I like football, but I am not a football nut. I don’t even own a Walter Payton or Mike Ditka Jersey. But last Saturday and Sunday’s games were so riveting that I couldn’t move myself away from the TV, even for a stack of Oreos. And I love Oreos.
Four straight playoff games were decided on the last play, and probably the eight best teams in the NFL played each other. Athletes gave every play everything they had. Great receivers used every trick they knew to get open, and the most amazing quarterbacks in the game threw the ball perfectly, often before their receivers made their final moves.
Everybody agrees that Buffalo was robbed by an idiotic “sudden death rule” in the last game of the weekend. But unless you were a Bills fan, you just watched in total amazement at the magnificence of Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen and wished the game would last forever as they dueled each other to total exhaustion.
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Just a few more reactions that linger two days after.
Joe Burrow of Cincinnati may be the next Tom Brady. He has the arm and he sees the field like Brady. He can win without a great offensive line and All-Pro receivers.
Their histories have some similarities. Burrow was underappreciated at Ohio State after being the top high school player in Ohio. He sat on the bench or was injured for three years, then transferred to LSU where he led the Tigers to the national championship and won the Heisman.
Brady sat on the bench for two years behind Drew Henson at Michigan before blossoming and leading the Wolverines to the Rose Bowl. Then it took an injury to Drew Bledsoe for him to get a chance to play in the NFL.
They are traditional dropback quarterbacks but can avoid tacklers without great foot speed. They are both charismatic leaders without being show-offs. I think they both would play until they were 50 if their bodies would let them.
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Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers should have won against San Francisco. The Packers were the better team and they were playing on the frozen tundra. For the Packers to score just 10 points against the 49ers indicates they were outcoached or a little complacent in the cold conditions. They were experienced playing in the Arctic but played too cautiously, believing that a mediocre offensive team like San Fran could not score against them.
Their calculation was mostly correct, but mistakes in the kicking game were extremely costly and they lost on the last play because of scoring only 10 points.
A Los Angeles Rams versus Packers game in Green Bay should be the NFC championship game next week, rather than the Rams playing at home against a banged-up 49ers team, but that is the beauty of the NFL playoff system.
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Four fabulous games. It was a true gift for anybody into football. The last three minutes of regulation play of K.C. versus Buffalo will go down as the greatest toe-to-toe battle of exhausted players ever, guided by incredible quarterbacks who just refused to lose. It will stick out in my memory forever.
And the Chicago Bears thought Mitchell Trubisky would be better than either Mahomes or Allen in successive years.
Questions:
Who is the best quarterback who ever played?
Who is your favorite quarterback of all time?
12 Comments
“Peyton” ??!!
Lloyd Graph you must not be from the Chicago area –
Sad, right?
Poor proofreading too I guess.
I trusted him on that!
The best ever goes to the G.O.A.T………Tom Brady.
My favorite is Ken Stabler (the Snake) of the old Oakland Raiders.
Those John Madden coached Raiders were the Bad Boys of the league and they had that swashbuckler style that I just loved as a young fan.
By the way your re-cap of the weekend’s games were spot on !
My heart goes out to Josh Allen as he sat there unable to do anything about that lousy OT rule !
I have to say Joe Montana. Unlike Brady he won without blatant cheating.
Cheaters should not be considered winners. That is why Clemons, Sosa and the other streroid shooters are not in the HOF.
I agree.
Brady – hands down.
Favorite – Jim Kelly. Tough as nails, great leader, and perseverance through difficult health issues.
Hoping Josh will be next on the list. After an incredible game and excruciating loss he handled the OT question spot on: “The rules are what they are, and I can’t complain about that ’cause if it was the other way around, we’d be celebrating too, so, it is what it is at this point.”
Buffalo should have kicked off to between the 5 and 15 yard lines with 13 seconds left.
Coaching error; not a rle cost them the game.
*rule
and *Payton for Lloyd
I like Joe Montana and Roger Staubach, but for greatest of all-time? Tom Brady. Guy has ice-water in his veins.
For most of history OT was sudden death. Period. So after this KC / BB game the rules aren’t fair. Perhaps OT should be 4 more fifteen minute quarters, or perhaps both teams deemed “winners” with special participation trophies until replaying the game the next week. Or play until their mangina hurts too much.
Wow, grumpy at that hour.
Mangina ??
Perhaps you failed to understand Lloyd, you were supposed “to answer the question”, not pontificate.
Joe Montana! Look at the beating he had to take weekly. Compared to the NFL protection of the QB. Every-time he was hit it would have been a penalty it todays NFL.
Brady is fantastic that is for certain.