Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
Posting those stats is an insinuation that Jimmy is better even though we all know he isn't . Otherwise, why even post the stats. They're meaningless.
Here's a good JG stat. He hasn't thrown an INT in 4 weeks. All wins. That's meaningful. That's the longest stretch of his career. Let's hope he keeps it going.
This post is wrong on so many levels it's hard to know where to even begin. I will start with this caveat. I couldn't find Goatie's original post to confirm the origins of this thread but I am assuming that it was the one where he showed a stat that indicated that Joe, Steve, and Jimmy have all had similar won/loss records through the first X number of games in their careers, which seems like a pretty straight forward assertion. Here are the number of games that were played at the start of their careers, here's how many each player has won and lost. I don't see how there is any "insinuation" to be made from that at all. It is just a simple recitation of facts. That you have chosen to interpret it as some kind of claim that means Jimmy is somehow better than Joe or Steve is completely on you and just a reflection of the whole Jimmy sucks bias that is sort of the bedrock of this thread.
Why do I say that? Because one other poster recently relayed the observation that he had made an effort to block all of the people who had this constant burr under their saddle about what a drag Jimmy has been the organization's Championship aspirations and found that when he logged in almost 75% of the posts weren't visible. Now this is his estimation not mine so there may be an element in hyperbole in that but the salient point remains the same. It isn't the people who have generally been supportive of Jimmy's tenure with the team that are driving the conversation in here it is a handful of people who, for whatever reason, seem dead set against giving him ANY credit, at all, for everything he has done for the franchise since he's been here.
The second fallacy in your post is that the won/loss records comparison is somehow "meaningless" because the games were played in different eras and the game has changed so much as to make the comparison invalid. And why is that? How they achieved those wins may have been accomplished under different styles of play, that doesn't make the comparison of win/loss records any less valid. Joe and Steve won their games according to the rules and strategies that were relevant at the time, which means there were a lot of run heavy offenses and QB"s and receivers could get the crap knocked out of them whenever the opportunity presented itself. Jimmy has won a similar number of games playing under the rules of his era, which means "taunting" penalties, a huge uptick in pass interference calls, and 15 yard roughing penalties if you don't bring the QB down in a very specific manner and lay a pillow under his head before he hits the ground. Joe essentially had his back broken by a hit during the Giants game and I don't recall that it even drew a flag.
One of the many narratives in here has been, "well, if only we had Joe or Steve playing the team would be much better". Maybe so, I think their numbers would have both benefited from playing under the rules that are now prevalent in the league which is why I would agree that the fact that Jimmy has one of the highest totals for yards thrown in a season is a little misleading because that really is a reflection of how the game has changed. Joe and Steve probably would have put up huge numbers in this era. I also don't think you can realistically argue that Jimmy is better than either of those guys, though he does have a skill set that makes him a pretty decent player in his own right. But again, a simple recitation of the facts shows that Jimmy has been as effective a QB in his era during the first X number of games in his career as Joe and Steve were in theirs.
There is also the ongoing narrative that Jimmy is just being carried by the defense, the skill of his position players, and Kyle's offensive schemes. Seems to me that Joe and Steve had the benefit of some pretty good defenses and skill players in their day, and even had a pretty good offensive coach as I recall, but I don't see many people in here making the claim that they were just being carried. Then there is the, he can't win the "big one" argument. In this area of course, Joe was the King, Simply unbeatable when it mattered the most which is why he is the greatest QB in 49er's history. However, as I recall, Steve lost three straight NFC Championship games before he finally got gifted a win against the Packers (sorry folks, Rice fumbled that ball) and was able to go on and decimate the Chargers. And even though he put up decent numbers in some of those games he also had several ill timed interceptions as well.
The bottom line is that certain people in here are still just butt hurt about the fact that Jimmy missed that throw to Sanders and that he couldn't get us over the hump against the Rams, a team he hasn't lost to in the regular season, when he was playing with injuries to both the thumb and shoulder of his throwing arm, the latter of which ending up requiring surgery, and they are determined to not let any of us forget it. Jimmy has his shortcomings but, as evidenced by his play of the last few weeks, he is certainly capable of playing at a pretty effective and efficient level. He will never be Joe or Steve but, if he can keep going the way he has, he can be a pretty darn good Jimmy. Go Niners!