Pondering Her Percy wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:55 am
Cliff wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 6:40 am
I'm actually not convinced that just any QB would make the throw. Could Kirk Cousins complete a pass like that? Of course. Does he in that situation? End of the game, one of the coldest on record, a very stout Seattle defense. I think "a short pass to Rudolph" sells the pass short too.
Here is the actual play. You're confident that Cousins, at 1:20 left in the 4th with the game on the line, in those weather conditions, against the 2015 Seattle defense, starting receivers of Diggs as a rookie and Mike Wallace, with a defender right behind him lunging out to grab him in the next .5 second, makes this play? I would have ZERO confidence in him to pull the trigger on this in the first place let alone actually make the play.
https://youtu.be/N5zFfcPdQN8?t=360
If someone were to question Cousins and say he wouldnt have made the Keenum miracle throw to Diggs or the Favre throw to Greg Lewis is one thing. The throw to Rudy in the playoffs though? Yeah I would have confidence in Cousins making that throw. It was a 10 yard throw. That's just not an impressive throw to me. 90% of the time, Rudy would have just went out of bounds there but given the defender tried to make a play there was room to keep going. That's a 10 yard out. Any QB could make that throw. Very few QBs could make that throw to Greg Lewis that Favre had. Keenum, it was more out of desperation mode and being lucky that the defender missed the tackle on Diggs. It was a good throw but not intended to be a TD. It was a better play by Diggs and Keenum had a clean pocket. Regardless, that throw to Rudy just doesnt impress me.
Side note: Man I forgot that Rudy actually had some decent speed to him. Watching him run now is painful.
It's so obvious how the two different sides to this argument are looking at things from a totally different perspective. PHP, you look at the numbers, and the talent of Cousins. You see this play as a play that 99.9% of the time should be completed by an NFL QB. And all of that is true. But I look at things from a view based more on the intangibles. Some guys, for whatever unexplained reasons, become the .1% in a very pressure or crucial situation. We'll never know if Cousins would have made that throw. All I know is Bridgewater did. I can only base my opinion on other situations, and there have been pretty many, in Cousins time where he finds a way to not come through. Look back to the Bears game this year. Coming out in the second half, down 10-0, and receiving the ball, with a chance to prove a point that the second half isn't going to be a repeat of the first half, on the very first play, Cousins fumbles the ball. Now we can play "What If" here and say, if Keenum or Teddy is in that situation they dump a short pass off that goes for a 20 yard gain. And then you will say, "Yeah...EVERY QB will make that throw". Well, NO..Cousins didn't make ANY throw because he fumbled the ball.
Yes, I know these are all hypothetical, but after a while a player just loses my confidence as a fan. And if he has lost my confidence, maybe he has also lost some with his teammates, which also effect their performance. Even the defensive players.
When I played softball, we had two pitchers. Bob was beyond the shadow of a doubt the better pitcher, but for some reason, we won just about every time Ronny pitched for us. And we became aware of it. We went into the game with almost this subconscious confidence that we didn't have when Bob pitched. We played better.
That's the way sports works. It can't always be seen in the numbers, stats, or player attributes.
From the article:
I agree Kapp! We were bound to not see eye to eye on something. Took us quite a while! Skol brother!