How many QB's have had success with a crappy line and predictable play calling. Carr was setup to fail. No QB would have succeeded in this situation. Carr steadily improved until this year. Honestly, I got the feeling that the players gave up on the coaches. Let's face it - Most of the players under-acheived. The soft coaching allowed the players to get lazy. It's not all about Cass, but if this team doesn't prove to go in the right direction, Cass should be dumped. How do you not improve on 2-14 though?
Just to flesh out this debate even more. How many teams won or lost the Super Bowl primarily relying on either the running game or passing game. 2005 Steelers - 5th in the league in Rushing. 24 th in the the league in passing. Running team. Seahawks - Probowl QB and RB. Balanced. 2004 Patriots - Probowl QB and RB. Balanced. 7th in Rushing, 11th in passing. (If you want to see why they dropped off this year, look no further than their 24th ranked Rushing attack) Eagles - Pass heavy. 7th in Passing, 24th in Rushing. 2003 Patriots - Pass heavy (controlled passing game; used it like the run game). 9th in Passing, 27th in Rushing. Carolina Panthers - Running team. Stephen Davis and Deshaun Foster powered that team with a good D. 2002 Bucs - Relied on a strong running game with Dunn and Alstott. Bad offensive team for the most part. Raiders - Passing. 1st in Passing and 18th in Rushing. 2001 Patriots - Balanced. Offense was average. Didn't commit many turnovers. Brady didn't hurt them, and Antwoine Smith provide them with tough yards. Rams - Balanced. Offensive Juggernaut with MVP caliber players at the QB and RB positions. Probably should have relied more on Faulk though in the Super Bowl. 2000 Ravens - Great running game with Lewis. Great D. Absolutely terrible passing game. Giants - Running team. Collins was pretty good that year, Barber was their go to guy with 1700 yards of total offense. 1999 Rams - Balanced. Faulk and Warner. Both MVP type seasons. Titans - Runing team. A big dose of Eddie George, a splash of McNair. 1998 Broncos. Running team. Terrel Davis with 2000 yards rushing. Elway still performing at a high level. Falcons. Running team. Jamal Anderson with 400 plus carries. Chris Chandler at QB. Enough said. 1997 Broncos. Running team. A whole lot of Terrel Davis and a good dose of Elway. Packers. Balanced. Favre. MVP. Dorsey Levens was a Pro Bowler though with over 1400 yards rushing. 1996 Packers. Passing team. Favre. MVP. Packers did rush for over 1800 yards as a team. But Favre put the ball in the air over 540 times. Patriots Patriots. Balanced. Probowl QB and RB in Bledsoe and Curtis Martin. 1995 Cowboys. Running team. Emmit Smith...All time leading rusher. Troy Aikman...23000 yards passing (is that even in the top 15?) Let's not kid ourselves about what the Cowboys where about. Troy Aikman has never passed for over 3600 yards or thrown more than 23 TD's in a single season. Steelers. Running team. Bam Morris and Bam Morris. And a whole lot of praying that Neil O'Donnel doesn't cost them a game. 1994 Niners. Balanced with a slight bent towards passing. Steve Young. MVP. Ricky Watters..perennial probowler. Chargers. Running team. Natrone Means and praying that Stan Humphries doesn't cost them a game. 1993 Cowboys. Running team. See above. Bills. Balanced. Jim Kelly. Thurman Thomas (who regularly produced 2000 yards of total offense) 1992. Cowboys. Running team. Bills. Balanced. 1991. Redskins. Balanced. Mark Rypien actually made the probowl that season. Rushed for close to 2000 yards as a team. Bills. Balanced. 1990. Giants. Running team. Relied on Ottis Anderson and some timely passing for Jeff Hostetler. Bills. Balanced. 1989. Niners. Balanced with a bent towards passing. Montana. 3500 yards passing. Roger Craig 1000 yards rushing. Team rushed for 1700 yards. Rushing attempts and Passing attempts almost equal. Broncos. Balanced. A surprise I know. Elway finished with 18 td passes and 18 ints with 3000 yards passing and a qb rating of 73. Didn't make the probowl. Bobby Humphreys on the other hand did make the probowl if my memory serves me and finished with over 1100 yards rushing. 1988. Niners. Balanced. Craig a monster year of over 1400 yards rushing. Bengals. Balanced with a slight bent towards Running. Probowlers at QB and Running. Esiason with a great season of over 3500 yards passing and 28 td's. Ickey Woods and James Brooks both almost run for 1000 yards. 1987 Redskins. Tough to say. Strike year. Ran and pass the ball almost 50/50. Doug Williams had a 300 yard passing game in the Super Bowl and Timmy Smith rushed for a super bowl record of over 200 yards as a rookie. Broncos. Passing. Elway and that was it. 1986. Giants. Running team. Joe Morris with a massive 1500 yard rushing season and a Probowl. Broncos. Elway and that's it. 1985. Bears. Walter Payton with a massive 1500 yard rushing season. Pray that Jim McMahon doesn't have his head band too tight. Patriots. I can't even remember anything about them. Was Tony Eason their QB? I don't know. So that a look at the last 21 Super Bowl contestants. By my count, 17 of the last 42 Super Bowl Contestants were heavily reliant on their running game. 6 of the last 42 Super Bowl Contestants were heavily reliant on their passing game. 19 of the last 42 Super Bowl teams were pretty balanced. A good running game and a good defense can take you a long ways. Rarely has a QB carried an offense without a good running back to a super bowl. A great running back has carried many a teams with a mediocre QB to a Super Bowl. QB is most important position in the game. But football, probably moreso than any sport, requires a team effort. Offense, Defense, and Special Teams need to come together.
Tony Eason was a fill-in for Steve Grogan, who got injured. Eason took them all the way to the big game...they were they first Wild Card team to win all their games on the road to get to a Super Bowl. And Stratford Spartan, Craig James, was their running back. He went to the pro bowl that year, I think.
