It’s interesting Art how many people put it all on the QB to win playoff games.
And no doubt the QB must play well consistently to win playoff games. But even some of the recent great QBs have had bad games but their team won because their defense bailed them out. Here are some examples:
- Rams SB win in Feb, 2022- Matt Stafford threw 2 pics but the rams won because of big plays by Aaron Donald and Von Miller. Stafford won the MVP but even he said his defense deserved it.
- Bucs NFC championship win vs GB in Jan 2021 despite Tom Brady throwing 3 INTs! He played much better in the SB but people forget he was not good in the NFC championship game that year. His defense bailed him out.
- In the Jan 2011 NFC championship game Aaron Rodgers threw 2 INTs vs the bears but his defense held the bears to 14 points. Without the defense in that game Rodgers doesn’t have a SB ring.
To be clear I’m not defending Dak’s poor playoff performances the last two seasons. But I am saying it takes more than great QB play to win multiple playoff games. The Cowboys defense has to share some of the blame.
Difference has a lot to do with when the interceptions happen and where they happen. I recall the greenbay game they went up 14pt before Rodgers threw an interception on bears side of the field. Then his second interception wasn’t after multiple three and outs it happened on the bears 6 where they were about to score if I recall. Looking back at stat line they won the game because offense controlled the clock GB 34 win to bears 25 min. So he may have thrown int but it’s when and where they happened.
Stafford and the Rams I remember like yesterday. He threw his first interception at the end of the half and wasn’t on first or second play it was on like the eight play of the drive and on Cinci side of the field. The second was on second play of the second half. His defense did what Dallas did and held them to field goal. Stafford next possession he kept offense on the field for a long drive wearing off like 5 min would’ve been more but they couldn’t run the ball so stafford passed the whole drive. My point is Dak has to do better when the defense bails him out and give them a break to catch their breath.
Just for clarification Brady threw three but Rodgers threw 1 as well. They won bc the he overcame his mistakes the defense wasn’t it. Recall Rodgers scored each time Brady turned it over. That’s not the defense that overcame his mistakes.
Just a different way of looking at those games.
Dak vs San Fran both years sat the defense for failure. Hell in 2021 he was gifted seven of those points by what you call our defense not showing up. That defense got an interception and he scored. Also 2021 He threw his own pick on the Dallas 19 after taking a 13 yard sac..throw the ball out of bounds. 2022 he only needed 19 pts and he lost both 2021 and 2022 bc he had too many three and outs which isn’t complimentary football. Some says it’s bc we couldnt run the ball, we couldn’t pass, or as you state it was our defense. Well here’s a good reason why you can’t blame the defense, they gave you the ball back multiple times and you went out and went three and out. If we play complimentary football without wearing out our defense we can win a lot of games, Dak and offense has to find a way to eat up clock throughout the game. As great as a 2 play score is, sometimes that’s not the best if your defense is worn out from the ten play drive right before it. That ten play drive prob only happened bc they were gassed. If you go out and go three and out, that gassed defense is going to have a higher likelihood of giving up a score. Don’t care if it’s Dak, Rush, Trey but whoever plays complimentary football is who gets this team to Super Bowl.
