Majority of his playoff games he has played great. The Rams game was a stinker, minus that game the past 2 playoff years during the no LOB, Let Russ cook, he had a rating of 106.5. Which would be just under Pat Mahomes(107.4) as #2 all time. We loss the playoff game to GB because we lost all our RB to injuries and had to get Lynch out of retirement. Cowboys game we lost because the coaches wanted to keep running the ball non stop despite only getting 1 or 2yards. With combination of bad trades, bad drafts, & that playoff game against the Cowboys, i lost my faith in Pete Time for new direction. Then in 2020 when he handcuffed Wilson, i was done with him.
2022 though i did get my faith back. It all started w/ the draft. They actually drafted players that made sense for once and not being cute. Not happy with our first pick this season but time will tell.
There's better reasons to hate Pete than the handcuff myth
We were 6-3 when Pete took control. After that? 6-1.
I think the lower the number after the dash, the better.
Russell was entirely solved by thier first tilt against the Rams and has been since.
Handcuffed? Who Handcuffed him in 2021 when he had full control with Shane? No one. He ran the same solved stuff that he did the year before. And for everyone talking about how well the offense played before his injury? It put up points on play action plays. We were near league worst in sustained drives, plays per drive, drive duration, and 2nd half scoring.
In thr latter half of the season, when we 'handcuffed'the offense again by running more, we were more effective. DK when asked what the magic sauce was in beating 2 high safety looks that stalled the offense all season? The running game. Pete rallied the team in 2021 when he took control from Russ the same way he did in 2020. The sense that we were this unstoppable force until Pete took the keys away is mythology and bereft of any football fact.
Almost every game in 2021 when we passed more than we ran, we lost. it wasn't because we were passing to catch up. We passed early and often, because Russ wanted to.
2020, we were 12-4. The let Russ Cook games were against lower echelon defenses, almost all. As soon as we faced someone familiar in AZ, the wheels came off. That game we lost because Russ tossed 2 picks in the endzone and another to ice the game. Buddha Baker - he said they knew that if they could get him rattled he'd get confused and turn over the ball.
The Giants game was an abomination. In the Athletic Article from that offseason, an opposing coach commented that he had no idea what Russ was doing. That he wasn't even playing like a top qb. That was before Pete 'Handcuffed' him.
What was the magic that teams figured out? Play their 3rd down defense on early downs. That ridiculously simple trick, pulled the skirt up on our qb.
Wanna guve him a pass for the Bills game? Ok. But he sure didn't help the cause. 4 turnovers. 2 picks. 2 fumbles. One int in the endzone.
The Rams loss was also just bad play in the midst of a rutt that has now just become his game.
Were the defense great thise years? No. But when Pete took control in 2020, that maligned unit became the only defense in NFL history to make the turn that it did and finish as well in points allowed over the season with the number of yards it surrendered.
A big part of that? Extending drives by not throwing as much and running the overhyped hurryup offense. Remember that? The cure for all of our offensive ills? More mythology.
A defense that struggles to get off the field isn't helped by am offense that can't stay on it. That's why Pete took control. But Russ didn't car what the team did. After the loss against the Titans in week 2 in 2021, after abhorrible series in OT when we were given the ball after the D made a stop to open the stanza, when asked if the offense could have done more to help the D that game by controlling the clock more, he said something to the affect of 'the offense put up enough points'... Pete was doing the right thing. Russ hated him for it.
And QB rating and Russ? Our game against the Commanders in 2021was arguably one of the most baffling performances by Russ. he was missing reads and missing throws all game. He did nothing until the last drive... again.
His rating? 111. He's had similar duds that 'rank' well because he almost always threw for a good completion rate and he was good about taking care of the ball when he played in the system. But rating doesn't speak to sustained drives, 3rd downs, and many other aspects of play that determine the overall effectiveness of the offense.
And by omitting the LOB days you delete a pretty bad performance against the Packers in the NFC CG. Without Lynch and the LOB, we never make a Superbowl. Although in hindsight, maybe had we not had Mathews, Hauschka and Ryan save our chances, we'd not have lost the SB and we woukd have been saved from all of the fallout that followed.
www.pro-football-reference.com
broncoswire.usatoday.com
