Lets put this in perspective, this was his second year, you're comparing him to QB legends still in their prime. Look what he did the following 2 years. Also compare them to Brady & Rodgers.
Wilson Seahawks 3rd down conversions
2013 - 18th
2014 - 8th
2015 - 3rd
Brady Patriots 3rd down conversions
2013 - 12th
2014 - 4th
2015 - 15th
Rodgers Packers 3rd down conversion
2013 - 9th
2014 - 3rd
2015 - 27th
You're really down playing Wilson 2013 year.
Team went 13-3, three of the losses Seahawks were either tied or ahead in the 4th quarter.
Wilson had 4 game winning drives, 5 if you include the 49ers championship game. We dont win a SB without him, probably miss the playoffs too. Just cherry picking the 3rd downs.
Yeah, I compared him in his second year to legends in their prime because... that's what we were talking about?
And I'm not down playing what he did or 'cherry picking' 3rd down. 3rd down with distance is THE passing situation. It's the time of the game when you must rely on your QB actually using his arm and the defense knows it. And that's when Wilson faltered.
You, on the other hand, cherry picked the
Seahawks 3rd down conversions in every situation, instead of Russ's performance in 3rd and distance situations, but that's kind of beside the point, isn't it? We're supposed to be talking about what Russ did for the Super Bowl teams, not how well the Seahawks did overall. They went to the Super Bowl... we already know they were good.
But, sure, let's compare the two Super Bowl QBs from 2014: Russ's passer rating in 3rd and mid and 3rd and longer as I defined previously was 72.9 and 76.3 respectively. He got a little worse on the mid-range, a little better on the longer but was still pretty middling overall.
Brady was 101.7 and 99.2.
In all, on 3rd and long, Russ was twice as likely to throw an interception as he was a touchdown. Brady, in comparison, threw 3 times as many TDs as INTs in the same situation.
Again, I'm comparing Super Bowl years because that's what the conversation was about. Saying Russ did better in seasons when the 'Hawks did worse doesn't really mean much.
Also, just to point out: Game winning drives are great. They are impressive and speak to Russ's ability to perform under pressure. But when I say Russ's Seahawks offense was less than field goal better than average, that INCLUDES all the points scored in his final game winning drives, too. Our defense, on the other hand, was more than a touchdown better than average.
So Russ was put in a situation where he could score a whole touchdown less than most other teams and outscore his opponents, so why does he need so many fourth quarter game winning drives?