Help solve a fight

I think he pretty much nails it right here. I became a Steeler fan in the Bradshaw era. I was born in 72 and watched my first game at a year and a half, crying during the commercials cause I thought the game was over. Terry at the time of his retirement was considered one of the best QBs to have ever played the game. As far as I know Terry was and still is one of the few QBs who held the ball with his pointer finger on the end of the football.

Many people look at some of the crazy stuff he does now and think that was him, but they don't understand that he actually is on medicine for clinical depression. He has faced that for many years, even living in his barn for a while. Don't discount his play simply due to what you see on Fox every week.

I don't think it is possible to really compare the 2. Different lines, different styles, even a different game. Every member of those Steel Curtain defenses which were awesome would have been suspended for illegal hits if they were playing today. The Oline probably would all be suspended for Steroid use. Just crazy to try to compare the eras. Just go back and watch some game film, the game has really evolved in 40 years.

 

i seriously see this argument having a very simple answer. bradshaw. ben is great and might (i believe he will) get better. ben has had a very solid team around him and bradshaw had a great team around him. but you put bradshaw in the league now with all the rules to help the QB's and the WR's and bradshaws penchant for going deep OFTEN and being accurate he shreds the defenses these days. was he the most accurate deep throwing QB, not a chance. but he was good. the ball always got there, not always pretty, but it was there for the WR to get.

it is very difficult to compare eras and players from eras that differ. but in my opinion if you take an past era player and put them into a current era with their abilities i think that evens things out a little.

just as a counterpoint, take the secondary the steelers had in the 70's and put them into the rules today... they fail. period. they used their intimidation and bone crushing hits to be the secondary that they were. today, i am not sure those guys could cover the receivers now because of all the changes to the rules to allow so much passing.

in my honest opinion, very good offensive players of yesteryear would be leaps and bounds better than guys now if they were playing now because the rules are biased for the offense. and in subsequence, defensive greats now would probably thrive in an unbelievable way in yesteryear (as long as they were physical players now) because they would be allowed to maul the offensive players as well as be more physically talented because they are somewhat neutered compared to players of ole with current rules...

offensive players now in yesteryear would not know what the he** hit them if they played back then. they get the benefits of being "protected" by rules that were not in existence then. and defensive greats of yesteryear didn't have to be as physically gifted because they could punish receivers at any point on the field then, but wouldn't do that well now because you look at a WR the wrong way and get a penalty now.

remember the ole "headsplap"? tell me how an offensive lineman now would handle that?

 

Right, on the flip side of it, defensive players are much much stronger and faster these days. This negates some of the rules that are in place today to protect offensive players. Was TB ever hit like this with someone this strong and fast? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BhL5TP86_Q
That's why it is so hard to compare the 2. Imagine if you combined the speed of the game today with 70's era rules. It would be devastating.

 

Troy and Ryan Clark would be a pleasure to watch with 1970's rules.

 

I am not old enough to remember TB so therefore I would have to pick Ben.

 

Its really hard to draw a comparison between the two because the game has changed so much. Game is faster and guys are bigger and stronger. I believe they throw more now in todays NFL then when Terry played. Both of them could move around and very dangerous out of the pocket. I dont think Ben has ever had the receiving corp that Bradshaw had. The rules have changed so much on how you can hit a QB which indeed enters into the equation as well.

Bman

 

*fixed your post

 

There is? I was just going off cave paintings all this time...

 

In 122 games, Ben has led 29 game winning drives. In 168 games, Terry led 27. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/gwd_career.htm

Ben - 20 4th quarter comebacks; Terry - 19.

 

I have been a fan long enough (40 years) to have seen Terry's great moments - but not his early struggles- and all of Ben's career.
Some thoughts-


Statistically of course Ben is better. Ben has also been asked to do more than Terry was.

Terry had a better line, but Ben benefits from the changes in rules and offenses that benefit Qb's.

Terry was an outstanding running Qb, often overlooked.

Ben, has in my opinion, has made more spectacular individual plays than Terry ever did.

I "think" Ben has a slightly better rep in his time then Terry ever did. In the mid 1970s, no one would have ranked Terry as "better" than Stabler, Ken Anderson or even Bert Jones when healthy, and Staubach and even Tarkenton usually had better stats.

Ben is better than Terry at making 4th quarter comebacks. Why? Because Ben has had to make far more 4th quarter comebacks and two minute drives than Terry did. The 70s Steelers were ahead a lot more often, and by a lot more, than Ben's Steelers ever had been. Terry did not have to make too many comebacks, I was actually surprised at the numbers posted above, although percentage wise Ben is noticeably ahead of Terry's pace. Again, I think Ben has a better rep at being a great comeback Qb than Terry had- in the 1970s, the best "two minute" Qb's were considered to be Stabler and Staubach, not Terry.

Terry was 4-0 in the Super Bowl, in the first one they mostly ran the ball, but in the last 3 his passing ability was critical to the Steelers victory.

Ben is 2-1 so far in the Super Bowl, in only one of those games can one say that he was the critical factor.

However, in AFC championship games, I feel Ben was actually more a factor in the Steelers wins than Bradshaw ever was. Both have played well in AFC titles, but I will posit that the 4 AFC titles the Steelers won in the 1970s had more to do with defense than anything else- allowing 13, 10, 5, and 13 points respectively. Ben was outstanding in the win over Denver in the 2005 AFC title game, which is often overlooked I think.

Both guys had the habit of throwing annoyingly bad interceptions (are there any other kind?), although statistics show Terry threw more.

At the end of his career, in the last couple season, Bradshaw took on kind of a mythic quality, as he was better than the rest of his declining team. Wonder how Ben's final years will go.

I consider myself lucky and grateful to have seen both of them play for the Steelers in my four decades as a fan.

 

nice Ja. terry had a 14 game season too.

we have just missed the boat with having that great defense and great offense at the same time during ben's tenure. at least it seems like it. this offense could be very good if it stays intact. the D is declining. a few years ago the D was stronger and we were adding to the offense. terry had a heck of a run. when you are talking team of that decade and by many best ever, yea terry deserves the due with 4 championships. he surely wasen't as dumb as most think. he set the bar high for ben.

 

Terry is the messiah of Steeler football...but Super Bowls aside....Ben is THE MAN!

HACK