The Best Argument for Brady
A good argument for Brady and the Heisman may be in the numbers but the best reason came in the form of an e-mail from ShakeDownTheThunder today:
An argument that would work for me is that BQ has been sacked more times than any other QB in the top 20 in passing efficiency. His running game is in the bottom third of college football and his defense gives up points faster than a pinball machine (putting pressure on the offense to win it for ND.) Plus, he’s led two heroic 4th quarter comeback victories this year.
Meanwhile, T.Smith has coasted behind a great O-Line, a superior running game, has a top 10 defense that requires only 2 scores by the offense to win and has not faced any adversity yet this year. Now put their numbers side by side and you’ve got an argument for Brady Quinn over Troy Smith.
Here are those numbers(projected out to the end of the season):
| Player | Comp | Att | Yards | TDs | Int | Sacks |
| T. Smith |
190 | 284 | 2407 | 25 | 4 | 13 |
| B. Quinn |
288 | 451 | 3439 | 33 | 5 | 32 |
November 6th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
The flipside of the stats argument that tOSU fans make is that if TS had as many attempts at Brady, that he would have more touchdowns and more yards. Of course, if he had defenses teeing off on him, he probably would have more picks, more sacks, and a lower efficiency. Its all in the stats. They will support any claim
November 6th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
The other flipside is that OSU fans could say Brady gets sacked more because he’s not as elusive as Troy Smith. This is partly true, but we all know from the last two years that Brady has some elusiveness. Like a Yeti.
November 6th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
Maybe…if BQ was eluding bags of pee in the Horseshoe, we could make that comparison…
November 6th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
I agree with the elusiveness, but its not like he is scoring touchdowns, or getting a lot more yards with completions he gets after he scrambles out of the pocket. I am not sure what his rushing yards are, but I know he only has 1 rushing touchdown (BQ has 2 or 3)
November 7th, 2006 at 5:44 am
32 effin sacks? Ouch. TO think on BGS there was talk in the preseason of keeping the sacks under 10. What were we thinking?!?
November 7th, 2006 at 7:01 am
Yes T.Smith is more elusive, but Brady gets sacked more than him because he’s got 3 D-lineman in his face every freakin’ pass while T.Smith has time for some leisure reading while standing in the pocket. It should be obvious to anyone that watches an ND game that BQ is put under a lot of pressure from the pass rush. More so than guys like T.Smith or C.Henne. QBs under a lot of pressure like that tend to make mistakes. It’s a credit to BQ that he’s only thrown 4 picks this year. Especially when he’s been put in purely passing situations where ND has been down late (see MSU and UCLA) or their running game isn’t working (see entire 2006 schedule).
November 7th, 2006 at 7:18 am
Not to mention that the “Heisman moment” TS had against Penn State, was when he “eluded” ONE defender. ONE! And, he got a block to help him out.
I watch both OSU and ND games every week, since I live in Columbus, and Troy Smith is not impressive at all. Yes he eludes defenders, but when a little pressure is added from the outside, he looks horrible. As soon as he gets knocked down he gets flustered.
After watching the game against Illinois, I’m not convinced he’ll do much better against a much better MI team.
He has a great release, and runs well when pressured, but a Heisman winner he is not.
Like everyone else says, I’d take BQ over any QB, no questions asked.
November 7th, 2006 at 10:27 am
Is it just me or was the throw Brady made to Grimes for the TD in the Navy game just as impressive as Troy Smith’s highly publicized “Heisman-moment” against Penn State?
November 7th, 2006 at 11:34 am
Excuse me for going off topic a bit, but here’s my issue with Smith’s Heisman moment (and the game in general):
1. OSU was winning before that touchdown, 7-3, so what is the significance?
2. OSU was shut-out in the first half by #24 (at the time) Penn State!
3. Tressel played Ty-ball, tacking on two defensive touchdowns (T. Smith only led two scoring drives in the entire game…in the Horseshoe!)
4. It has been said above, but TS threw for 115 yards, and 2 picks in the game.
This sounds more like an effort to remain the starter….not a Heisman moment!
November 7th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Hammer, your mistake is that you are viewing OSU’s performance in the PSU game the way the media views ND in all of its contests. If BQ had played in that game, the 4 points you mentioned above are exactly what would have been reported. But it was T.Smith, not BQ, so we throw out the negatives and only focus on the positives. C’mon, get on board.
November 7th, 2006 at 5:53 pm
Correct you are, Thunder. They’d probably add a Point 5 about why Ty should still be at the helm….
November 7th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
As a yeti, I try to keep my elusive in the physical as well as the electronic world. As such, I keep tabs on who might be keeping tabs on me. A simple web search for “yeti” and “bags of pee” brought me to this post. While I agree that TS is more elusive than BQ — this is my area of expertise — I would pose another question. Who will be drafted first? The pros would take BQ over TS all day.
November 7th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
That is one technologically advanced yeti.
November 8th, 2006 at 6:31 am
Yeti, it depends on the type of draft you are referring to. John Kerry might argue against you. Oh, and Yeti, thank you for not genericizing the search as a Google-search (or The Google-search) as is common practice today.
November 8th, 2006 at 8:16 am
I just Google-searched “Google Search” and the result was the entire internet.
November 8th, 2006 at 9:25 am
I don’t buy the logic that Troy Smith gets sacked less b/c of his elusiveness. Look at all the running QB’s in the NFL. Vince Young, Donovan McNabb, and especially Micheal Vick. Those guys usually end up getting sacked MORE than traditional pocket passers (so long as they have a good o-line in front of them) b/c they get hit in the backfield trying to scramble a lot.
My point is, if you put Troy Smith behind Notre Dame’s offensive line, I think if anything he’d get sacked MORE than Brady, not less.
December 10th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
[...] Then I would like everyone to go back and read this: Midseason Argument for Brady [...]