NFL: Mark Sanchez and 5 Quaterbacks Who Turn It on in the Fourth Quarter

The ability to perform when the lights are at their brightest is a particularly valuable commodity in the National Football League. Teams across the NFL search high and low for that special quality in a quarterback. Draft boards, trading blocks, free agency all revolve around gaining those players who, when the proverbial chips are down and the clock is ticking away, have the tools to bring their team to salvation.

It is a truly unique skill that many who have come and gone through the revolving door of NFL quarterbacks have failed to develop. Synonymous with the names Elway, Marino and Montana, the fourth quarter is a showcase of the immortals. Those under center who master those fleeting 15 minutes set themselves on a course for unlimited success. Those who crumble, doom themselves to an athletic lifetime of mediocrity.

Here is a small sample of the the best of the late game heroic, the five stars turned to when time is running out.

Mark Sanchez

2011 Fourth Quarter Statistics: 93.8 QB Rating (compared to 80.9 game average), 7 TDs (tied for sixth in NFL), only 1 interception.

Career Fourth Quarter Statistics: 8 career comebacks and 10 game-winning drives

Somewhere on the application for the quarterback of the New York Jets, as for any high-profile athletic endeavor in New York, there must be a requisite that all applicants must have an inherent pension for the dramatic.

Whether you are talking about the exalted Aaron Boone 2003 ALCS game seven home run that sent Boston packing and sent the Yankees to another World Series, or if you are reminiscing on Stephane Matteau’s 1994 overtime goal that set the Rangers on a path of destiny to their first Stanley Cup in over 50 years, it is often the athletes that reach their greatest potential only when it matters most that find their rightful place in New York sports lore.

Neither of those two athletes is likely to speak at the podium of their respective Halls of Fame anytime soon, but their impacts on their respective New York teams and their roles in bringing championships to the Big Apple is undeniable.

The same can be said for Mark Sanchez. Often relegated to the role of game manager at the expense of a showcase defense, Sanchez has found himself under the most stifling of microscope. His play during the first 45 minutes of every game this season has been suspect at best, and the fan base in East Rutherford have vocalized their displeasure with him on several occasions as of late. He is surrounded by a corps of offensive weapons that many NFL teams would welcome with open arms, yet until the final 15 minutes begins to tick, Sanchez finds it difficult to connect with them regularly.

Once those last precious moments begin to slip away, though, Sanchez has developed an incredible ability to shed all of the anxiety and apprehension that radiates from his every throw.

Sanchez's heroic fourth-quarter performance against Buffalo one week ago was a perfect case study in the aggravation all Jets fans feel towards him. A bumbling, fumbling, interception-prone frog of a quarterback turns into a pigskin prince in what seems to be a flick of a switch. The late game jewel of a pass (and catch) to Plaxico Burress was one example.

This erratic play, while dramatically exciting and utterly exasperating, has the Jets more often than not on the benefiting end.

Tim Tebow

2011 Fourth-Quarter Statistics: 83 percent winning percentage as a starter.

The Denver Broncos are 6-4, are in playoff contention, and have won five of their last six games with Tebow under center. Herein lies the Tim Tebow fourth-quarter story.

Rumor has it that in order to provide all of the paper used in the printing of analysis and opinion of Tebow over the last month, the sports media machine has single-handedly caused the complete deforestation of the Amazon jungle. No need for alarm, Tebow will be visiting the region soon to plant a thousand saplings and feed a hundred displaced puma in the name of goodwill. He will do so right after he completes his next improbable miracle, winning another game as quarterback of the Denver Broncos.

It is maddening that this kid is winning in a matter that flies directly in the face of all that is common sense about professional-level football.

In his first game as Broncos signal-caller, Tebow appeared every bit the overvalued and overhyped mirage of a quarterback everyone assumed he would be. Fast forward to the fourth quarter and Tebow nearly snatches victory from the jaws of defeat against San Diego, scrambling on three of four plays in their first drive of the fourth quarter and scoring a walk-in touchdown. Tebow went on to throw for over 100 yards and two touchdowns over the next two series and narrowly miss his first dramatic comeback as time expired.

The next week in Miami, a game that will be remembered by history as the first coming of Tebow, he threw again for over one hundred yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter en route to an improbable overtime victory. A 56-yard game-clinching toss in the fourth quarter against Kansas City the following week may have accounted for almost all of his anemic 69 total passing yards; but that could not distract from the fact that Tebow was finding a way to win in the fourth quarter.

A few masterful game-winning gallops against the Jets and a solid late-game performance against San Diego in the weeks that followed, and we are left bewildered that Tim Tebow is continuing to succeed in this league.

Tony Romo

2011 Fourth Quarter Statistics: 96.9 QB Rating (7^th in the NFL) and 7 TDs

Career Fourth Quarter Statistics: 13 comebacks and 14 game-winning drives                                                      

Quite possibly the biggest misconception in the recent history of the National Football League is the portrayal of Tony Romo as the embodiment of choke. Thousands of Dallas Cowboy fans have queued to accuse Romo for all of the Cowboy shortcomings in the later part of the last five seasons. Considered reckless with his decision making and even more careless with turnovers, you could be convinced that it is the sole responsibility of the kid from Eastern Illinois University that the Cowboy dynasty has not been rekindled. Unfortunately for these misguided folks, Tony Romo has in fact been the catalyst for more success in the final minutes of Dallas’ games than he has been the facilitator of failure. Look no further for evidence of this than week two of this 2011 NFL season. In an inspiring effort towards redemption after a costly late Romo error handed the New York Jets a week prior, Romo led his Cowboy squad to an overtime victory over a revived San Francisco 49ers team. The same 49ers team that has gone on to yield the highest rated defense in the NFL and is considered by some to be one of the rare challengers to the Green Bay throne fell to Romo and the Cowboys even after they forced the three time Pro Bowler out of the game with broken ribs. Armed with a Kevlar vest, the walking wounded Romo led his team to victory in San Francisco that day and did so six more times to date this season. Romo may have the most rugged of fourth quarter leadership qualities. He is the bloodied, beaten soldier whose less worried about statistical success as he is with inspiring America’s Team to a W. As long as his teammates continue to heed his fourth quarter call to arms, the Cowboys may be the one team flying under the NFC radar.

Aaron Rodgers

2011 Fourth Quarter Statistics: 113.0 QB Rating, 70.4 percent completion rate, 8 TDs (tied for third in the NFL), 4 INTs, 55.88 percent time of possession share.

What has not already been said about Aaron Rodgers this season? His meteoric rise from virtual unknown to household name (who has not seen the hilarious State Farm commercial?) in only four seasons has been nothing short of remarkable.

What is more impressive is how Rodgers has elevated his Green Bay Packers from Super Bowl Cinderella a season prior, to a team that is widely considered an unstoppable juggernaut only contained by their own internal aspiration for the first perfect NFL season in nearly 40 years.

Rodgers has performed this season at a level reserved for the select. Rookies and veteran quarterbacks alike are compared to him; his performances are only comparable to his own previous efforts. His fourth-quarter routine has become nothing less than strategically calculated nails in 11 consecutive coffins. Teams that show the faintest of hopes are quickly stomped out by Rodgers and company.

His extinguishing of the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving seemed to come with an exclamation point. His final touchdown pass was celebrated with a fist pump that seemed to ask the defeated Lions, You didn’t really think you actually had a chance to beat me, did you?

Tom Brady

2011 Fourth Quarter Statistics :108.4 QB Rating, 10 TDs (second in the NFL), 3 INTs, 9.5 average points (third in the NFL).

Career Fourth Quarter Statistics: 24 career comebacks and 33 game-winning drives.

If Tom Terrific has written the book on fourth-quarter performances, you will most certainly find it in a library’s art section. It is awe-inspiring to see the fear in the eyes of opposing players and coaches when Tom Brady steps onto a football field with seconds remaining on a game clock.

It has become such a loathsome blunder to allow Brady and the Patriots the final possession of a game that it has come between some players and coaches. It is the sense of inevitability that makes Brady’s fourth-quarter greatness so undeniable, so tangible. Defensive coordinators scramble to outthink all previous thoughts by faking to fake their faking fakes, all for naught.

The calm that washes over Brady’s face when another opportunity presents itself for him to redefine elite is legendary. His pension for game-winning heroics energizes millions of Patriots faithful and nauseates the millions who cheer for the other players on the field not named Brady.

His fourth-quarter statistics are impressive. His inevitable enshrinement in Canton will be thanks largely in part to those clutch performances. It is the aura, though; the real, palpable realization that the control of a game’s outcome is no longer in anyone else’s control but his that makes Brady’s fourth-quarter play a thing of spectacle.

Eli Manning

2011 Fourth Quarter Statistics: 123.7 QB Rating; 69.1 percent completion rate; 12 TDs (NFL best); 3 INTs; 5 comeback wins in 2011 (in only one did he have a QB rating under 94); 9.3 average fourth quarter points (fifth in the NFL); 55.78 percent time of possession (NFL best).

On the brink of absolute implosion, the rudderless New York Giants have done themselves no favors in their effort to convince fans and critics alike that they are anything but the neurotically inconsistent team they appear to be. From week to week, Big Blue continues to ebb and flow more wildly than the steepest of rollercoaster, leaving their head coach Tom Coughlin in what appears to be a continuous state of cardiac arrest.

Amid all of the disarray the Giants are experiencing in their 2011 campaign, one thing is for certain—Eli Manning has established himself as one of the true clutch quarterbacks in the NFL. His performance in the Super Bowl XLII reenactment against New England galvanized what the statistics have always told us. If the Giants have any opponent at arm’s length during the final 15-minute stanza of any Giants game, anything and everything is possible from Manning.

He has shown the poise and composure in stressed game situations that make good football quarterbacks great. Never mind the talking-head blather concerning whether or not Manning should be given “elite” status, one can only wonder what condition the New York Giants would be like if it was not for the heroics of their signal caller.