Matt Flynn gets his "chance" amidst convoluted "expectations"

The Packers had their by-week early, which probably won’t help them; but Matt Flynn finally got a chance to show his “stuff” in meaningful game, after Terrell Pryor’s concussion symptoms returned Saturday night (Pryor claimed he recalled “nothing” from the loss against Denver last week). On one level his performance was massively disappointing for me. I championed this guy for two years, and in his first starting gig since that fabled Detroit performance he fell short of what I had hoped to see. Not that his stat line was horrible; Flynn completed 21 of 32 passes for 227 yards, with one touchdown and an interception for a QB rating of 83.7. If the Raiders had won the game rather than losing to the previously winless Redskins 24-14, it would have been a more than “passable” performance. 

But Flynn’s interception was costly, and his only scoring drive was on Oakland’s second possession, after which he seemed unable to lead the team past midfield until the fourth quarter. Time and again the Raiders seemed barely able to move the ball forward, unable to generate a running game and relying on Flynn’s “dink and dunk” passing, for which any evidence of forward progress was often negated by sacks. Flynn also started slowly in that Detroit game, but the Packers had one of the best receiving corps in the league, and once he found his footing Flynn exploded for 21-25 passes for 380 yards and five touchdowns. I didn’t expect anything like this in his first Raiders start, but what I did expect was improvement over the course of the game. Unfortunately, the opposite seemed to occur until late when Flynn started to show a little life—but too little and too late.

But I am not going to join Flynn’s many “I told you so” detractors. The loss wasn't all his fault; the Raiders offensive line play was horrible, and one wonders if playing the more mobile Pryor is just an excuse not to fix this problem. The assumption that the Raiders would have won with Pryor is also only that (RG3 has to have a "good" game sometime this season), and we should not lose sight of the fact that Pryor also lost his first start of the season, with passing numbers even less impressive, with two interceptions and a passer rating of only 70.6. Of course he has “improved,” but why shouldn’t that be true of Flynn, likely to a greater extent? It seems that certain quarterbacks in this league are receiving a “free pass” from fans, commentators and teammates more interested in politics than winning.

Case in point is the Jets’ Geno Smith. This guy is shaping up to be an even worse turnover machine than Mark Sanchez ever was, with 3 lost fumbles and 8 interceptions in just 4 games.  His four turnovers against the Tennessee Titans led directly to 28 points. Yet we are repeatedly told that these are “rookie” mistakes, and not that of an “athlete” who tends to act before he thinks. Russell Wilson went through a “growing period” as a rookie, but his mistakes tended to be from a lack of experience in the pro game, not because he made foolish decisions and couldn’t keep his hands on the ball.

Is Smith as competent a quarterback as Wilson was as a rookie? How about Robert Griffin III? Andrew Luck? Certainly he is better than Sanchez? There is no evidence to suggest that at this time, but Smith will be allowed as many excuses as he needs. After the beating the Titans put on the Jets, those who claimed that this was supposed to be a “winnable” game because Smith was “obviously” a better quarterback than even Jake Locker only serves to indicate the degree to which NFL commentators have allowed themselves to be gulled by politics. 

Meanwhile, remember the tag line from the old television show “The Six Million Dollar Man”?

"We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better...stronger...faster.”

Well, that seems to be Peyton Manning after his supposedly debilitating neck surgery, which many of us expected to become undone after the first significant hit he took. He seems to have become the bionic man this season, threatening to make the quarterback rating system obsolete. Something just seems not quite kosher, but maybe that is just an indication of how much I dislike him. However, no matter how opposing fans feel about him, I’m fairly certain that given the choice, they’d happily abandon their love affair with their “running” quarterback and trade him in for an unathletic “traditional” quarterback like Manning (or Brady and Rodgers) any given Sunday.