Originally posted by Furlow:
You're completely wrong. There was no improvement from the defense at any point during the 2017 season until Jimmy took over. And the TOP dramatically spiked in our favor when Jimmy took over. As did the offensive yards and points per game. Yes it's a "combination of everything," it always is. But the only thing that changed in 2017 is Jimmy became the starter.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/sfo/2017/gamelog/
Weird that so many people have such a hard time giving the guy credit for what he did. Yes he got hurt a lot and yes he came up short. Yes Purdy is better. None of those are reasons to try and pretend that Jimmy wasn't a huge difference maker for this team.
But as Yac was pointing out a lot of field goals, while an improvement, isn't the best just because you are holding the ball.
Giving him credit for points per game and yards per game is fair. I just dont value the TOP much. It's what you do with it when you have it that matters. Eagles had a super long drive in the SB that amounted to a FG. Didn't change the game in the end.
He was a difference maker from where we were before him no doubt. But his injury severely limited id ad lib ability which in turn caused him to regress from what we saw in that short sample.
Waterbear had it right. He was an upgrade from where we were but wasn't to the level we needed to win SuperBowls.
