The one where they take into consideration that one guy's defense gives up 16 ppg and the other guy's gives up 30. One guy can pick and choose and let his defense control the game until he figures out the defense. The other guy has to take more chances because he can never be sure if his defense even got off the bus. Yes that has changed recently but for the first 9 weeks of the season Dak was being asked to be perfect.. and if he wasn't.. this team lost.. badly.. Stafford has wins while passing for 130, 181 and 182 yards. Which game would this Cowboys team have won with Dak putting up those numbers? Stafford also has wins while "leading" the offense to 14 and 17 points. Do the Cowboys have any wins where they could have done that? The Rams defense is #1 in the NFL in scoring.. well that might change after today.. but the pick 6 will go against them in the stats but they clearly didn't surrender those points.
I don't want to diminish Stafford in the least. Dude is ballin and certainly worthy of MVP consideration. But simply put he is being asked to do less. He can take fewer chances because he has a trustworthy defense. He gets a lot of short fields because the defense generates 2 turnovers a week on average. When looking at QBs who DON'T have the luxury of a defense handing him field position on a silver platter multiple times a game then it's okay to put that into the equation which is why Dak belongs in the conversation. It's fine if you don't want to put him ahead of guys whose teams have better records.. but we don't need to ignore the fact that those guys have MUCH better defenses helping them out. Though the tide may have turned for Dak since the trade deadline. His defense is starting to look pretty trustworthy too.