[TheWatcher]

Quote: Originally Posted by shotgun styles

See, this is what I was on about earlier. You subscribe to this myth that being a great system QB with huge stats makes you a great overall player. I disagree. Manning and Brady have time and time again PROVEN themselves to be physically incabable of making plays when the system breaks down. They curl up and take a sack or throw the ball away. Roethlisberger makes plays when Manning or Brady would be sacked or give up on the play. That counts for something. There is a game that is played between the hash marks that cannot be measured in statistics.

The whole system QB debate is so dead and buried. I think we have enough history behind us now to realize that no matter what system you place a guy in, HE is going to have to play well in order for it to work. For example, look at how many QB's have run the West Coast offense? But how many of them have been successful? Not many, and the guys that were most successful are sitting in the HOF right now (Montana, Young, Elway). Steve Bono played pretty much his whole career in that offense and I don't think he will be getting any HOF votes, but that's just my wild guess...

Bottom line and fact, the QB makes the system successful not the other way around. Any Coach at any level will tell you that. And Brady has proved unarguably that he can be successful in a controlled passing system or a wide-open system.

Also, in terms of what happens on breakdowns, I'd say historically that's been a Manning issue. I could point to lots of games where once pressure came on a regular basis Manning crumbled, and I can point to games where the same happened to Brady and he didn't crumble, Super Bowl 42 is a perfect example as he'd gotten smashed up all game long yet never threw a pick, had solid numbers, and still was able to get one last 4th quarter comeback drive in... unfortunately for him, Eli put together his own right after.