I get throttled by some posters here when I bring up the subject of Stanley being an all or nothing QB. The response is always some kind of garbage about how even Tom Brady has bad days (Jesus Christ, really.....).
Dochterman's tweet below perfectly sums up what I've been saying all year. People can continue to sniff Stanley's jock all they want, but there's no denying that his inconsistency is killing the Hawkeyes' chances at taking Wisconsin's spot as the dominant team in the west. They've given us the perfect opportunity to do it, too. Wisconsin losing to NW basically rolled over on their back, showed their necks, and handed the Hawks a knife. They said, "Here you go, Iowa. It's yours if you want it." Then Stanley proceeds to trip over his own shoelaces, fall down the stairs and stick the knife in his own leg like Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights.
Not only is the inconsistency horrible at face value, it's totally random. Someone tell me how any coaching staff can be confident in a game plan without knowing whether Chuck Long or Scott Mullen is going to show up. That's how far apart his two alter egos are. How are WR/TEs supposed to play full speed if it's always lingering in the backs of their minds that they'll probably have to turn around mid stride to catch a ball thrown a yard behind them, or dive down for a pass in the dirt? How are the Hawks supposed to build a lead when they have to potentially waste the first quarter figuring out whether Nate is Jekyl or Hyde that particular day?
Hate me or not, these numbers don't lie and there's no way to know whether Mansell is more consistent or not until you give it a shot. The "ride or die, by god I'm going down with this ship" folks are the ones who hopefully won't bitch if we end up in the RedBox Bowl. Could Stanley finish out the year strong? Absolutely; I hope he does. The homers on the board will be the first ones to let me know. But they'll also be the first one's to piss and moan about the rest of us being negative if he doesn't. It couldn't be that we were right instead of just being negative, could it?