More ben/brady comparisons
 

Ok, Im not quite insane enough to try to compare BR right now to TB, No qb is even in his league this season, But I do want to bring up the overall comparisons to him, and some facts that often get overlooked.

Let me also say I had to argue for years against the morons who for the first few years of brady's reign, tried to say that Brady was a "Game manager" and not really that good, but rather had a good team around him.

This was bunk and comparing what he did statistically at the time to other highly successful QB's showed a learning curve equal to or better than many of them in critical areas.

Before I get into the long boring Situational Stats argeument, let me make one other overlooked point, Ben is young, real young. People forget how early he went into the draft. Tom Brady Right now is 30 years old, he is a 8 year vet starting for 7 years now. He in his prime as a qb (26-34 seems to be a standard QB's best years, and he is dead in the middle of that).

Ben Roethlisberger is 25 years old. This is already his 4th year starting.
Brady came into the league at 23, roethlisberger was 22,
brady sat his first year, so he was 24 (still very young) when he started. roethlisberger was 22 when he thrown into it his second game of his career

Here are some current ages of other older QB's in the spotlight around the league:

Brett Favre 38,
Peyton M, 31,
Carson Palmer 28,
Tony Romo 27,
Eli Manning, 26

Now, I make the age points only to let people understand that many of these QB's had more time to prepare themselves for where they are now in the league, ultimately, though age matters less than experiance, and Like I said, this is Bens 4th year in the league.

His regular season winning percentage is second only to Brady's
He has a 5-1 playoff record and a super bowl win.
of course everyone points to as how badly he played in that game.

Much is made of Brady's 27 4th quarter comeback wins, and rightfully so, but Ben already has 10, and several more where he scored a TD the last time he got the ball to tie or take the lead with a minute or so left, only to see another team drive down and win it in the waning seconds (like this year's Broncos Game, or the last Pats Game)

Roethlisberger has some very important stats that compare quite favorably to Brady as well:
Brady's career QB rating: a solid 92.7, Bens: 91.5,
Brady's career YPA 7.2 Bens 8.2
Brady's YPG: 230, bens: 209
Bens completion Percentage:63.5, Brady's 62.9

But the best way to compare them is to pull up the situational stats for their respective corresponding starting years. Brady didnt play his first season, so using 2001 vs bens 2004 stats shows that both QB's are neck and neck in almost every important stat. for QB rating, out of 41 situations relivent to QB performance, brady only beats roethlisberger in 13 of them that year, so please dont think im trying to cherry pick, its just I cannot fit them all up here. Amost all of them were pretty close anyhow.


!st season__ BEN R___Brady
*Situation__ QBRat__QBRat
*Total:___ 98.1____ 86.5
*1st Quarter_ 104.2____79.4
*2nd Quarter_ 96.8____ 109.7
*3rd Quarter_ 71.9____ 74.7
*4th Quarter_ 118.5____75.1
*3rd down 101.1 70.4
When Behind 113.3 73.7


2nd season__ BEN R___Brady
*Situation___ QBRat___QBRat
Total:______ 98.6____ 86.5
*1st Quarter_ 144.2____79.4
*2nd Quarter_ 69.4____ 109.7
*3rd Quarter_ 102.6____74.7
*4th Quarter_ 74.8____ 75.1
*When Behind 115.3 73.7
*3rd down 74.4 70.4



3rd season -- BEN R--- Brady
*Situation --- QBRat--- QBRat
*Total: ----- 75.4 ---- 86.5
*1st Quarter - 88.4 ---- 79.4
*2nd Quarter - 85.9 ---- 109.7
*3rd Quarter - 67.7 ---- 74.7
*4th Quarter - 58.8 ---- 75.1
*3rd down 75.6 70.4
*When Behind 69.5 73.7

4th Season__BEN R____Brady
*Situation___QBRat____QBRat
*Total:______102.9____86.5
*1st Quarter__91.9 ____79.4
*2nd Quarter__97.9____109.7
*3rd Quarter__123.6____74.7
*4th Quarter__106.9____75.1
*3rd down____108.7___ 70.4
When Behind____106.6___ 73.7

Anyhow, there are hundreds of these stats, but in anycase, the only one brady consistantly exceeds roethlisberger is 2 minute stats, and that hinges a lot on the high percentage of steeler 2 minute scores that were rushing, not passing the last few years.

Of course, the infamous "Bad season" last year was vastly overrated. He lost a ton of muscle mass when his mouth was wired shut for a month and he could only eat liquifies food. He had a stretch 7 subpar games, then finished relatively strong.

What I interpret this to mean, is as Ben grows into his prime, he can become the spread offense QB that Manning and Brady already are. He is already superceding many HOF QB Career curves, and that it rare for one so young to say the least