In a single-elimination game, it's about matchups. To match up well with enough teams and make it to the SB, you need to score a lot of points/have a top combo of QB/OC/Receiver/OL.
Ravens, Bucs in early 2000 are a few of the top of my head are teams that did not have top 5 QBs and won the Superbowl.Disagree.
Need a top flight QB, in modern NFL. What you said is exception to the rule.
Tell me, in last two decades, how many won with top flight QB and how many won with your formula? Facts don't lie.
Preach. This is 100000% on point. The 69ers win that SB if that “weaker” QB Jimmy G didn’t cinch up and fail to make a single play in the 4th. Mahomes didn’t do Jack all game and then was able to rally for a couple of scores because he kept getting the ball and the probabilities played out like you stated. That the Niners played lights out defense for 3+ quarters just vaporized and didn’t matter as Garrapolo **** the bed and couldn’t muster a 1st down...repeatedly. Prime example of your point. I too wished we would have stayed at 3 and taken a QB. I’m not down on Tua or anything, but yes, increase the odds you find that special guy.In the old NFL, the rules were so balanced and the league featured so much contrast, even the best quarterbacks could get stuck at low point production many times per season. Now amidst coddled offenses that no longer happens. Even if elite quarterbacks struggle early the scoreboard dependably reaches 30 or thereabouts. And that single reality changed the entire dynamic of the sport. Weaker to mediocre quarterbacks don't continue to dent the scoreboard. They get content and nervous and stall late, even if the point production was high early in the game. Consequently there are countless examples each season of a weaker team/weaker quarterback that should have won the game but did not. The Chiefs late last season received lots of press for winning so many close games. Big deal. That's the way the league is set up these days. It's damn tough to build an overall great team. But you don't really need to in the first place. Dominance at the one position is plenty enough to monopolize the won/loss record.
The chess piece moves don't interest me a heck of a lot. If you have an outlier quarterback you matter. If you have a Crowd quarterback then you'll blend into irrelevancy. That's why I wanted to take a second swing at a quarterback, given that very rare slot so high in the draft.
The Super Bowl formula is freakish quarterback and then take your chances for a decade or more. Margin for error explodes. You only have to make occasional sharp choices instead of nearly everything needing to be perfect, if you lack at quarterback.
I used to argue this same point more or less but it is indeed getting harder and harder to make it / win it without one of the best QBs.Ravens, Bucs in early 2000 are a few of the top of my head are teams that did not have top 5 QBs and won the Superbowl.
When you mention formula for Superbowl team there are teams that have made the Superbowl without a top 5 QB.
Some win and some don't but making the Superbowl does not require a top 5 QB.
i know the game has changed but we had the greatest QB ever and went to 1 superbowl.. our defense was never good enough and our running game was non existent.. Tampa showed that if you play great D and run the ball you have a chance.. they made the best offense in football with the best QB in football look badAs the NFL evolves, and has evolved, the formula and "blueprint", if you will, for what makes a Super Bowl contender is somewhat baffling.
What are the strengths of a team that are considered the reason for their success as a Super Bowl contender? Besides the players, since most NFL teams that are in the top 15 have better to elite players throughout their rosters, what are the x-factors? What formula seems to be consistent, and is Miami in that conversation of contending teams that are close to that formula being complete?
Is it the front office? It's it the coaching staff? Can it be the trainers and strength and conditioning program? Is it the owner? Is it simply the luck of the draw? Is it the rules and officiating of the game evolving to benefit scoring?
Ready?
GO!
I think there is something to be said about having a quality coaching staff not just a HC. The patriots would always look a little lost the first few weeks before putting all the pieces together and coaching them up. Teams that show improvement from the start to finish end up making long runs because they focus on doing the little things right.This is a great discussion. But for me, it all boils down to one thing. Peaking at the right time.
Look at the Bucs last year. They stunk in the first quarter of the season, but continued to work and pulled it off by playing their best ball in the playoffs.
Most, if not all playoff teams have their own relatively successful schemes and formulas. Perfecting everything in the playbook as a WHOLE team in all 3 phases is the only formula.
I don't think a team goes anywhere meaningful unless they have a savvy QB who can audible and then execute the correct play to keep the offense efficient and effective.