2007 Brady vs. 2011 Rodgers: Who's better?

My point was that the drives were both so great that we're picking nits, much like the Brady vs Rodgers debate. You as a Steelers fan see your team's accomplishment as greater. I'm sure I'm guilty of the same thing. I'm not dismissing your opinion, I'm noting both of our obvious biases.

That said, the fact that Roethlisberger faced one third down in what Gee noted was not a stellar defensive effort by the Cardinals takes away (ever so slightly) fom his accomplishment. The fact that the Steelers had an easy FG ahead if Ben didn't get into the end zone, while Eli needed 7 also adds to impressiveness of Eli's performance under pressure.

 

Throwing a prayer into coverage and having it turn into a huge gain is not an impressive performance under pressure. It is luck.

 

Watch that play again ... Manning made a great escape, and saw Tyree settled wide open in a soft spot in the zone. Make no mistake, Tyree was OPEN and Harrison closed quickly to get a hand on the ball and nearly knock it loose. Tyree clutched it to the helmet and the rest is history.

It was an impressive play under pressure and the fact that he made two other big plays on third down were also examples of cool under pressure.

Manning made a great play to shake the tackle. Tyree did a great job not giving up and finding a soft spot in the zone.

This wasn't Franco Harris being in the right spot at at the right time. This was a qb and wr doing their jobs and not panicking whe Manning nearly got sacked. Tyree had a strong enough grip to hold onto the ball after Harrison hit him.

Both QBs mounted amazing drives and if someone wants to give more credit to Ben for beating the 10-6 Cardinals than Eli for beating the 18-0 Patriots, they're entitled to do that.

 

I also think you have to give Eli the nod because they had to have the touchdown.

 

The 18-0 Patriots' defense was every bit as bad as the 10-6 Cardinals. My apologies.

The escape was pretty good, though really, for all the traffic, nobody really had a good shot at him.

The fact that you are actually trying to give him credit for anything but luck on that throw, well, I just give up. You can't see past the fanboy thing.

 

Pats defense was ranked fourth in scoring and yardage, Cardinals' was ranked 28th and 19th, respectively. Pats had given up 10 points until the final drive, Cards had given up 20. Come on, OOP, do better than that.

Oh, and my mistake, it was the 9-7 Cardinals. I gave them too much credit.

 

Dan Marino's 1984 was the greatest regular season for a QB, past and present.

Pre-1984, the record for TDs in a season was 36. The Pusher increased that by 12.

Pre-1984, the record for passing yards in a season was 4,802. The Dapper Dan increased that by 282 yards.

Until someone increases TDs in a season by 20% or 30%, then we start talking about beating Marino. Plus, Marino was 23 when he did this.

 

That's a horseshit argument. No one threw the ball the way Marino did until he came around.
That's like saying if a guy hits 75 homers and the next best guy has 55 it's not as good as Ruth because Ruth had 5x as many as the second place guy, or whatever the number is.
Marino's record could be looked at like this - teams had never prepared for a prolific passing attack, so if someone ever decided to throw it a ton, they could have had the record. Instead, everyone tried to run the ball to win, even if it's a fact that the #1 factor in the best teams of the past decades has been their passing offense.

 

Marino also played at a time when defensive backs were allowed to play defense. I said it earlier this year regarding Brady, but under today's rules Marino might have thrown for 7,000 yards.

 

This is revisionist history and not even close to correct. Air Coryell had been flinging the ball around in San Diego since 1979, when Fouts threw for 4,000 yards. He had 4,700 and 4,800 the next two seasons -- before Marino. In both of those seasons, Fouts had more pass attempts than Marino had in '84. In 1981, not only Fouts but Tommy Kramer and Brian Sipe threw more passes than the 564 Marino threw in 1984, and Steve Bartkowski had only 31 fewer attempts. And the same season Marino was breaking records, the Cardinals were airing it out with Neil Lomax.

The '84 Dolphins were definitely not the first team to try to win by airing it out. Defenses had a couple years to adjust to that sort of bombs-away attack.

This is not correct either. The big rule changes to open up the passing game happened before Marino came in. The ones since then really didn't make that much of a difference. Certainly not 2,000 yards worth.

 

I get it. Like most Giants fans, you desperately cling to that one moment that Manning was actually worth what your team gave up for him. Doesn't change the fact that he got lucky on a desperation heave while Montana and Roethlisberger actually executed on their drives.

Bottom line: As a team accomplishment, no question what the Giants did was better. But for the actual quarterbacks, Manning's 2-minute drill is No. 3 at best.

 

Are you kidding me? Yes, the rules were first liberalized in 1978. But in the last 10 years they have gone crazy -- perhaps you have seen the stories about all the fines for what in 1984 were considered great hits. Ever since Bill Polian threw a fit about the Pats' manhandling of his receivers, it has been completely hands-off. Furthermore you can't hit the quarterback anymore. Ever heard of the Tom Brady Rule? How many times you think defenders tried to dive at or roll into Marino's knees?

He would have ended up somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 yards.