GOAT, where art thou?

Blake Bortels, Nick Foles, Case Keenum, and Brian Hoyer. Thats not exactly a murderer's row of star quarterbacks. Thanks to the mysterious hand injury to Tom Brady (aren't all Patriots injuries mysterious by the way?), this may be the QB lineup nobody expected but everybody get to watch on Championship Sunday. The question confronting Washington DC and our country's current political climate is now applicable for the NFL's final 4 as well- how did we even get here? We all know that QBs get a little too much credit and defenses and o-lines get way less credit than they deserve. But still, you rarely see 3 out of 4 teams in the championship round led by such no-name QBs.

Granted, the Eagles are Carson Wentz's team and they probably don't make it this deep in the playoffs without him. Too bad we are deprived of enjoying his game this weekend. Though Wentz is not a Rodgers or a Brees yet, by all accounts, he is going to be one of the big QB stars of the future and he would have been an exciting name in these playoffs and fun to watch. If Brady also sits out because of this injury, the league office will literally start crying. NFL is still the king on television, but their ratings have been slumping all season. Even the nail-biting, miraculous endings last weekend didn't translate into a ratings bonanza for the league. So, they need their star QBs more than ever and they are going to get them less than ever this weekend. Bad timing indeed.

This is unusual coming from a Pats non-fan like me, but we need Brady and need him to do real well this Sunday. We want the Super Bowl to be semi-watchable. Plus, the talking heads and blogs need something to talk about for 2 weeks! We need the GOAT and the Pats to win this AFC championship game and give us a reason to watch the Super bowl. At that point, I will be more than happy to go back to rooting against him and the Pats as always. A Blake Bortels-V-Case Keenum Super Bowl is only slightly more inspiring than a Blake Bortels-V-Nick Foles matchup and neither is good news for the NFL or us the fans. I should have prefaced these pronunciations with a token "no disrespect to these QBs" rider, but then again, I am indeed disrespecting them whether I intend to or not.

The main reason for these match-ups are Mike Tomlin's head-scratching coaching and Marcus Williams suddenly deciding that tackling is for losers last weekend. If those 2 had not over-thought their jobs and just kept it basic, we would have had Big Ben and Drew Brees joining Brady this weekend. That would have rivaled the Brady-Ben-Rodgers-Ryan lineup last year. In any case, let's hope for good games this Sunday. Actually, I do think the games will be close and tight. Star appeal may be the only thing missing. As for the games themselves, I expect the Vikings and the Patriots to make it to the next round. At some point, the home team is going to make it to the Super Bowl and we might as well root for and enjoy that oddity this year. Go get 'em Case Keenum.

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!