I watched one of the early games, Miami at New England. Many of you know the Patriots won this game, but some of you may not know Miami held a 17-3 lead in the third quarter. We at the BSP household figured the Dolphins were not going to win that game even then. Why? Because the Dolphins had no idea how to win that game; while the Patriots did. Of course, New England brought their officials, but it seems that happens every week they are not playing the Jets.
I made an off-hand flippant comment how Ryan Tannehill put up excellent numbers but wasn’t a winner. Now that’s a bit harsh, but the reality is also harsh. Johnny Manziel, an elite college quarterback, took a Texas A&M team Tannehill led to a 7-6 record and a Meineke Car Care bowl win, and led them to a 11-2 record and a Cotton Bowl win. Tannehill, on one side looks like an prototypical NFL quarterback compared to Manziel.
Tannehill, and many other quarterbacks can lead a team between the 20’s, piling up stats. For a fantasy player, that’s terrific. But as far as winning games, the guy can make the big mistake. I’m not really picking on Tannehill either. A LOT of NFL quarterbacks do exactly what he did…take a team leading its opponent by double digits on the road and come up short. A lot of times, we want to believe the “measurables.” Those are nonsense. The difference between a Tom Brady and almost every other quarterback in the NFL is, they make big plays when it counts. It’s hard. It has to be really hard, because even elite quarterbacks have problems with this on occasion.
