Freed Roger wrote:If one thing this game has shown us about QBing and winning SBs, it's more about managing a game and not making mistakes, rather than having a team dependent on QB going out throwing 7 TDs. Broncos, not a well-rounded team, & too dependent on Manning.
Here's my thing re QBs and SBs.
Check out the Niners Franchise Index page at pro football ref.
Look specifically at the Montana and Young eras. Few things jump out.
The last 5 years of Montana, the SF offense ranked (by yards): 3, 1, 2, 1, 2.
The first 5 years of Young, the SF offense ranked (by yard): 3, 1, 1, 2, 2.
The same! But one is always in the Best Ever convo and the other is not, even though they did the same stuff with the same supporting cast more or less, in the same system.
Look at the Montana era, and the Niners defensive ranks (by yards): 2 (won SB), 21 (no playoffs), 10, 10 (won SB), 14, 6, 1, 3 (won SB), 4 (won SB), 2.
He was the man for 10 years in SF. They had a top-5 D half the time and a top-10 D 80% of the time. They only won one SB when the D was not top-4 by yards, and that year it was t#10 by yards but, oddly, the #1 scoring defense in the NFL. They might not have peaked in single seasons like the Bears and Giants but the best team defense of that generation was SF, who went out and was the top of the heap constantly. They went 12 years where they were only below 8th in yards allowed twice. They were ridiculously good.
Another angle: when Montana's defense was not very good, "he" did not "win" Super Bowls.
That's because Montana, like Manning, can't win a Super Bowl alone. The best team that day wins and the best overall team during the season wins an overwhelming amount of the time, and sometimes the best QB is on the best team (like when Favre won) and sometimes a QB who's super hot (Brees, Rodgers) takes one down in a great year, but they never do it alone or with just offense. Montana was no Marino. Brady is no Manning. Just, Montana and Brady were on better all-around teams than Marino and Manning (and poor forgotten Dan Fouts, who in today's NFL would....holy Jesus, what he'd do in today's game).
The craziest thing about this Super Bowl to me is that it opened, when the matchups were set, with SEA -3, and before the sun rose the next morning it was DEN -2.5. Vegas odds move until the money is coming in even on both sides, and for the line to move eleven half-point units in under 8 hours because all the money went on Manning's offensive prowess is literally insane. I don't know if it was all square money, and people who thought that he was going to ride a white horse into New Jersey and slay Seattle's superior D, superior ST, and very good O that matched up fairly well with Denver's depleted D--like, if people were goofy enough to think that he could just take the game over single-handedly as if he was playing v a High School team--or if it was the smart money going large on Denver. Either way, it's crazy as hell that the line changed the way it did, and moved away from the better team, in such a short span.
