In case that title totally confused you, here is what I'm saying: Stanzi made the 4th quarter his bitch in 2009. In 2010, he made the other quarters feel loved. So, what if we combined his stats for the first 3 quarters of his games in 2010 and added them with the 4th quarter of each game in 2009?!?!? Brilliant!

So I did. And here is what I found if those stats were combined:

3,217 yds. passing, 228/356 (64.04%), 26 TD, 6 INT, 55 rush yards, 2 rushing TD

*Stanzi was injured during games 10-12 of 2009, so I used full-game stats of corresponding game in 2010

So how much more awesome was Stanzi in this situation??

Not much more. In fact, only 213 yards, 1 passing touchdown, and 61 yards rushing better than 2010. In fact, his completion percentage was a tiny bit worse (from 64.1% in 2010 to 64.0% combined). And when you look at 2010 as a whole, his 4th quarters were not terrible. In fact, in many situations when he got blamed, it was more of the defense's fault than any one else's. 

When you really break down the stats, his 4th quarter production in 2009 was pretty good: 61 yards per quarter, 64.3% completion PQ, (.6) TD PQ, 2.7 rushing yards PQ, and (.1) INT PQ.

But they aren't much better than his 2010 1-3 quarter stats: 67.2 yards PQ, 67.5% completion PQ, (.5) TD PQ, 1.5 rushing yards PQ, and (.13) INT PQ.

When we associate Stanzi with 4th quarter in 2009, we think of his 177 yard, 3/3, 2 TD, 0 INT 4th quarter against Indiana, while we forget that he didn't win those games with stats, he won them with a solid defense and a lot of composure. He had that same composure in 2010, but with problems elsewhere.

Think back for a second... why did we lose at Arizona? Horrid special teams, defense giving up a late touchdown, and the offensive line allowing Stanzi to be sacked 4 consecutive plays. Some say he could have thrown the ball away. I personally disagree. 

What about Wisconsin? Clock management could have worked wonders on that game. Stanzi did about all he could: keeping his composure and not panicking.

Northwestern, Ohio State, Minnesota? Defense, defense, defense. 

So, maybe we were wrong. Stanzi may be a slightly better quarterback with combined stats, but not nearly enough to make a difference. If you read Adam Rittenberg's rankings on Ricky, you will see he thinks the combined method would work, when in reality, it was the team around Stanzi not the man himself.

*Additional fact I found interesting was that Stanzi had positive rushing yards in the 4th quarter 2009 and 1-3 of 2010; while having negative rushing yards accumulated each season. He had (-56) rushing yards in quarters 1-3 in 2009 while gaining 27 in the 4th quarter, and in the 4th quarter in 2010, he had (-34) rushing yards, while gaining 28 in the first 3 quarters. So, moral is: if Stanzi is gaining yards on the ground, he is probably doing the same in the air.