Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan ARE there. They are on winning teams, winning games and putting together great drives (i.e. Flacco v. Favre - he put them ahead until Favre came back and then again after that).
"RedSoxExcel" wrote:
Wait, wait, wait. So Flacco gets credit for coming back against the Vikings until the Vikings took the lead and won. Let's see when they were down 27-10 Flacco had one drive pretty much on his own to get it to 27-17. The Vikings then got a field goal to make it 30-17. He then had a drive where he dumped it off to Ray Rice in the flat who broke 3 tackles to get 62 yards setting up another touchdown. He then handed off to Ray Rice for a 33 yard touchdown on the only play of another drive to make it 31-30. Credit to him for his part but Ray Rice was a much bigger factor in that attempted comeback against the Queens than Flacco was. Then Flacco did a good job to get them in field goal range but the kicker missed what would have been the game winning field goal.
Oh wait, that sounds strangely familiar. Let's see, Crosby missed two game winning field goals last year which would have counted as wins for Rodgers. Rodgers doesn't get any credit for those. There were also times when Rodgers gave us the lead in the closing minutes only for the defense to choke it away (Carolina for instance). We don't give Rodgers credit for that.
Flacco has been in three close games this year and lost them all. Two of them his team had a legitimate shot at winning in the final moments with a last minute score but they failed to do so. And to be fair, neither were his fault (missed field goal against Minnesota and I believe a dropped 4th down pass which would have given them a first down against New England). But based on the criteria for judging quarterbacks you've been using for Rodgers, Flacco "needs to win some games." They have the same record this year, and Rodgers is the only one with a comeback.
Last year, the Ravens only won two close games (won the rest by 9+ points). Week one against Cincinatti in which they had the lead the entire second half and in the playoffs against Tennessee where they broke a deadlock in the fourth quarter with a field goal on a drive that was largely rushing. They lost close games against Pittsburgh twice and Tennessee in the regular season. Baltimore got the ball first in overtime the first time against Pittsburgh. Against Tennessee, Flacco was picked off twice in the final two minutes in attempts to bring them back from down 3. Against Pittsburgh the second time Flacco was picked off in the final minute while down 4 in an attempt to bring the Ravens back.
Let's look at Matt Ryan now. This year they've had two games that they've won by a single score (Carolina and Chicago). Neither required a comeback, though they did score to break a deadlock with Chicago in the 4th after getting a short field from a great return. In both cases their defense held on to win. Against New Orleans, they eventually lost by 8, but had a chance to take the lead with 8 minutes left only for Matt Ryan to throw a pick at the one yard line.
Last year, Atlanta won close games against Green Bay, Chicago, San Diego, Tampa, Minnesota, and St. Louis. Green Bay was down by 10, we drove to cut it to 3 and gave a defense three timeouts and a chance to stop Turner, they didn't. Chicago was a great throw from Ryan and then a long field goal on the last play to win. Against San Diego they had the lead the entire second half. They won in overtime against Tampa with a field goal on a drive that was almost entirely running (Ryan also fumbled but one of his lineman recovered). Against Minnesota they had the lead the entire second half. Against St. Louis they fell behind and the drive to take the lead was all rushing plays except one 13 yard pass. Ryan also failed to come from behind against Denver and New Orleans last year when he had the ball and a chance to score. Had a poor playoff game too in the biggest game of his career to date.
So looking at that he has three comeback wins, two of which were almost exclusively compliments of Atlanta's running game. The other he made a single, yet beautiful pass to set up a long field goal. So no, 24-20 down I don't want Matt Ryan over Rodgers because apparently he relies on his running game (which we don't have) or long field goals (Crosby can, but is inconsistent) for his comebacks.
In short, neither Ryan nor Flacco have been all that impressive leading comeback victories with their arm. Ryan's benefited in a few cases against poor teams thanks to the running game. He does deserve credit for the one against the Bears. Flacco doesn't really have a come-from-behind victory. Give me Rodgers.
Anyway, where's Non to tell us that comebacks are the most overrated statistic for a quarterback. To paraphrase him, don't fuck up early on and you don't need to come back.
sources:
my memory
pro-football-reference.com
NFL.com gamecenters
Born and bred a cheesehead