G.O.A.T Modern Day QB Part 1

In the first day of divisonals, two epic matchups were on the docket. First a legendary battle between future HOF’er Tom Brady and playoff wizard Joe Flacco. A game not for the faint of heart by any means, both quarterbacks put on a statistical show. #12 getting the slight edge with a 35-31 victory. In what could only be described as fate, The Patriots whom Joe last threw a January pick against was also the team to stymie a historic 16-0 Td/Int ratio. The stat spread across five and a half games. With a natural knack for clutch performances in the playoffs, Joe Cool as RavensNation call him has the hardware and numbers to place him in the top 6 at the least for the best quarterback. His stats may point to a inconsistent regular season QB, but that doesn’t always mean the talent isn’t there. Not since Montana has a quarterback played so well in the month of January. One can argue that he lost the game with his errant 2 and 5 long bomb to Torrey Smith, which logically should have been broken up by the WR the moment he noticed the ball start to float. Had he won that game vs the Pats with his Hail Mary bomb or something similar, than proceed to play in another Super Bowl, it’d be ludicrous not to have him in the top 3.

The winner of that game though was Tom Brady. Putting up staggering numbers throughout his career that his Baltimore counterpart could only dream of, this force to be reckoned with has to be top of the food chain in the AFC. Setting the record for most touchdowns in the playoffs and the record for most wins in the playoffs, Tom also has three amazing championships to brag about. Back to back wins at that.  To be fair, the last time we witnessed Tom hoisting the Lombardi was ten years ago. Although having a perfect record in 2007 only to lose a heartbreaker to the Giants and a few more other trips to the final two, Tom has guided his Patriots to a record 9 AFC Championship games. The downside? In January the depth of his receiving core gets thin and having no Rb that he feels secure in, causing him to make the extra move with a ton of weight on his shoulders. In his lengthy time in the NFL, Brady has connected with 50+ WRs for Tds. The unique things about that stat is approximately 35 of those receivers have caught less than five touchdowns from Tom. Where Peyton and Rodgers have had pro bowl targets, Brady has never had the calibre of receivers any great QB has had. Nor has he been able to build a relationship with his core a la Manning/Wayne-Harrison,  Rodgers/Nelson-Cobb,  etc.  Always consistent and determined to be on top, Brady will have his name in GOAT debates for the rest of time.