Explanation for Quinn's Lack of Big Game Success

[Rhody Phins Fan]

This is a chat on Baseball Prospectus by Mike Tanier of Football Prospectus and FootballOutsiders.com and he gives a good explanation about why Quinn came up short in big games.

ryan (miami): do you agree with dan le batards take that brady quinn is vastly overrated, a big piece of it because notre dame hasnt won a top 25 game in 2 years under quinn and weiss?

Mike Tanier: Quinn's biggest problem is that his timing is poor.

Quinn sees open receivers, hesitates, and then throws to them when the window is closing. When he's facing USC or Michigan, top-level cornerbacks can recover and top-level safeties can react and close on the ball, generating some turnovers. It's not that Quinn didn't make a proper read or threw an inaccurate pass; he just didn't put all the pieces together and release the ball in time.

That explains why Quinn "disappeared" or "came up small" against top competition. He has other minor problems, but his biggest flaw is very correctable. Quinn's timing will improve over his first few years in the league.

Scouts, unlike columnists, aren't looking at the win-loss column when evaluating quarterbacks. If they did, Trent Edwards would be screwed. They are looking at footwork, throwing motion, release time, pocket presence, velocity, timing, touch, and other nuts and bolts. If you judge a quarterback by what he did in "the big game", you are probably oversimplifying.

 

[Dolphins101]

The kid we'll be fine in a year or 2 till then we'll have Green. Just hope we get a LT and a CB that can jump right in from the start.

 

[utahphinsfan]

I could swear they said Harrington's "flaws" were correctable too. :D

 

[emocomputerjock]

I could swear they said Harrington's "flaws" were correctable too. :D

Harrington and Quinn aren't anywhere near close to comparable at this stage, and that's with Harrington having 5 years in the league. Quinn is already better.

 

[PhinGeneral]

I'm not going to tell you Quinn's going to be a star or a bust, because I really haven't seen enough film to really judge that. But I do think this big game stuff is a little overrated with Brady.

First of all, he's never thrown more INT's than TD's in those "big games", so it's not like he's been stinking up the joint.

Secondly, look at a few of those teams for a minute. Michigan has a handful of defensive players likely to be drafted in the 1st and 2nd rounds. There probably aren't a lot of QB's that were going to light it up when that defense felt like playing. As for USC, they only have one of the best defensive minds in football in Pete Carroll. It's rare for any QB to have a great game against them in a big spot. Nonetheless, had Matt Leinart not thrown a nearly perfect pass on 4th and long and gotten an "assist" from Reggie Bush a few years ago, a lot of the talk of Brady not winning big games would have gone out the window.

I also don't think he gets credit for the leadership shown in comebacks like the ones against Mich St. and UCLA.

If he truly stunk it up in big games I'd be concerned. But he really hasn't, and I don't imagine it's so big of a fault that it's enough to brand him for his career.

 

[zach8111]

yes he never one a big game but he never had a good team. he made the team. the defense sucked and so did the offense. the next best player on the team was a walk-on jeff samarzja. and he is in MLB now. his runnigback is average but not great, and there whole D was horrible. they had to out score there opponents to win. it is amazing to see them have a winning record

 

[bugs65]

Quinn sucks. He loses big games and Notre Dame Quarterbacks are usually overated.
You can make all the excuses for him you like. I am not convinced he is a winner in the NFL. :err:

 

[JT#1]

Quinn sucks. He loses big games and Notre Dame Quarterbacks are usually overated.
You can make all the excuses for him you like. I am not convinced he is a winner in the NFL. :err:

if quarterback was all it took to win a big game Dan Marino would have won atleast one super bowl and Elway would have won one when he was in his prime.

 

[Rhody Phins Fan]

Quinn sucks. He loses big games and Notre Dame Quarterbacks are usually overated.
You can make all the excuses for him you like. I am not convinced he is a winner in the NFL. :err:

Quarterbacks don't lose big games. Teams lose big games. The same thing was said about Peyton Manning but I guess that was wrong.

 

[OneHondo]

Quinn sucks. He loses big games and Notre Dame Quarterbacks are usually overated.
You can make all the excuses for him you like. I am not convinced he is a winner in the NFL. :err:

Boy, its too bad all of these NFL scouts, General Managers and people that rank the draft candidates don't have your insight and wisdom. If they did Quinn wouldn't be considered a top ten pick or even a first round prospect. Have you tried calling Mueller to give him your insight?

 

[MastR_EvaluatoR]

When he's facing USC or Michigan, top-level cornerbacks can recover and top-level safeties can react and close on the ball, generating some turnovers. .

I did further research on Quinn.. And I found out he never had more interceptions than touchdown passes in big games.. That's pretty impressive.

EDIT - I just read this thread and see someone else mentioned this fact.. I read about it on sportsline last night.

 

[MastR_EvaluatoR]

I also don't think he gets credit for the leadership shown in comebacks like the ones against Mich St. and UCLA. .

Yeah, alot of people say UCLA sucked.. But then again, UCLA did beat USC that season.. I am slowly jumping on the Quinn bandwagon by the way.

 

[bakedmatt]

I like Dan's show. I listen to it often. That's how I know that he also said that David Carr was going to be a great QB in the NFL when he came into the league.

 

[OneHondo]

I did further research on Quinn.. And I found out he never had more interceptions than touchdown passes in big games.. That's pretty impressive.

EDIT - I just read this thread and see someone else mentioned this fact.. I read about it on sportsline last night.

Thats interesting considering Russell had one game against Florida this past year with 3 Ints and 1 TD and one against Tenn with 3 TDs and 3 Ints, the Auburn game he didn't have any Ints or TDs.

 

[cormega]

if we get him, i hope he is great, if not, then i dont really care. i just think its funny that all the good things about him get magnifyed, and the bad things get swept under the rug. and people get blasted when they point them out. if u saw him play against good teams u would see that he easily gets rattled. and he looks exactly like joey harrington. if the "experts" were wrong about joey, why is it inconcievable that they are wrong about brady? esp. when i read somewhere that only 30 something % of first round QB's pan out. We are always so eager to anoint these QB's as the second comming, then when it dont work we say we should have seen it all along. if we get quin and he dont work out there will be plenty of people pointing to all of the reasons that are now being swept under the rug.