There's been plenty of talk every year about Flacco and his playoff record. As a matter of fact, he's been called a regular season mediocre QB and a playoff elite QB for at least the past couple of seasons. Everyone else is certainly counting those "gimme" games vs the top 8 teams in the NFL every year.
Up until one week ago, Brady had won 5/6 AFCCG games with the only one being the defensive collapse at Indy in the 2006 season. It's hard for me to believe that isn't "elite." All 5 SB's were within 4 pts, so it's not that big of a deal that he's 3-2 and didn't benefit from any good luck (or defensive play, that's for damn sure) over the 2 NYG Super Bowls, yet in BOTH he had his team in the lead with less than 3 minutes to play...
If you don't throw last year's SB right out the window by itself that's just unfair. At one point it was halfway through the 3rd quarter and he was clearly the MVP at that point having gone 20/24 for 2 TD's and a record setting 17 straight completions. If that isn't having a "big game" then I don't know what is. It wasn't his fault that the defense blew an 8 point lead in the second half.
And I'd still never put Flacco in the status of "elite" myself even if he wins on Sunday. Apparently his agents and he have the opinion that he's played better than Peyton Manning's/Drew Brees' 20 million dollar + salary and he somehow deserves more.
Keep in mind that we're talking about a guy who had put up 7 pts last Sunday as the game moved late into the 3rd quarter. Even then he still gets consideration for that kind of salary strictly BY winning those "gimme" playoff games up to this point.
I don't like that this discussion is morphing into an either/or; either Brady is an elite all-time great *or* he's become a big-game playoff underachiever. There are several facts that I'd like to highlight:
(1) By any measure - statistics, individual awards, team accomplishments, whatever - Tom Brady is one of the elite, all-time great quarterbacks. He's in the inner-inner-inner circle of QB greatness. He may in fact be the GOAT, but if he's not, he's nowhere worse than 3rd of all-time. By really any measure. And when *all* the measurements are taken into consideration, the complete portfolio ranks with anyone's.
(2) Tom Brady has *not* performed nearly up to his career norms in the playoffs. That's a brute, honest, for-real fact. There may be good reasons for it (and many have been posted here). But it is true nonetheless. His last six championship games (be it AFCCGs or Super Bowls) have produced a very sobering and uninspiring stat line and team record. His teams are just 2-4 in those games and his QB rating in those games is poor. This is undeniably true. It would be one thing if he played poorly and the team won, or if he played great and the team lost. He hasn't played well in these games, the offense has woefully underperformed, and the team has a .333 winning percentage in those six games. All facts.
(3) No player of any caliber has not had subpar performances in big playoff games. Even a guy who everyone considers one of the greatest players of all-time (and certainly the greatest WR), Jerry Rice, has put up some pretty big stinkers:
1987, 49-3 loss to NYG: 3 rec, 48 yds
1988, 36-24 loss to Min: 3 rec, 28 yds
1990, 15-13 loss to NYG: 5 rec, 54 yds
1994, 44-3 win over NYG: 3 rec, 43 yds
1995, 44-15 win over Chi: 4 rec, 48 yds
1995, 38-28 win over Dal: 2 rec, 36 yds, 1 td
1999, 30-27 win over GB: 1 rec, 6 yds
2002, 16-13 loss to NE: 4 rec, 48 yds
You get the idea. Montana has had some horrendous games in the playoffs too. As has Elway, Marino, you name it. If you play in a lot of playoff games, you're bound to have plenty of bad ones. It goes with the territory.
These three facts demonstrate that it's totally normal for elite players to have bad games in big playoff spots. It doesn't make them less elite. It makes them *normal*. Brady is as big a winner as has ever existed in the NFL. He has put up an ungodly (I mean that in a good way) statistical resume. He has won tons of individual awards and set many individual NFL records. He is one of the very, very, very best players ever to put on an NFL uniform at any position, and QB specifically. And yet all that is true even though he has struggled in quite a few big playoff games.