Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Think about it though, Morrall was competing with either good QBs like Plum or great QBs like Tittle, Unitas or Griese.
He took the job from Plum in Detroit but lost it again after getting hurt. Same thing in NY, then the team tried to draft Namath through St. Louis and settled with another great QB in Fran Tarkenton. He was traded to Detroit from Pittsburgh for Bobby Layne. His persistance paid off though by being MVP in 1968 and leading the Colts to victory in SB V relieving Johnny U ... I am glad he is in this HOVG.

I think it has to be David Woodley. Started as an 8th round rookie, inconsistent from game to game but consistently at about a 65 rating every year. In 1981 against Chargers in the postseason, he had like a 0 rating, and then in 1982 against the Chargers in the postseason he had like a 158.3 rating. His first pass in the SB is a long TD, he completes zero passes in the 2nd half. Amazing stuff.

Good call on Woodley Bryan but a damn frustrating SB ...
Arnsparger and the defense just ran out of gas. A bad way to end a strange year of football for Miami ... Even had Woodley found a way to win the game, I still believe Shula gets Marino the next season.

Woodley had a really sad story - battled a lot of demons. He died really young.

Yeah, David Woodley is a really good answer. Also, yes, very sad that he's already gone.

Tony Eason is another guy for the list. I think Pats fans would have probably thought Steve Grogan would be the guy to have them in the Super Bowl.

Chris Chandler is another -- especially since Favre and Young were still playing.

Had Stanley Morgan caught Eason's early pass in the SB, the Patriots might have gotten more confident with an early TD but the Bears would have won anyway. A more confident Eason might have had a longer career but after this blowout, he never recovered ...

Chandler had a great story leaving the Titans, winning his division and beating Young and Cunningham in the playoffs but come SB time, the team just finally ran out of gas ...

Brian wolf wrote:Had Stanley Morgan caught Eason's early pass in the SB, the Patriots might have gotten more confident with an early TD but the Bears would have won anyway. A more confident Eason might have had a longer career but after this blowout, he never recovered ...

Not a fan of this narrative. Eason was even better in 1986, leading the Pats to the division title while being saddled with possibly the worst rushing attack in modern NFL history. Eason wasn't the most durable QB, and eventually his neck injuries cut short his career.

I disagree, he had too good a supporting cast, especially on defense to not have a better career. Like everyone else, he lost to Elway in the divisional playoffs before injuries took their toll. Yes, good in 1986 but that was it ...

The irony of Eason and the Berry era Pats was that his best years were in ’84 & ’86 which sandwich that very Super Bowl year. Craig James’ lone good NFL season in ’85 made the difference as far as the overall team was concerned. One can try to be ‘cute’ and say that the ’86 division-winning team was better but not at all the case. Running game and also the defense a significant downgrade from the year before. No more Hannah in ’86 didn’t help things.

By the time the ’85 playoffs began as well as even prior to that, the Pats were the AFC’s best team that year thus deserving of representing in New Orleans. They were a very good (perhaps almost ‘great’) team. It’s just that like most SBs during that time, it was a case of the winner playing their absolute best game while the loser would play their absolute worst for whatever reason. Da Bears were noticeably better - and, yes, a convincing win is a convincing win which happens even if Pats played their best on that day - but not 36 points giving up a garbage TD better.

And as for ‘what-if’ Pats score a TD early on instead of settling for the FG…I think it only would have made da Bears even madder thus game being even more lopsided.

74_75_78_79_ wrote:The irony of Eason and the Berry era Pats was that his best years were in ’84 & ’86 which sandwich that very Super Bowl year. Craig James’ lone good NFL season in ’85 made the difference as far as the overall team was concerned. One can try to be ‘cute’ and say that the ’86 division-winning team was better but not at all the case. Running game and also the defense a significant downgrade from the year before. No more Hannah in ’86 didn’t help things.

By the time the ’85 playoffs began as well as even prior to that, the Pats were the AFC’s best team that year thus deserving of representing in New Orleans. They were a very good (perhaps almost ‘great’) team. It’s just that like most SBs during that time, it was a case of the winner playing their absolute best game while the loser would play their absolute worst for whatever reason. Da Bears were noticeably better - and, yes, a convincing win is a convincing win which happens even if Pats played their best on that day - but not 36 points giving up a garbage TD better.

And as for ‘what-if’ Pats score a TD early on instead of settling for the FG…I think it only would have made da Bears even madder thus game being even more lopsided.

Didn't a Redskin player drop a Sammy Baugh pass that would have been a TD early in the 1940 NFL Title game? Baugh was sometimes asked what would have happened if the pass had been caught and always answered, "The score would have been 73-7."