Is the QB ALWAYS responsible for the outcome of a game?

Or, is that only true for QBs we've already made up our minds about?

The Super Bowl is this weekend, and as most folks know, it pits the Los Angeles Rams against the Cincinnati Bengals. So let’s imagine how it plays out, and see how folks feel about things.

Let’s say it’s midway through the 4th quarter. The Rams are up 20-10. Matthew Stafford has thrown for just under 200 yards, with one passing TD while Cam Akers has knocked one in on the ground, along with three field goals. Stafford isn’t lighting it up, but he’s managing the game well against a stiff Cincy defense that’s played solid throughout the playoffs. Rams fans are already pointing out that the team could easily be up by another three or seven points, but Tyler Higbee got called for offensive pass interference on a long bomb down the field on a play where most observers saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Right now, Stafford is thinking about that ring.

And then … Joe Burrow shows up. It isn’t like a light switches on - he starts hitting short passes here and there, and things look a bit dire when it’s 3rd-and-15 from his own 35 yard line .. but then he hits JaMarr Chase, burning Jalen Ramsey on a 44-yard bomb that seems to turn the entire game around. And yet, his next three passes are incomplete - but on that last pass, safety Eric Weddle gets called for defensive pass interference and the ball is placed on the 1-yard line. Moments later, Burrow tosses a TD and it’s suddenly 20-17.

On the next series, Stafford can’t move the ball - the pass rush by Trey Hendrickson and others end up forcing a 3-and-out. On the next series, Burrow does it again, moving the ball with a few short passes, and then a 38-yarder to Tee Higgins, finally tossing a 5-yard TD to Joe Mixon for a TD that puts the Bengals ahead, 24-20.

When Jalen Ramsey gets beat for a big play … is it Matthew Stafford’s fault?

Stafford’s next series isn’t much better - the Bengals defense has gotten a fire lit under them, as they have for much of the playoffs, and despite a few completions by Stafford, Hendrickson soars up the middle twice knocking down passes. On third down, Stafford has Cooper Kupp running down the middle and a good pass almost certainly leads to a TD … but his pass isn’t on target and is overthrown. There’s now less than two minutes on the game clock, so The Rams have to go for it on 4th down — and Stafford gets sacked by a furious pass rush. It’s the Bengals ball.

Is this a preview of Stafford walking off the field after that big sack?

Burrow hands the ball off twice, and Joe Mixon quickly finds the end zone on a 38-yard burst, and look at that, the Bengals are now up 31-20. There’s just over a minute of game time, and Stafford has to force things - and on his second pass he throws an interception, sealing the victory for the Bengals. Cincy wins 31-20.

Joe Burrow already wants that ring. Will he get it?

Now…ask yourself one question. Did Stafford lose this game? Did Joe Burrow win this game? Did the Bengals defense?

It’s not an easy question to answer - but your answer probably depends on how you thought about Stafford BEFORE the game even started.

I ask these questions, of course, because this is NOT how the game is going to go - at least not exactly. That’s because it IS exactly how the 49ers lost to the Chiefs two years ago.

And the consensus among casual NFL fans, or at least those who don’t follow the 49ers, is that Jimmy Garoppolo lost the game. Choked it away. Folks look at that long pass to Emmanuel Sanders and think … if Jimmy had just thrown a good ball, the 49ers could and should have won.

Alex Ohári 🇭🇺🔴⚪️ @FutureCanes

Jimmy Garoppolo had Emmanuel Sanders open behind the defense to give the #49ers the lead with just over a minute to go. Missed the throw, and lost the game. Average QB at best.

And sure, a better pass probably wins this game for the 49ers. If you think I haven’t replayed this game in my head a lot, and that it physically hurts to paste the above play into my own article, you don’t know me at all.

But, when it mattered most, the 49ers defense could NOT stop the Chiefs. Again, without a terrible OPI call against George Kittle, it would have been at least 23-10, maybe 27-10 deep in the fourth quarter.

And even without that, the team was up by 10 with just over six minutes of game time. The defense couldn’t stop Mahomes, who after all, was a generational QB making his statement to the world that he’d arrived.

Mahomes made his statement. Jimmy G doesn’t play defense, so how did HE lose this game again?

If Burrow does the same, do we blame Matthew Stafford? I don’t think we do. Because the world has already decided that Stafford is an elite QB. We make up our minds very quickly about players and we don’t let our lying eyes tell us differently.

I’m not sure how my mission in life has somehow turned into defending Jimmy Garoppolo against national slights that “he sucks” and “he choked away the Super Bowl,” but here we are. Folks who casually watched the playoffs that year saw Jimmy handing the ball off repeatedly, and decided that Shanahan was terrified of letting him throw the ball. Forget the fact that the team was rushing the ball for six yards a clip, Jimmy should have put the games more at risk by throwing the ball because … reasons. Right? So, going into the game, they thought that Jimmy was not very good - and let the game confirm those biases. Right?

I mean, am I right? Am I a completely biased 49ers fan? Leave a comment and tell me where I got this right or wrong.