Why the McNair gravy train has peaked, and I'm off that bandwagon

[ClericBlackDave]

Honestly, I think you have to play to your highest ceiling when you play offense, NOT the safest play.


This is why the Titans went with Vince Young over keeping McNair.

Why Grossman is still the starter in Chicago (and they're still in the playoffs)

Why Jay Cutler is the guy in Denver

Why Kurt Warner gets demoted in favor of Lineart.



The problem with Boller is that we tried to Dilfer-ize him. And he had a shit o-line when he was learning the ropes, with shit WRs and no Todd Heap.


But when I look at how the Bears handled Grossman, I got a lot of love there. Stick with your guy.


I think Boller can and should be the guy when you look at his last 8 or 9 games.


And I'm sure PP and the usuall suspects think I'm crazy.


But call me crazy, I'd rather seen Boller in against Indy, had Billick open it up, and have Boller throw 1 TD to 3 INTs. At least we would have gotten a TD on the board.


But, for that matter, Boller hasn't had that type of game in a while (Cleveland), and even then he put up points for us.


170 and 2 INTs just doesn't give me any reason to pull for McNair other than the fact that I'll be stuck watching him as our starter next year.

[RAVENOUS52]

McNair did make some idiotic mistakes that pretty much ended up costing us the game, but I'm not ready to throw him under the bus just yet. I mean, he did lead us to our best regular season record ever, as well as helped heal a lot of open wounds in the locker room.

His sole deep throw of the game was on the money, only the football gods didn't seem to be on our side Saturday (Clayton fumbles). Remember the year we won it all? Seemingly EVERY bounce of the football went our way! Against the Colts...Not so much.

No problem.

As a fanbase there's no adversity we can't overcome. I know that after enduring 12+ seasons of my life without an NFL franchise, having the Ravens make the playoffs and win an AFC North Title in 2006 ain't too shabby at all!

[purplepoe]

And I'm sure PP and the usuall suspects think I'm crazy.

170 and 2 INTs just doesn't give me any reason to pull for McNair other than the fact that I'll be stuck watching him as our starter next year.

1. I don't think you're crazy. I just don't agree with you on Boller.

2. It's amazing that we go 13-3 (6-2 on the road) and people think we are stuck with McNair.

PP

[Raven Nurse]

CBD, I think I agree with you....I think if we truly have an open competition next year we will all see that Boller is ready to at the very least beat out McNair. I think he has grown and maybe picked up on McNairs leadership style. Which is the only thing he could learn from him.

[festivus]

Steve McNair led the team to a 13-3 record this year. If BB announced at the end of training camp next year that Kyle Boller is the team's starter, he and Kyle would have 1 Winning Drive all to themselves, because everyone - players, staff, coaches - would just leave.

[RAVENOUS52]

Some of you people need therapy.

13-4 season + AFC North Championship = End of the World?!!

[B-more Ravor]

Some of you people need therapy.

13-4 season + AFC North Championship = End of the World?!!

Go figure....... :grbac:

[Raveninwoodlawn]

The bottom line is that there are a few people on this board that short of a Super Bowl or MVP like season from McNair were gonna take their shots after the season. They either had too high expectations...are absolutely convinced that Boller is the answer...or don't like the contract he signed.

The fact that even with McNair they didn't think we'd have the season we had doesn't matter.

I don't understand why you'd rather have an unknown season with a QB who does not have a good track record over going 13-4 and winning the division is beyond me. :grbac:

But whatever...people with objective common sense knew these threads were coming from these people should we fall short.

Sorry you got "stuck" watching the most productive passing offense we've had since 96 over the last 10 games. Man that really sucked ass...

[StingerNLG]

No RIW. That's not it at all. It's the notion that Steve McNair won all 13 of those games by himself. Amazingly enough, Matt Stover, our defense, and for that matter Kyle Boller (who I think won the playoff clinching game IIRC) get absolutely no credit for this record by the way some on this forum sound. I believe THE RAVENS are responsible for our 13-3 record.

I'm personally sick of the whole McNair vs. Boller debate. And I will be saying such in an upcoming post I am working on. But I also remember both QB's being able to push that passing attack forward. And I remember BOTH Quarterbacks being sacked a whole lot less than QB's were getting sacked last year. And I remember a game winning kick in Cleveland. And I remember a game winning field goal block by Trevor Pryce as well.

Personally, I just want to see people get off this McNair was the only reason we're 13-3 shit, because it's not true. Beyond that, he did a great job this year despite a very rough start, and he'll be back next year.

[darb72]

Boller has a career 69 rating with more picks than TD passes. Sorry Stinger, but I couldn't resist another round of "Let's prove the senile old coot is a liar".

Boller has thrown 36 TDs and 34 INTs. Boller has a 71 QB rating.
See http://www.nfl.com/players/playerpage/396152 .

Boller's completion percentage has never been close to 60% which McNair surpassed.

Funny, Boller completed 60% of his passes this season. Check the link above.

So tell me Tex, is it that you have no idea what you're talking about, or are you just a liar?

[copenhaggard]

No RIW. That's not it at all. It's the notion that Steve McNair won all 13 of those games by himself. Amazingly enough, Matt Stover, our defense, and for that matter Kyle Boller (who I think won the playoff clinching game IIRC) get absolutely no credit for this record by the way some on this forum sound. I believe THE RAVENS are responsible for our 13-3 record.

I'm personally sick of the whole McNair vs. Boller debate. And I will be saying such in an upcoming post I am working on. But I also remember both QB's being able to push that passing attack forward. And I remember BOTH Quarterbacks being sacked a whole lot less than QB's were getting sacked last year. And I remember a game winning kick in Cleveland. And I remember a game winning field goal block by Trevor Pryce as well.

Personally, I just want to see people get off this McNair was the only reason we're 13-3 shit, because it's not true. Beyond that, he did a great job this year despite a very rough start, and he'll be back next year.

The whole problem is, as Baltimore fans, we are all so used to jumping on our QBs back after every bad game, that it seems as if it doesn't matter who it is anymore. No matter who our starter is, it seems after every bad game/tough loss, that threads about the QB situation pop up, no matter who is behind center.

I think the threads started to get redundant this year, especially after the amount of success we had this year, and after we finally started to see what resembled an NFL offense.

You see, the situation you spoke of Stinger, whereas some people give all of our credit to McNair, also brings it's fair share of people on the opposite side of the spectrum. It is the belief of certain people that we went 13-3 DESPITE McNair/McNoodle/McRagArm/McMentalMidget. The same exact crap we've seen with Boller, in terms of the names, and the responses to bad games, has transitioned right to McNair's play as well.

It's really a shame, because as Baltimore fans, we finally got see a respectable offense, and a great season. We finally seemed to have a leader on offense, after 6 years of an offense w/o an identity, and w/o a leader, we as fans, finally had the chance to see an offense, and become more than just a one-sided defensive team. The heartbreaking loss sucks, but we finally got a chance to even have a heartbreaking loss, and get a taste of what we've been missing for 3 years. Now the players know what they are capable of, and know what its like to lose how we did, and now they are going to want it more. This is going to be a hungry team come next year.

I for one am excited to see what we can do next year, because this team was not a fluke. For as bad of an ending we had, we have a bright future, no matter who our QB is, because our FO is beginning to realize how to balance this team out, and bring respect to both sides of the ball.

*I probably have more to say, but I got a mid-term tomorrow, so I'll save it for when I can clear my head...*

[B-more Ravor]

No RIW. That's not it at all. It's the notion that Steve McNair won all 13 of those games by himself. Amazingly enough, Matt Stover, our defense, and for that matter Kyle Boller (who I think won the playoff clinching game IIRC) get absolutely no credit for this record by the way some on this forum sound. I believe THE RAVENS are responsible for our 13-3 record.

Stinger, I don't think most around here are saying that - there are some, but not most. What I think most in this thread are stating is that this one bad game from McNair - albeit at the worst possible time - should not change the fact that he played very well once he got acclimated to the offense and Billick took over. Yes, THE RAVENS won 13 games, but McNair certainly had a sizable part in that (whether Boller could have done the same, we'll never know). As such, those now calling for McNair's head are, IMO, no better than those who have constantly put Boller down without recognizing the lack of help he had around him over the years. This thread is also an example of those who, for whatever reason, are unwilling to give McNair ANY credit for our 13-3 season.

Personally, I think those on both fringes of this argument are being unreasonably unrealistic and unfair.

Just my 2 cents.