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Originally Posted by CrazyCanuck
Wow. Is this for real?
Look if you want to make the case that Brunell is getting older, can't take us to the next level, this is probably the best we can expect from him, etc., I can live with that.
But let's be fair about this season. The guy ran the offense admirably, made key plays on his own, and pretty much had a pro bowl season. Brunell couldn't win any close games? What about the first Dallas game? What about the Seattle game? What about the first Philly game? And ironically the close games you mention that he lost might have been his best games of the year. Our offense rolled all over Denver and KC in their home parks, and Brunell threw for over 300 yards in each. It was turnovers and our defense that cost us those games, not Brunell.
You want to make the case for Ramsey or Campbell to start next year that's fine. But if you're talking about this season, let's be realistic and give Brunell his due.
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Did we win those close games because of Brunells attributes, or were they close because of his inabilities at QB? That is the question.
The 1st cowboy game, lets take a closer look, the fact is we shouldn't have been in a position for him to have to throw to miracle TD passes, those passes had to happen because Brunell was about as bad as a QB can be for the first 56 minutes, only when desperation sat in did he take the chance and throw a high risk deep pass in which he connected, it was the least he could do.
The Seattle game didn't he basically hand seattle the ball in field goal range with under 1 minute to go, and only because their field goal kicker hit the upright did we survive that game.
Realistically with our defense this team should have been 12-4 at the very least. If it's not Brunell then who? Is it Moss who set a team record for recieving yards? NO! Is it Portis who set a team record for rushing yards? No! Is it Cooley who I believe [but not positive] set a record for most catches by a TE in franchise history? NO!
I am not a real big stat guy and understand that stats can be very misleading, you might say well if Brunell was that bad how did we set so many records in the passing game? In a dink and dunk offense you can expect your TE to see a lot of balls, and I would like to know how many yards Moss accumulated after the catch? But those were also his only 2 options Brunell didn't consider spreading the ball around, so it's reasonable that they would set team records. What we didn't see a lot of was the deep ball, and that's the pass that will stretch the defense not dink and dunk. Perhaps Brunell is afraid to throw deep because Gibbs has everyone paranoid about ball control, or maybe he just can't, either way something has to change.
In all honesty this past saturday is the first game that I could say we were up against a team that is better, but even with that said we still could have beat them without needing a miracle to do it.
Take a hard look at the last 3 games we played becaue those are the teams we will have to beat if we are to become super bowl champions, after watching Brunell perform against them does anyone really believe he's the QB to take us to that next level?
I would love to make a case for Campbell starting next season, but there's not one point I could bring up to help his cause, and more than I care to think about against it.