Roger Craig a Delhomme fan

It's hilarious to me how I was first ridiculed for pointing out how often a spectacularly stupid throw by Delhomme had cost us a game, then to have nearly everyone come around to my point of view (and never get any credit for that btw), and now back to being ridiculed because we happen to be winning (except that pretty much all the national media - except Craig apparently - seems to be pointing out Jake's penchant for stupid decisions). As mentioned last week, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be getting this crap from people if Heard hadn't dropped that easy INT Delhomme threw straight to him early in the Atlanta game, but thankfully he did. That said, I thought Jake played well against the Giants. He made good reads, was aggressive when appropriate, and didn't do anything dumb. As long as he keeps that up, we can keep making noise.

 

So, how often was it?

 

2003, at ATL
2004, vs. ATL
2004, @ ATL
2005, vs. NO
2005, vs. Mia
2005, @ Chi
2005, vs. TB

By my count, those are the 7 games you could put Jake somewhere in the range between "I totally fucked things up for us" and "A bad throw may have cost my team".

That's 7 out of 50 starts, including playoffs.

He's made one completely fucked-up throw in 5 post-season starts, a first half interception to Tommy Polley against the Rams in the 2003 Divisional round.

Other than that, it's going to be hard for anyone to point out a Jake Delhomme bonehead moment in any January game.

 

Fixed.

 

Yep, there were some bad ones in there for sure, and your range seems fair to me. I guess my definition of a game killing throw is one made on a final or close to final drive. If it is early on enough to be overcome and they don't (Chicago) it is hard to blame the QB for "losing" the game. The 2 pick sixes in Det were more costly IMO, than the Chicago picks, even though they won the Detroit game, because they actually resulted in points for the opposition right off the picks. But they overcame those. In Chicago, they pretty much abandoned the run game WAAAAAY too early, those picks were both in the first quarter or early in the second as I recall. The score was only 10-0. That is an untenable position for a QB to be in, I think, having to pass like crazy down only 10 pts in the first half. I don't pin any loss totally on any one player anyway, but this year I would say only Miami and TB could be classified as "game killers" .

 

I agree with you on this one, Fire.

Contrary to popular belief, a loss in the NFL in never one player's fault.

The point I was going for was that Delhomme has had 7 games where he could, at the least, be partially to blame for a loss due to a poor throwing decision. That means in the other 43 starts, including playoffs, he has not lost a game for Carolina due exclusively to poor throws. That's not to say that Delhomme's Panthers haven't won a few games in spite of a bad throw. However, the same could certainly be said for the rest of the NFC's "elite" quarterbacks. Manning. Bledsoe. Vick. Brunell. Perhaps Hasslebeck would be the exception, though he has been known to make some questionable throws before.

Furthermore, in many of those wins that Delhomme made bad throws, he countered with some key plays in key moments.

You wanna throw in an 8th game, throw in the game at Philly in 2004, though he played through the game with a concussion.

Nevertheless, it's never one guy--win or lose.

 

Even in most of those games, their's usually some other things going on. Miami whipped us up front, Gamble struggled badly, we let a rookie run for over 100. But Jake, minus that one bad throw, had a good game. Personally, that's one I'd put in "Jake didn't win it for us even though we played like crap."

@ Atlanta 04 was like that. Jake's INT cost us 3. But with no running game he put up 24 with over 300 yards.

The real bad ones are the ones like Chicago, but even then al lot more was going on around hm too.

 

Jake had an exceptional game, particularly in the second half, against Miami's defense. Say whatever, but they attacked his ass all day, w/o the threat of any running game.

Doesn't excuse the throw to Schulters. And the Detroit game was just sick and wrong.

But he did rally us against Buffalo late. Probably won't count for a lot of folks here. But it was a 4th quarter comeback in the NFL. Counts for me.

 

I think Magnus said it best the other day, (paraphrasing)....

The more he watches football, the more he realizes that most all qb's make some pretty bad throws.

 

Most QBs do make bad throws, but pretty much everyone (excepting some Panthers fans now back to being giddy thanks to our last two wins) now acknowledges that Jake makes those stupid throws much more often than most. I finally got other Panthers fans to admit that, and the national media is now making a point of pointing it out before practically every Carolina game as well. That's because the evidence is undeniable. Moreover, there have been quite a few more games where Jake's screw-ups almost cost us a game but we ended up winning anyway, sometimes due to his efforts and sometimes due to other members of the team.


The point isn't to demonize Delhomme. Jake as a $2 million a year quarterback was nice, although obviously I still wanted him to avoid those mind-numbingly stupid decisions that have hurt us so frequently. Jake as a $8 million a year quarterback is something else entirely, and seeing people praise him as some kind of elite QB is as utterly retarded as when other fools previously tried to argue that Dan Morgan was a legitimate Pro Bowler when healthy. It simply isn't true, and wanting it to be so doesn't change the facts.


Oh, and by the way Proprietor, your count was a bit short. In addition to the seven you mentioned, you should have added at least '03 Dallas, '04 Philadelphia, and perhaps '04 San Diego. Completely screwing up your team's chances of success even in only 20% of your team's games is obviously beyond unacceptable.