C'mon, Hitch, this was sweet, enjoy it. For the entire second half, all they needed to win was a FG, and they couldn't get one. What could have been the last play of Brady's NE career--or even his career, period--was a pick-six, and this is the first time in his entire career that he threw pick-sixes in consecutive games. The last two plays by the Pats were turnovers. If time hadn't run out, TE would have scored two TDs in handful of seconds.
Didn't hear anyone saying that at the beginning of the season, though. They were ranked no. 1 in I think all the preseason polls, and when they started out 8-0, they seemed unchallengeable:
Well, the last sentence was right.
Can anyone in the AFC challenge the Patriots this season?
sports.yahoo.com
I wouldn't automatically assume that Brady will be a good QB next year, and that he can start for the Patriots or someone else. He's already an extreme outlier, the benefit of very rare protracted and gentle decline. Even as it is, he's no longer an elite QB, raising legitimate questions about how much better he can make a team. And that's assuming he won't be worse next year, when he easily could be finished entirely, not suitable for any role but a backup. Just because his decline has been gradual so far doesn't mean he can't fall off a cliff. Manning had his statistically best season his second year at Denver, set all kinds of QB records, and two years later he was one of the worst QB s in the league, starting mostly because of reputation and lack of a reliable alternative. The end can come very fast.
Most QBs--not just Manning, but Montana, Marino, Elway, Young--are done by their late 30s. Aaron Rodgers--the best QB of his generation, better than Brady, would have won all those titles if he'd been playing for NE--is 36, and clearly is not the player he once was. It will be very interesting to see how he performs next week. Rivers is 38, and showing definite signs of being close to the finish. Ben is 37, and his days are numbered. Eli is 39, and easing out. Brees, like Brady, is past 40, and everyone talks about how great he is, but what happened today? It really shouldn't be a surprise. He's shown definite signs of decline recently, it's just that he's been inconsistent. Every time he has a great game, people think he's as good as ever. He might be in moments, but at his age he can no longer count on those moments happening all the time.
As long as Beli is coach, NE can be a playoff contender--remember, they won their first three SB when Brady was considered nothing but a game manager--and despite all their offensive problems this year, they were still 12-4. So I think they can win with Brady or without him, so I guess the decision might come down to how much they have to pay him, and whether they can get an adequate replacement cheaper.
MN@SF is not the first time these two teams meet in the postseason. They met in the playoffs three years in a row in the late 1980s, and the first meeting was one of the biggest upsets in NFL history. This is some really interesting history.
The 49ers won 4 SB in the 1980s, but their best team might have been in 1987, when they didn't even get close to the SB. They started out poorly, losing their first game and winning the second only by a miracle, when the Bengals, leading with less than a minute to go and around their own 20, elected not to punt but to try to run out the clock by having the QB take the snap and run around in the backfield, avoiding getting tackled. It didn't work, he got tackled with a few seconds left in the game, and the 49ers had just enough time for a Montana to Rice TD pass that won the game.
After that, there was a strike. The games the following week were cancelled, then games were resumed, but mostly with replacement players, since most of the starters remained on strike. The 49ers won all three of their strike games, helped by the fact that one notorious scab was Montana. When the strike ended, and the regular players returned, the 49ers kept winning, going 9-1 the rest of the way. They finished the season 13-2, and averaging > 30 points a game and giving up less than 17 a game, a historically great point differential.
For those who believe in momentum, the 49ers won their final three games by a combined score of 124-7. The Vikings lost three of their last four games, and finished the season the definition of average: 8-7, with almost exactly as many points allowed as points scored. Yet the Vikings dominated the 49ers on the road, leading 20-3 at the half. Montana was benched in favour of Young, who got the offence going in the second half, but too little, too late.
The 49ers got revenge the following year, beating the Vikings handily in another division game, and blowing them out yet again the year after that. They won the SB each of those years.