Luckily we had a defense and running game that could make up for some errant throws to get into the playoffs. But in those playoffs Bradshaw seemed to tighten up a little and play within the offense a little more and the way Noll wanted knowing a poor decision could not just cost the game but the rest of the season.
I'm not sure I agree. Bradshaw's arm was THE reason we won the Rams Super Bowl, a game in which the defense **** the bed and we trailed a 9-7 team in the fourth quarter. And his 4 TDs in the previous Bowl were a big deal, as the defense sucked for much of the game and Franco was useless that day. Most of Bradshaw's th were wild throws deep downfield into coverage, which was basically the only passing game that existed back then.
In the 1970s, terms such as "defenseless receiver" and "helmet-to-helmet hit" didn't exist. Everything was slanted toward the defense. A DB could just maul his WR throughout the entire route - then, when he's not looking, a safety could slam his head across the middle. An OL wasn't allowed to extend his arms while blocking. There was no West Coast offense throughout the league, based on quick, efficient timing routes. In other words, on every passing play, the offense had to deal with a secondary leveling the receivers all the way downfield, a pass rush that they were barely allowed to block, and headhunters just destroying QBs and WRs from whistle to whistle. And they didn't have the option of constantly flicking 1-yard slants to Wes Welker; they won and lost games by tough, ballsy, downfield throws into coverage. Back then, receivers didn't just snag the ball in stride from a yard away and run with it; they had to go into the secondary, beat a DB, wait for the ball, then catch a highly-pressured pass while safeties pounded their heads. That was true of all non-Bill Walsh offenses before the 1980s.
So, you have to throw out just about all of the "important" passing numbers from era to era. Consider this:
Bradshaw currently sits tied for 132nd all-time in passer rating. He's behind Rex Grossman, Mark Sanchez, Bubby Brister, David Carr, and Gus Frerotte. We know that none of those guys are objectively among the top 200 QBs or so, yet they all finish ahead of Bradshaw. So we can throw that out.
Bradshaw posted about the same completion % as Billy Joe Tolliver, Steve Grogan, and Marc Wilson - but also about the same as numerous HOFers from his own era. So I'm throwing that **** out, too. Chad Pennington is 1st all-time, and Daunte Culpepper is 14th, so **** that noise.
Bradshaw is 140th in INT% at 5.4%. That's AWFUL by today's standards; if Ben had a typical season with that INT%, he'd throw 31 picks and be benched, cut, and forgotten. And look at Bradshaw's peers: he's 140th and right in the neighborhood of Johnny Unitas, Len Dawson, Otto Graham, Y.A. Tittle, and Joe Namath - all HOFers who threw INTs at an alarming rate. And everyone I just named comes in with a MUCH worse INT% than Neil O'Donnell (3rd-BEST INT% all-time), Sam Bradford (4th), David Garrard, Jason Campbell (both tied for 9th), Steve Bono (11th), Kyle Orton, Matt Schaub, and Alex Smith (all tied with Joe Montana for 15th). Interception numbers are so unbelievably skewed toward today's QBs - who never have to throw an INT if they don't want to - that we can't use that as a measuring stick at all. Any stat that ranks David Garrard 131 spots ahead of Terry Bradshaw is a **** stat.
Now, there is a statistic that measures the value of each pass by a QB: yards per attempt. The top-12 all-time in this category features 6 HOFers and 3 guys who will be there someday (Roethlisberger, Rodgers, Warner). So it certainly seems to point more toward NFL excellence than those other stats. Here, Bradshaw slots alongside post-1980 superstars like Marino, Moon, Elway, etc. That is incredibly impressive; it means that,
even when we include Bradshaw's many incompletions and INTs, he STILL produced just as much per throw as those guys.
Bottom line: it's hard to rank QBs across eras, and most statistics only **** it up worse. Look for value. David Carr completed passes at a great rate, but did nothing with them. Tom Brady completes damn near every pass he throws, but he never tests coverage or goes downfield. Chad Pennington completed his passes, but couldn't throw more than 10 yards. Bradshaw, on the other hand, was an elite talent in an era where the NFL choked the life out of the passing game. Back then, if a QB went 8/15 with 2 picks, it was often a good performance - because he probably hit on 4-5 difficult downfield throws that completely tilted the game for his team. Nowadays, a QB would be benched for that line.
