The Worst Defenses the Top 10 QBs Have Had

[CowboysFaninHouston]

In your opinion, how are you defining 'far' in 'far in the playoffs'? And before anyone asks, my question pertains to all players and their coaches that make up their team--not individual players.

at least win one, and I think there is only two that reached CCG (I know Daniels did).

Playoffs are different beasts and for a rookie to win a lot has to align.

in the past 25 years only 9 rookies won playoff games. 20 have lost the first playoff game including Dak, Rothlisberger, Jackson, Herbert and few other notables.

• Aaron Brooks — 1 win (2000)
• Joe Flacco — 2 wins (2008)
• Mark Sanchez — 2 wins (2009)
• T.J. Yates — 1 win (2011)
• Russell Wilson — 1 win (2012)
• John Wolford — 1 win (2020)
• Brock Purdy — 2 wins (2022)
• C.J. Stroud — 1 win (2023)
• Jayden Daniels - 1 win (2024)

both Flacco and Sanchez benefited from top notch dominant defenses. Jets had the top defense, and gave up less than 15 points a game. Ravens had top three defense, including Ray Lewis and company.

so there needs to be a very strong team around the rookie for them to succeed in the playoffs. its usually QBs that get drafted lower in the round, which means they go to a strong team. Obviously, Daniels was an exception and all the stars aligned for him.

 

[DallasEast]

at least win one, and I think there is only two that reached CCG (I know Daniels did).

Playoffs are different beasts and for a rookie to win a lot has to align.

in the past 25 years only 9 rookies won playoff games. 20 have lost the first playoff game including Dak, Rothlisberger, Jackson, Herbert and few other notables.

• Aaron Brooks — 1 win (2000)
• Joe Flacco — 2 wins (2008)
• Mark Sanchez — 2 wins (2009)
• T.J. Yates — 1 win (2011)
• Russell Wilson — 1 win (2012)
• John Wolford — 1 win (2020)
• Brock Purdy — 2 wins (2022)
• C.J. Stroud — 1 win (2023)
• Jayden Daniels - 1 win (2024)

both Flacco and Sanchez benefited from top notch dominant defenses. Jets had the top defense, and gave up less than 15 points a game. Ravens had top three defense, including Ray Lewis and company.

so there needs to be a very strong team around the rookie for them to succeed in the playoffs. its usually QBs that get drafted lower in the round, which means they go to a strong team. Obviously, Daniels was an exception and all the stars aligned for him.

Thanks for the answer and info. I have a similar list of playoff teams playing with a rookie quarterback, courtesy of sports-reference.com & stathead.com. The list covers the entire Super Bowl era. The list criteria are:

• Game starter
• NFL Rookie status as defined by the site (link)

Their rookie criteria exclude Aaron Brooks (drafted by the Packers in 1999 but did not play) and John Wolford (undrafted free agent for the Jets in 2018 and signed to the Rams practice squad in 2019). Below is how all teams fared with the 23 rookie quarterbacks (leading off with a well-known future Hall of Famer) who started playoff games since 1966:

 

[DeaconMoss]

Here's some of the other defenses Dak has had:

2016: Ranked 5th in Team Defense (Ezekiel Elliott was also the NFL Rushing Leader)
2018: Ranked 6th in Team Defense (Ezekiel Elliott was also the NFL Rushing Leader)
2021: Ranked 7th in Team Defense, and Ranked 1st in Takeaways
2022: Ranked 6th in Team Defense, and Ranked 1st in Takeaways
2023: Ranked 5th in Team Defense

Poor Dak has never had any help at all. </sarcasm>

BBBut. He didnt have any help.

 

[GINeric]

Here's some of the other defenses Dak has had:

2016: Ranked 5th in Team Defense (Ezekiel Elliott was also the NFL Rushing Leader)
2018: Ranked 6th in Team Defense (Ezekiel Elliott was also the NFL Rushing Leader)
2021: Ranked 7th in Team Defense, and Ranked 1st in Takeaways
2022: Ranked 6th in Team Defense, and Ranked 1st in Takeaways
2023: Ranked 5th in Team Defense

Poor Dak has never had any help at all. </sarcasm>

https://www.google.com/search?ie=UT...+the+run+over+the+last+10+seasons#lfId=ChxjMe


Yeah, those terrific defenses seemed to have a problem consistently stopping the opposing teams running games. Maybe being able to stop the run isn't really a big deal for a defense though I guess.

Should I pull up the defensive run stopping rankings for those playoff games too, or is a defense that averages giving up over 130 yards on the ground helpful to the team?

In the last seven playoff games, the defense gave up over 900 yards on the ground. Interesting..... its funny that this isn't brought up when talking about Cowboys playoff games. Especially the game the Cowboys gave up 273 yards on the ground to the Rams in the playoffs.

 

[kskboys]

https://www.google.com/search?ie=UT...+the+run+over+the+last+10+seasons#lfId=ChxjMe


Yeah, those terrific defenses seemed to have a problem consistently stopping the opposing teams running games. Maybe being able to stop the run isn't really a big deal for a defense though I guess.

Should I pull up the defensive run stopping rankings for those playoff games too, or is a defense that averages giving up over 130 yards on the ground helpful to the team?

In the last seven playoff games, the defense gave up over 900 yards on the ground. Interesting..... its funny that this isn't brought up when talking about Cowboys playoff games. Especially the game the Cowboys gave up 273 yards on the ground to the Rams in the playoffs.

It's a huge deal. You don't win super bowls if you can't stop the run.

 

[GINeric]

oh goodie the dummies have come out to play.

2016: Rookie Dak throws for over 300 yards with 3 TDs and scores 31 points in a loss.
2018: Wins playoff game in year 3. next game defense gives up 273 yards rushing.
2021: Very mid Dak performance but allowed 169 yards rushing and lost TOP by 8 minutes to SF.
2023: Beats the brakes of Brady to end his career. Has stinker in San Fran where we again lose rushing battle by over 40 yards.

Dak has had 7 playoff games and has passed for less than 250 yards all of twice.
Playoff Defense Performance: In the actual playoff games, those defenses allowed 27.1 PPG (which would usually rank near the bottom of the league in any given regular season)

Dak looked bad versus San Fran twice. Outside those 2 games he either got no help from the defense AT ALL or he won games.

Great breakdown but there is one more thing that has to be added. In that first 49ers playoff game, the Cowboys committed an NFL record 14 penalties in that game. Its safe to say the team didn't help Dak out in that one either.

Im not excluding Dak from the mishaps that day, but there isn't a quarterback in NFL history that would ever help a team win any playoff games with that many penalties.

Did I mention the 49ers had the number one ranked defense that season as well?

 

[Big D]

Here's some of the other defenses Dak has had:

2016: Ranked 5th in Team Defense (Ezekiel Elliott was also the NFL Rushing Leader)
2018: Ranked 6th in Team Defense (Ezekiel Elliott was also the NFL Rushing Leader)
2021: Ranked 7th in Team Defense, and Ranked 1st in Takeaways
2022: Ranked 6th in Team Defense, and Ranked 1st in Takeaways
2023: Ranked 5th in Team Defense

Poor Dak has never had any help at all. </sarcasm>

Dak and the offense played poorly in '21 and '22 - which were the only games where defense played good. In the rest our defense gave up 37 ppg while being ranked #5 ,#5 .#6 in those years. Sometimes Defensive rankings are just as deceptive as the passing stats.

 

[Redline360]

oh goodie the dummies have come out to play.

2016: Rookie Dak throws for over 300 yards with 3 TDs and scores 31 points in a loss.
2018: Wins playoff game in year 3. next game defense gives up 273 yards rushing.
2021: Very mid Dak performance but allowed 169 yards rushing and lost TOP by 8 minutes to SF.
2023: Beats the brakes of Brady to end his career. Has stinker in San Fran where we again lose rushing battle by over 40 yards.

Dak has had 7 playoff games and has passed for less than 250 yards all of twice.
Playoff Defense Performance: In the actual playoff games, those defenses allowed 27.1 PPG (which would usually rank near the bottom of the league in any given regular season)

Dak looked bad versus San Fran twice. Outside those 2 games he either got no help from the defense AT ALL or he won games.

This is also the other end of the spectrum of looking at dumb posts. Stats at face value is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to breaking down things. Easy to spot those who look at face value stats and espn highlights

Dak's & the Cowboys post season:

2016: Down 28-13 entering the 4th. Down 3 scores or 2TDS and a 2-point conversion. Besides the 40 or 50yard Dez TD in the first half the offense was doing nothing up until the 4th. Valiant attempt to come back in the 4th quarter but to little to late

2018 WC: The "team" had a solid win all around. Elliot ran all over the Seahawks and Dak played pretty good in a tough fought game.

2018 division round: Defense got ran over literally. Two 100 yard rushers. Goff was absolutely useless that game. However the offense is not off the hook either as they had nothing going all game nor even attempted to swing momentum in their favor. Zeke with like 2ypc. Defense goals tore apart.

2021: Dak and the offense was completely useless all game. Defense did its job only giving up 23 points being on the field constantly. ToP was absolutely brutally lopsided. Probably Daks worst playoff game

2022 WC: Dak and the cowboys absolutely wrecked the Bucs however the Bucs team had no rights being in the playoffs to begin with. Half the starting OL was held together by tape and glue and the Bucs defense and secondary had basically had camp bodies. But damn we played solid overall. Crazy offense game.

2022 division round: Hard fought defensive game on both sides of the ball. Our defense held the niners to 19 points while the offense was completely useless again. Could also be considered Daks worst playoff game


2023: Just like the packers game in 2016. Offense was completely useless 3 out of 4 quarters and only got going in the 4th when the packers started pulling starters.

I do not believe in the "QB wins or losses" statistical bs as its a team game however the best game Dak and the cowboys have played overall was in 2018 with a solid team win over the seahawks. 2016 & 2023 offense did nothing until the 4th quarter. 2018 Rams just ran over us, blame the defense. 2022 & 2023 niner games the offense was once again useless all game. So Daks only had two solid playoff games if you want to count the bucs one. Majority of his stats in the gb games came when the games were already out of reach(for us) and or starters pulled. This is only a breakdown of the games/quarters. There was analytics of those games somewhere on this site at one point years ago but cant find it anywhere. Was not pretty. Defense has always been our Achilles heel but our offense under Dak in the post season looking past face value stats bar a game or two has also been bad