Against Ravens, Chad Pennington Forgot That He Was Comeback Player of the Year

Text Size A A A

Well, today's playoff performance should temper all the "Chad Pennington should've won the MVP award" talk. I thought he deserved to be in the conversation, but it's hard to argue against Peyton Manning landing the honor; the Colts won their final nine games of the regular season, and unlike Pennington, Manning the Elder had no running game to fall back on.

Via ESPN.com's Tim Graham, Pennington wasn't just bad against the Ravens, he was as dreadful as he's ever been during his nine-year NFL career. And given that he was benched for Kellen Clemens last season, that's saying a whole lot.

The gory details:

* Pennington had thrown four interceptions in five career playoff games.

* Three interceptions ties the Dolphins' record for most in a playoff game (Dan Marino, David Woodley, Jay Fiedler). [Ed. Note: Pennington would later throw his fourth pick, breaking the record.]

* Pennington was 0-3 in postseason games in which he threw an interception.

* The last time he threw three or more interceptions was Week 5 last year against the New York Giants.

* In Pennington's last eight regular-season games: 234 pass attempts, three interceptions.

It's pretty amazing to think that Pennington had just seven picks all year. Particularly after watching Ed Reed pad his stats courtesy of two Pennington lollipops during today's action. Then again, maybe Reed didn't take kindly to Bacon slighting him in FanHouse's Defensive Player of the Year voting*.

Whatever, Pennington's struggles don't change the Dolphins' plans for 2009. He'll still be the starter and Chad Henne will be his backup. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, it's probably worth pointing out that this team won the AFC East only 12 months after going 1-15. So, hip hip hooray for progress.

* Shane Bacon isn't solely responsible for Reed's FanHouse fate, but it's just easier to blame it all on him. So that's what I'm doing.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-04-2009 @ 5:55PM

Wayne said...

Pennington threw four picks today, not three. And he looked a lot like Brett Favre today, didn't he?

1-08-2009 @ 8:12PM

arty said...

chad looked like brett favre without even making it to the second round jackass,what is with you people,chad is a loser and always was ,brett favre had no protection that is the same reason he had picks. but youre now speaking of a god,there are more films of favres miraculous magic on nfl films,actually double any other qb or player ,any one,ask sabol. chad who ,
favre is 40 300 straight games ,i am a jet fan and feel priveledged to have had him,look at the tennessee game ,when jenkins actually didnt eat too much,and the o-line gave him time,40 dude,he got hit too much because the 60 million dollar line sucks,2 weeks of camp in a new offense and they looked awesome for a while,thomas jones is an overrated piece of s--t,one td last year,one. dropped passes,crybaby coles,i quit them.favre got all the blame,now chad doesnt? chad blows

1-04-2009 @ 6:02PM

renoymichelle said...

In your face Thomas! Never trash a teammate. You end up looking like a whiny TO

1-04-2009 @ 9:32PM

knidsrok said...

How is it hard to argue against Peyton Manning winning the MVP? It's the easiest argument in the world to make, if you bother to look at the actual game play, and not just check the W/L column and take Peter King's word for it that Manning was great in their wins.

The league MVP's early ineptitude shouldn't be a major reason that his team started 3 and 4. The MVP shouldn't play like crap until his center comes back from injury and straightens the o-line out. The MVP shouldn't win the award based on a number of wins owing more to the defenses' takeaways than anything he did.

All that said, I do agree that this afternoon's game put into stark relief the fact that Chad Pennington didn't deserve to be in the MVP discussion. That's because this afternoon, Pennington was intercepted twice, and generally flustered, but the league's real MVP.

1-04-2009 @ 10:27PM

brisuch3 said...

Of the 4 interceptions, I would only put 2 directly on Pennington. One, if Ginn hadn't fallen down on the play, he should have been in position to at least break up the int., if not make a play on the ball himself. The last int. to Reed, Ed just made a tremendous play and jumped the route. Chad threw the ball low enough that his receiver should have been the only one to have a play on the ball, but Reed came from nowhere to jump the route. No way can you put all the blame for this loss on Penny.

1-04-2009 @ 7:13PM

tony said...

same ole penny. some runner-up mvp. i love it. purple and black in feb.

1-05-2009 @ 3:43AM

Erin said...

I would have much rather Pennington gotten MVP, even if he did have a sucky game today... anyone can get pictures of Peyton making everything look so easy, but for the Dolphins to make the comeback that they did this year should say a lot in terms of how we judge MVP titles.

1-05-2009 @ 8:17AM

Hatch said...

There is no schadenfreude ("harm joy") in Mudville, eh, Ryan?
On the other hand, there's quite a bit of Favrevergnügen ("Favre pleasure").

1-06-2009 @ 6:33PM

YEAH CHAD,
GREAT JOB,FIRST ROUND AGAIN,4 PICKS,YOU WENT DOWN EASIER THAN YOURE SISTER

YOU SUCK AND ALWAYS DID AND ALWAYS WILL

1-06-2009 @ 6:38PM

ARTY said...

BRETT FAVRE ,BRETT FAVRE,BRETT FAVRE ,BRETT FAVRE.NFL FILMS HAS MORE THAN DOUBLE OF THE ALL TIME MANS MIRACULOUS PLAYS THAN ANY OTHER PLAYER IN NFL HISTORY,SAY WHAT YOU WANT BILL COWARD,BIG SHIT ONE SUPERBOWL AS A COACH
WOULD YOU LIKE NEIL ODONNELL OR CORDELL
GET THAT CHIN FIXED YOU UGLY ASS BITCH

1-23-2009 @ 5:22AM

briranger1 said...

Folks, every QB has his (Waterloo)! Let's not put the 700 pound gorilla ALL on Chad's back. There is no "I" in team after all. Winning is not the ONLY thing that teams do for society or individuals. In losing, teams learn to build a bigger and better drive together to help them self's and their teams accomplish growth. If winning was it ALL and therefore the ONLY thing that matters, then a certain Dan Marino would have won that game against the 49er's in 1983-84, his rookie year! A game in which the niner's coach was caught running up the score on an already won game, (playing the Stupid Bowl in Palo Alto the niner's back yard) in the final minutes still scoring worthless points on the Dolphins and their rookie QB. Dan Marino, went on to break and the re-set the QB bar to the level it currently is now! Why didn't most folks just "will" just one Stupid Bowl win for Marino like they seemed to do for another great QB in John Elway! For that one year it was like the Bronco's were "Americas" team indeed, so as Elway could then be spoken of in the same breath as all those Great QB's before him. Fair ONLY lives on in "fairy tales"! Dan Marino in my book has earned his nick name "Dan the Man" and even though Favre has broken most of his records, Danny is still my FAVORITE QB of all times for many reasons. A Dolphins team with little to no running game for most all of his games, the management was content on trying to make ALL of the wins placed squarely on Dan's arm alone! Remember that dumb and useless rule, (in the GRASP) placed in the NFL to try to protect all the QB's? For a Marino who mearly dropped back and threw bullets, that rule was a death sentence on his way of playing the game! He almost always was in someones grasp, and most times would still complete his passes. That dumb rule lasted a few years and Danny was the VICTIM as it handcuffed his wonderful talent (Dan was not known for his scrambling ability, mostly due to injuries). Thank God that ruling no longer hampers our NFL QB's! So let us just enjoy our teams play (notice there is no work in football, they "PLAY" just joking)! ROCK ON NFL!!!