People criticize Favre for his interceptions, saying he takes unnecessary risks. I know it’s trying to win and doing whatever it takes (even if the decision backfires). He was extremely competitive and wanted to win, so he did what he could to try to win. The coaches limited him during games, which didn’t limit interceptions, but kept games close forcing him to do what he could to win them at the end. Look at Favre’s games when he was allowed to throw early and often. His teams won in routs, he played extremely well, and he almost never threw an interception. His interceptions came in conservative-gameplan games which kept games close, frustrated him since he was handcuffed the entire game when he knew they should have been up by a lot, and forced him to try to win it at the end. MOST times he did win it at the end. People just ignore those, and focus on the FEW where he didn’t come through. And, even when he didn’t come through, a number of those times it was due to teammates, not him or not just him.
Drew Brees threw 2-3 passes against the Lions in the playoff game this year that should have been easy interceptions, but were dropped, and also then threw a few interceptions in the 49er playoff game, and the Saints lost.
Eli Manning continues to be talked about as a great clutch playoff quarterback. If I remember correctly, he threw a pass that Assante Samuel should have intercepted prior to the Giants scoring the winning TD and beating the Patriots 4 years ago in the Super Bowl. What did Manning do in the 49er playoff game? He threw 2 passes that were easy interceptions for two 49er DBs on both plays, but because the only two players near the passes were 49ers, they hit each other and neither made the easy interception. When the game and Super Bowl berth were on the line at the end of the game, the Giants punted 5 straight times and only scored on the next possession after the 49ers fumbled the punt in field-goal range and the Giants kicked the winning FG. That’s clutch?
Now let’s talk about Brady. Please see the link below:
Brady suddenly struggling in Pats' biggest games - NFL - Yahoo! Sports http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=dw-wetzel_tom_brady_choking_playoffs_patriots_012812
Brady suddenly struggling in Pats' biggest games - NFL - Yahoo! Sports http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=dw-wetzel_tom_brady_choking_playoffs_patriots_012812
The Patriots should have lost to Baltimore in this year's playoff game, partly due to Brady's interceptions, but the Ravens dropped the winning TD pass and missed an easy tying FG. In addition to the bad playoff games mentioned in the link above, let's not forget his 3-interception playoff game against San Diego. I believe Brady threw an interception relatively late in the Ravens game that should have cost them the game, but would have to verify. He was terrible the entire game against the Ravens, and said so himself. He has had bad games the last few years in the playoffs. We're not talking about a bad play at the end, we're talking about entire games.
My point is that all of these QBs had terrible playoff games, and more than one. However, it's only Favre who gets criticized constantly for this, and Favre's all came after idiotic coaching put him in a position to try to make plays vs. winning the games in routs.
Mike Holmgren is president of the Browns, I believe, and they just hired Brad Childress as offensive coordinator! It was Childress' idiotic offensive strategy that caused the Vikings to lose many games when Favre was there. Even if he's changed his philosophy, how can he get an offensive coordinator job? This is what I mean when I say GMs and coaches just don't get it. Speaking of Holmgren, I just read the following:
The Packers won Super Bowl XXXI following the 1996 season, returned to the Super Bowl the next year and then had a shot at a third straight NFC title snuffed out by San Francisco in the 1998 wild-card game.That game ended on Steve Young’s dramatic, last-second touchdown pass to Terrell Owens, but the Packers would have won the game had a fumble earlier on that drive by San Francisco’s Jerry Rice been reviewable. Rice had been ruled down, and at the time, a down-by-contact call could not be reviewed because the play was considered over. Holmgren, who came to Green Bay from San Francisco, where he was offensive coordinator, takes pride in the fact that as a member of the NFL’s competition committee he eventually helped get that rule changed. It was too late to help the Packers potentially get to a third consecutive Super Bowl, though. Wolf has said in the past he thought the Packers were in position to make another run. “That was a tough game because at the time I thought our team was really peaking,” said Holmgren, who hinted that game is one his wife, Kathy, still harps on him to let go after all these years. “You watch how the Giants are playing now, and they had their moments during the season, but they seem to be peaking at the right time, and I thought we were kind of doing that. “I agree with what Ron said, that we would have had a good chance to get there again, but it didn’t happen.
We all know the refs stole the NFC Championship game vs. Dallas the year before the Packers beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, we all know the refs made 14 terrible calls costing the Packers the Denver Super Bowl, and then this happened. This call was so atrocious that Sports Illustrated ran a picture of Jerry Rice standing upright with the ball out of his hands.