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2 seasons ago I looked at the Rise Of Borkus in the Season 9 playoffs, you can find that thread here. In a blatant cash grab I will now spew forth words talking about what has changed with 2 more playoffs added to our history. If you only read the first post you may miss that in a post-Ultimus update I noted that Avon Blocksdale had the dubious distinction of holding the two best passing performances in a losing effort in playoff history, by quite a margin. Well, I used "had" over "has" in that last sentence because that is no longer the case. But more on that later.
To recap the last 2 playoffs from a passing perspective:
Season 10
Ryan Applehort 22/37 for 355 yards, 4 TDs, 2 INTs, and 2 sacks for 10 yards
Avon Blocksdale 31/52 for 340 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, and 1 sack for 5 yards
Gus TT Showbiz 17/25 for 187 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs, and 6 sacks for 42 yards
Borkus Maximus 26/46 for 236 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs, and 2 sacks for 12 yards
Borkus Maximus 24/35 for 306 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, and 3 sacks for 23 yards
Avon Blocksdale 27/40 for 383 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, and 1 sack for 6 yards
Season 11
Micycle McCormick 12/35 for 221 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, and 1 sack for 6 yards
Ryan Applehort 40/58 for 410 yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT, and 0 sacks for 0 yards
Gus TT Showbiz 26/46 for 268 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs, and 3 sacks for 23 yards
Borkus Maximus 23/38 for 319 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, and 4 sacks for 23 yards
Ryan Applehort 37/59 for 391 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, and 3 sacks for 28 yards
Borkus Maximus 33/51 for 400 yards, 4 TDs, 0 INTs, and 4 sacks for 23 yards
Avon Blocksdale's Season 10 Ultimus performance (his last ever game as a quarterback) currently ranks 4th all time in both playoff AY/A and ANY/A and I imagine will go a long way toward shaping the way we consider Blocksdale when all is said and done. Borkus Maximus's performance in that same game has taken the mantle of best performance in a loss to further alter Blocksdale's legacy and in fact Applehort's performance in the NSFC Championship bumped the two Blocksdale performances to 3rd and 4th. Applehort's performance in the S11 Ultimus would then enter in at 4th to give us this top 5:
After getting the proverbial monkey off his back, Blocksdale switched to defense and Ryan Applehort stepped in ably for the Hawks, posting a pair of solid performances. I don't mean to gloss over the first ever playoff starts (at quarterback) for Gus TT Showbiz and Micycle McCormick but they were fairly pedestrian outings in losing efforts, neither spectacularly good nor spectacularly bad (though Showbiz probably would like to forget the Season 11 ASFC Championship which clocks in at 11th-worst of 66 qualifying performances).
In the Ultimus we saw two good-not-great quarterback performances, which was quite a step down compared to the previous season but both were in the top half all-time.
Here is the all-time top 10 following the Season 11 playoffs:
And here's the top 10 Ultimus performances. Blocksdale was 56/84 for 736 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, with 5 sacks for 33 yards in his two games. Not bad. Also after a rough Season 8 Ultimus, Borkus has bounced back pretty nicely :eyes: :
So where does that leave us big picture? Well Borkus has continued to cement his position as one of the best postseason quarterbacks in league history and Blocksdale rode off into the sunset also in that conversation. Neither of those are probably very surprising but what may be is that Ryan Applehort has played his way into that discussion as well. Among the 8 quarterbacks who have at least 100 pass attempts in the playoffs, Applehort currently ranks 2nd in ANY/A behind Borkus and 3rd in AY/A behind Borkus and Blocksdale:
Again, as I mentioned in the previous post, there's a lot of context involved here. Defenses dominated those early seasons before we found a good balance and so quarterbacks like Boss and Bronko who played a lot of games against monster defensive lines are going to have their numbers artificially deflated, especially in ANY/A. Just check out the sack rates between the modern quarterbacks and the Seasons 1-4ish quarterbacks. Maximus has been sacked on 6.58% of his playoff dropbacks, Applehort on 4.29% of his, Blocksdale on 6.21% of his, and Akselsen on 7.30% of his while Oles was sacked on 10.47% of his dropbacks with Boss at 10.49%, Bronko 11.80%, and Kyubee at 12.36%. That said, the defenses of the last few seasons haven't exactly been slouches.
Some milestones to note:
1. Borkus is now 5 touchdowns behind Boss for most career playoff touchdowns but Applehort has a season on him and is just 5 back. Blocksdale tied Bronko for 5th all time in 12 fewer attempts.
2. Borkus is now 2nd all time in playoff passing yards behind Boss who will not be caught. Dermot likes to brag about his ill-gotten records but I think his are more likely to fall than Boss's is - at least until the league and playoffs expand. In order for Borkus to break it he would have to play in 5 more playoff games (either making the playoffs the next 3 seasons and making 2 Ultimuses or making the playoffs the next 4 seasons and making 1 Ultimus) while maintaining his career average of 334 yards per game as he sinks into regression. Future quarterbacks will need 14 games of 300 yards or 11 games of 400 yards to break that mark meaning that making 5 Ultimuses in a career is almost required.
3. Blocksdale will likely soon be the qualifying (100 career attempts) quarterback with the fewest playoff interceptions thrown with his career mark of just 3 in 272 attempts. Borkus also has 3 (in 355 attempts) but it's safe to assume he'll throw at least 1 more in his career. However, if Showbiz goes 29 attempts without another interception he will take that mantle.
4. Borkus currently leads qualifying quarterbacks in interception rate with 0.85%. Blocksdale is right behind at 1.10% and from there it's a bit of a drop to 3rd, Mat Akselsen with 1.52%.
5. Applehort currently leads qualifying quarterbacks in completion percentage with a 62.19% rate. Stop me if you've heard this before but Borkus and Blocksdale are right behind him with 61.41% and 61.40%, respectively. Showbiz's mark of 60.56% ranks fourth and is a good start to build on.