I’m beginning to think this Vince Young character can play football. Prevailing logic dictates that what a good quarterback makes are not monster numbers but rather a list of Ws in the only column that actually matters. And those Ws are precisely what VY continues to chalk up as he stumbles and toddles his way through a spectacularly strange NFL career.
Right behind Drew Brees and Peyton, VY currently holds the third longest streak of regular season wins in the NFL right now at 8, dating back to his last starts in the 2007 and 2008 season. Leading the team along with stealthy Chris Johnson, Young rallied the Titans to victory on Monday night marking the first time in NFL history a team has racked up 4 wins after starting the season 0-6.
I remember watching this guy playing in college and predicting some dismal professional results. Even in the Rose Bowl when Young danced and tiptoed his way around every defender USC threw at him, he just didn’t look like he was built for success. He put up 200 yards rushing, completed 30 passes, and scored the game winning touchdown in arguably the greatest college football game every played, and I didn’t think he was NFL ready. It appears, however, that I was wrong.
VY is certainly a bit of a strange dude. He contemplated retiring after his first season, citing that the fun had gone out of playing. In 2007, he was benched because he missed curfew one night choosing to sleep at his home instead of at the hotel with his teammates. Most famously, in 2008 after a disappointing loss to the Jaguars, he disappeared, left his home with a gun, and contemplated suicide (according to his therapist), which prompted his mother to go on record as saying, “What would you think, if you were tired of being ridiculed and persecuted and talked about and not being treated very well, what would you do? What kind of decision would you make?” Not exactly the stuff quarterback’s dreams are made of.
To be fair to VY’s adversaries, his numbers are, at points, dreadful. He has a 25:34 touchdown-interception ratio over his short career. Coming into this season, his QB rating sat at an abysmal 67.8%. Most importantly, perhaps, he did not play well in his only post-season game, passing for only 138 yards with an INT and only 12 yards rushing on two attempts.
Still, Vince is slowly making history with the Titans. This Sunday, we may see a Rose Bowl rematch between VY and Matt Leinhart if Kurt Warner can’t stay on the field, and, with a win, they can legitimately insert themselves in the wild card race in the AFC, even if they are a dark-horse.
More importantly, Vince has to stay on the field and not let the crowd or pressure get to him. Despite Chris Johnson’s success, I am not convinced we’ll continue to see the Titans continue their historic run. A lot of it depends on VY and his ability to prove his critics (me) wrong.
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I question the extent that people truly believe “A win is a win” and that “Winning is everything.” You’re not the lone doubter looking in on VY’s camp. I think everyone naturally reacts with a “Good for the Titans, but how are they getting this done?” If people truly believed that winning was everything that mattered, VY would be on the cover of magazines this holiday season, the prototype for what all NFL head coaches should be trying to turn their QBs into. Instead, we get guys like Brees and Manning who put up phenomenal numbers while leading their teams. I’m cool with leaving VY out of that discussion, but people need to just admit that they value individual stats more than they’re willing to. There’s some dishonesty going on here.
VY has had some good games in the past too. But if a D can force him to throw, he really can’t succeed on a consistent basis. In the NFL, you either got it or you dont. he dont
@Dude,
This past week Vince Young is starting to prove many people like you wrong…
Yea, the Vince Young conundrum has puzzled me for years now.
He clearly showed something this past week that I didn’t think he was capable of physically/athletically.
My gripe with Vince has always been that a QB whose greatest (and often only) asset is his legs will never win championships in the NFL. Sure, he’ll rack up the wins, but that’s largely because teams aren’t going to up & change their entire gameplans and defensive schemes for 1 game on the schedule.
I maintain though that once the playoffs hit it’s a new ball game and if you can contain Vince’s feet you would contain Vince. Now I’m doubting that, and excited about the possibilities of being very, very wrong on VY.
“Instead, we get guys like Brees and Manning who put up phenomenal numbers while leading their teams”
You do realize that guys like Brees & Manning are racking up the wins too, right?
“people need to just admit that they value individual stats more than they’re willing to”
If Vince throws twice as many interceptions as he does touchdowns in 2007 and the Titans make the playoffs sporting one of the best defenses in the league would you still give that credit to VY??
Nice drive V.Y. – 99 yards to win the game. Starting to look a little like the Longhorn”s QB that everyone fell in love with!