Marty Schottenheimer was an excellent coach. He made the mistake of running into Hall of Fame quarterbacks in the playoffs. Ten of his 13 playoff defeats were to quarterbacks already in the Hall of Fame or eventually in the Hall of Fame (Brady). He lost to Marino three times and Elway three times, Jim Kelly twice and Warren Moon once.
There were some bad playoff losses to standard quarterbacks, like 1995 against the Colts and 2004 in overtime to the Jets. Schottenheimer's field goal kicker basically donated those two games, but that stuff is not remembered these days, not in favor of the jolly denouncement of Schottenheimer as coach.
Not a perfect comparison since Schottenheimer was superior, but the knocks on Schottenheimer nationwide remind me of the knocks on Wannstedt by Dolphins fans. Same simplistic mindset. Apparently Marino was excused for never winning a Super Bowl but as soon as Wannstedt shows up with Jay Fiedler and company, he was supposed to win one or more.
Give me a swing. That's the realistic criteria. The Bill Parcells "You are what you are" line is his most famous, along with "bite as pups..." and "shop for some of the groceries," but the one that stands out to me is, "Do you know how hard it is to win the Super Bowl?" He said that in frustration during a press conference.
If Ryan Tannehill were the type of quarterback capable of getting us into the playoffs regularly and especially deeper into the playoffs, there wouldn't be any valid criticism of him if he never actually won the whole thing. Maybe that is more clear to me as a bettor because I know what those odds are, even if you advance deep in the playoffs. You still might be 6/1 against or 8/1 against...something like that. Marty Schottenheimer certainly was never Even money to win the championship, or anything close to that.
The idea is to find a coach/quarterback combination capable of getting you to that 6/1 or 8/1 level. Then take your chances.
Only the elite quarterbacks reach the point their late season odds might be as low as 2/1 or Even money or odds-on, like 4/5. If you are 7 point favorite in a conference championship game and project as 7 point favorite again in the Super Bowl, then that is narrowly odds-on, or theoretically more likely than not.
That's why so many of us are desperate to find that type of quarterback, as opposed to others who think it is swell to build up the roster piece by piece, even if it means you stick with someone like Ryan Tannehill at quarterback.
Newsflash: That means your odds at the outset of the playoff are no better than 25/1 and it can be as high as 50/1. Not exaggeration. Go on the road 3 times plus the Super Bowl and you are 50/1 if not higher to win all 4. In other words, you didn't gain anything by betting that team at 40/1 before the season began.
Just a dose of reality for that build-the-roster crew.
