Greatness Revisited

Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same - even in the parity stricken NFL. When the season started, expectations were high for Seattle, San Francisco, and Denver. And of course New England with Brady and Belichick are always supposed to be good regardless of circumstances. We are now in the championship week and these 4 teams are the ones still left standing. This despite all the excitement generated towards the end of the season for the so-called "hot" teams like San Diego, Carolina, and Philadelphia. They became fashionable picks among several talking heads and the recent trend over the last few years of wild card teams that are on a roll towards the end of the season making it and sometimes winning the super bowl helped taint some of their picks as well. But at the end of the day, good teams are good teams and these 4 teams were legitimate contenders from day 1. Of course, we might have thought the same about teams like the Atlanta Falcons and the Houston Texans back in August, but these 3 teams were in an even higher class. They are not just teams with good record with an one dimensional strength like the Saints with Drew Brees. These teams have a good defense and a solid running game. Of course, nobody knows what the Patriots have, but they have Tom Brady. As impressive as his resume is, what he did this year leading this team to the AFC championship game might be the highlight of his career. And all of a sudden, the Patriots running game looks better than ever too making this weekend's contests all the more intriguing.

All these teams had challenges along the way. The niners offense and Colin Kaepernick looked lost at the beginning of the season. It was 2009 all over again for the niners with Frank Gore being the only bankable asset. Kap and the offense look a lot better now with the addition of Michael Crabtree late in the season. The Seahawks offense on the other hand looked a little lost towards the end of the season, which can be big problem this weekend unless the beast mode and the 12-Th man get it done like last week. Denver's defense turned out to be worse than originally thought and they also have to deal with the usual question marks about Peyton Manning's big game moxie, though that will be a bigger factor rest of the way than it was during the regular season. Despite all of these ups and downs, these 3 teams stayed true to their pre-season expectations and came through with a bang in the playoffs. The niners had to win on the road under tough conditions in Green Bay and in Carolina to get to this point and they look better than ever. But the most amazing performance here has to be what the patriots have done this season with that roster and the slew of injuries. They did not have the best of rosters and free agency, injuries, and murder cases weakened their receiving core. Brady had his lowest completion percentage, QB rating, and the most sacks in years. But they ended the season with an impressive 12-4 record and here they are at their third straight AFC title game. How can you not give credit to Brady when they were winning week after week by just 2 or 3 points?  Bill Belichick deserves a lot of credit too. You got to give the devil it's due.

We use the word "great" flippantly in sports. There are several ways to look at greatness, but one quote I like is "Success Isn’t Always About Greatness. It’s About Consistency. Consistent Hard Work Gains Success. Greatness Will Come."  Both Brady and Manning personify this. In a league built for parity, it's amazing to see these two consistently perform at a very high level. Football is the ultimate team sports, but these 2 QBs contribute to their team's success as much as the rest of their organizations combined. Not only are these two great at what they do, they also keep running into each other all the time. Dan Marino and John Elway rarely played each other for instance, but Brady has beaten Manning 10 out of 14 times including a 2-1 record in the playoffs and a big, come from behind win earlier this season - a game that added more doubts about the aforementioned Manning moxie. The playoff contests between them have gone to the home team every time and they have split the 2 AFC championship dates so far. Brady is the ultimate parity-killer as he will be at his 8-Th AFC championship game this weekend. A mind-boggling stat thats so much beyond the realm of possibility for even a super-star QB like Drew Brees. Given their age, this might very well be the last time they play each other, but then again, I won't be least bit surprised if they play in another 3 AFC championship games against each other. Thats how consistent they both are. I have not had a whole lot of success picking against Brady this season, but I am going to do it again. Manning and the home team pulls this one off. In the NFC, it's hard for anybody to go into Seattle and win, but if anybody can do it, it has to be crazy Jim Harbaugh and his niners with their new-found attitude and their always consistent defense. 

Bring on the Niners-Broncos Super Bowl. Lets party like it's 1990!

Wildness Abound

The NFL wildcard weekend featured a lot of wildness. With New England and Denver on a bye and with no New York teams in the big dance, the top billing went to the San Francisco-Green Bay matchup on Sunday and it didn't disappoint. Colin Kaepernick has had an up and down season, but one thing he always seems to be able to do is run against the packers. He rushed for 98 yards in just 7 attempts. Thats efficient to say the least. Aaron Rodgers and Eddie Lacy did their best to make this a close game, but Kap led the niners on a game winning drive and bled the clock all the way down to zero leaving no time for A-Rod to do to the Niners what he did to the Bears last weekend. It was a frustrating day for the Packers as they lost for the fourth time in two years against the Niners with two of those losses at home and two of them in the playoffs. Harbaugh seem to have their number and it's because of the superior defense at his disposal. The Packers have the better QB, but he can't do it all. The defense has to seal some running holes and they didn't do it today. Now the Niners goto Carolina.

The other California team went into Cincinnati and kicked off what promises to be an horrible off-season for Andy Dalton. Dalton had a horrible second half and threw 2 interceptions in this game. I wouldn't call this a big upset since the Chargers have been on a role lately and the Bengals and Dalton have had many question marks hanging over them anyways. But both games today featured California teams going into cold weather stadiums and coming out victors. The Chargers are next going into Denver for their third contest this season. Road teams have won both games this season and Peyton Manning will be in almost as much trouble as Andy Dalton if Rivers and the Chargers get over him on the road next weekend. For all the records Manning smashed this year - which nobody seems to care about a whole lot anyways, his playoff credentials are still in some scrutiny and he needs to at least get to the Super Bowl this year, if not win it. He has a hot San Diego team coming in and it should be another close playoff contest for us fans. Nothing's easy this time of the year in the NFL.

If todays' games were fun, yesterday's games were wild. The Saints got the road monkey off their back with a great win in Philadelphia. The Eagles were a lot of people's trendy pick, but the Saints actually flexed their defensive muscle to get the job done. In fact, until New Orleans cornerback Keenan Lewis suffered a head injury in the third quarter, the Eagles offense was non-existent. DeSean Jackson got untracked a little bit after that injury and the game got tight. Now the Saints get to goto Seattle again and get some revenge for the playoff loss a few years back - the game where "Beast Mode" was actually born.  And I feel like they have the defense for it. But the craziest game of the weekend was the one where Andrew Luck had to go beast mode to come back from 28 points down to win at home. The Chiefs and Alex Smith played well enough to win despite a string on injuries during the game including one to their main man Jamaal Charles. But in this era of amazing and stress-free quarterback play, Luck was not going to be contained with T.Y.Hilton running wild by his side. It's going to be very interesting to see what he can do next weekend in New England against Tom Brady. Fast and predictable growth for Luck from a wild card loss on the road in year 1 to divisional round against Brady and the hoody in year 2.