a playoff contender. Well, everybody won except for Dolphin fans who’ve rooted for Jason Taylor his whole career. It’s tough to say goodbye to arguably the finest defensive player in Dolphins history but we all know the team has to be rebuilt from the ground up. The trade was necessary although I disagree with the snotty tone HERE. Taylor deserves more after all the years of tremendous effort he put forth. The man could play some ball. Nobody did anything wrong here. Taylor acted in his own best interests and Parcells acted in the long-term best interests of the team.
Maske says the team would be better off to “choose one of the team's young quarterbacks, John Beck or Chad Henne, to be the starter and give him a chance to develop in hopes that he'd be a capable quarterback by the time the club around him was ready to be a playoff contender” instead of bringing in “a 32-year-old quarterback with a history of arm troubles”. It sure looks to me like Miami is going to give Henne a chance to develop. He'll be taking over soon enough, that much is obvious. But quarterback isn’t like any other position. There's a huge learning curve and promising talents have been destroyed by being thrust into the starting lineup too soon, especially when surrounded by less than stellar talent (See: David Carr). Have you checked out Miami’s receiving corps lately? Even Dan Marino didn’t start until the 6th game of his rookie season and Henne probably isn’t going to be another Dan Marino. We all know the injury-prone noodle-armed Pennington will only start for one year at the most, but a has-been like Pennington is still an upgrade over a never-was like McCown (Josh or Luke). Rushing Henne into the lineup before he's ready could easily be counterproductive to his development. Letting him watch Pennington from the bench for awhile doesn't demonstrate a lack of commitment to rebuilding. It shows intelligence. Parcells will make the move to Henne when the time is right just like he pulled the trigger on the Taylor deal.
Maybe Parcells' moves will work and maybe they won’t, but you can’t say they don’t make sense. For the first time in years the team finally has someone in charge with a straightforward clearheaded approach. It's been awhile.
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