With a 38-24 win over my Buffalo Bills, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs have the chance to do what very few teams have been able to accomplish: defending their Super Bowl Championship. The Chiefs were the better team on both sides of the ball and showed why they are the defending champs. Even after a rocky start, once they got things in gear, there was no stopping them. I’ll get into this game in more detail with My Buffalo Blues Season Finale, but figured I should get it out of the way to start.
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It’s a tough pill to swallow after the best season of Bills football in a quarter-century, but you have to see what the top of the mountain looks like to know how to get there. Mahomes had to lose to Brady in order to get himself and his team to the next level and that’s what Buffalo is facing now. When the initial disappointment of the loss wears off, there’s a lot to be proud of and a checklist of things they need to work on during the off-season in order to put themselves in a position to get back to the AFC title game. More likely than not, KC will be there again waiting for them and that should be plenty of motivation.
On the NFC side of the bracket, Tom Brady is headed back to the Super Bowl for the 10th time as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Green Bay Packers 31-26 at Lambeau Field. In the process, for the first time ever, the host city will be represented by its hometown team as the Bucs come home to play in the NFL’s Championship game at Raymond James Stadium.
I’m not surprised. Tampa caught a break with the favorable weather conditions and the NFC title game went almost exactly as I predicted, except for Green Bay mounting a little more offense under duress in the second half. The Bucs got the ball first and went right down the field with little resistance, scoring a touchdown on the game’s opening drive. Aaron Rodgers got sacked on 3rd & long and the Packers punted on their first possession, so the tone of the game was set early.
I had spent a good amount of time during the season and during the breakdown for this game detailing the Packers’ struggles with adversity and I really couldn’t have written the game script for this one any more accurately. Tampa shut down the run (67-yards), got after Rodgers (5-sacks for 32-yards lost), and Green Bay didn’t have a lot of answers. It was like the Week 6 matchup all over again. Rodgers even threw an absolutely killer pick that led to a touchdown for the Bucs as time expired in the first half. It went from 14-10 to 21-10 Tampa in a blink and you could see the air come out of the Packers.
When Aaron Jones fumbled to start the second half for the Packers, it was essentially the death blow. Brady found Cameron Brate for the TD on the next play for the Bucs and that wound up being the game-winning score. Everything I talked about from Green Bay’s previous losses to Tampa, Indy, and Minnesota was on full display out there. Credit to the Packers for finding some composure in this instance but it was too little too late. Even with a pair of TDs to answer and three-consecutive interceptions from Brady, the Packers still finished the second half with two 3 & outs and a turnover in their six possessions. The one that’s come under the most scrutiny is the decision to kick the field goal with just north of two minutes remaining in the game.
For the second time in the game, Rodgers was having serious tunnel vision for his primary target Davante Adams. On a 3rd down from the 8-yard line, Rodgers tried to force a pass rather than run into the cleared out space. The pass was incomplete and head coach Matt LaFleur opted to cut the lead to 5-pts with the field goal. I don’t know what the analytics were telling him there, but you’re down 8-pts with 2-minutes to go in the game. Any first down by Tampa would basically end the game and you’d still need a TD regardless. Even if they didn’t convert, they would have pinned TB inside their own 10-yard line and given themselves the two-minute warning as an additional timeout. I guess LaFleur had faith that their defense could get the key stop, but that’s Tom Brady across the field and he only needed a first down to ice the game. I’d say that’s a bad gamble.
LaFleur has rightfully come under fire for the decision and even Rodgers is questioning his future in Green Bay publicly. The team had already ruffled feathers with the drafting of a QB instead of any other piece to help Rodgers and the Packers win in the short term. A lot of that noise went quiet after a great season but it’s roaring again. If LaFleur is the guy who drives the face of the franchise out of town, rest assured he won’t be coaching in Green Bay or maybe anywhere else.
The results speak for themselves but there is still a lot of noise on social media in regard to Brady’s status and quality. The fact that so much of the conversation has revolved around LaFleur and the field goal doesn’t even give the Bucs credit for the road win, let alone to Brady for his performance. I never should go down the Twitter rabbit hole but found myself arguing with some dumbass who wrote, “I don’t understand. He’s not even that good”, referring to Brady. Realistically, Brady is best to ever do it and this particular person admittedly doesn’t understand why. It’s easy to point to the stat line and Brady’s 3-interceptions and say Rodgers “outplayed” him, that doesn’t make it true.
| Tom Brady | By the Numbers | Aaron Rodgers |
| 20/36 | Completions/Attempts | 33/48 |
| 55.50% | Completion % | 68.70% |
| 14 | Yards Per Completion | 10.5 |
| 280 | Passing Yards | 346 |
| 3 | Passing TDs | 3 |
| 3 | Interceptions | 1 |
| 1/5 | Sacks/Yards Lost | 5/32 |
Yes, Brady threw 3-picks and two of them were ugly downfield ducks. There was another one that a Packers’ safety dropped that was similarly ugly. However, all of his picks came when his team was winning and he was looking for the nail in the coffin in the second half. That narrative also overlooks a flawless first half from Brady that included a number of high-level throws with pressure in his face. That TD throw to Scotty Miller to close out the first half was picture perfect even with having to step into the pass rush. Furthermore, none of his mistakes ended up killing his team. Green Bay only scored 7-points off turnovers, while Tampa scored 14 on Rodgers’ pick and Jones’ fumble. In fact, those two Packers’ giveaways stretched the Bucs’ lead from four to 18-points. Playing quarterback in the NFL is about more than racking up 300-yard games. That’s a number that’s indicative of playing from behind. It’s about understanding the heartbeat of the game, leading your teammates, and finding a way to leave the game with the W. Nobody does that better than Tom Brady.
As a Bills fan of 30-years, defending Brady’s greatness isn’t my preferred position but 20 of those years were spent under the rule of TB12. I got to see first hand, year in and year out, what kind of leader and competitor Brady is. You have to admire what he’s continued to do, at a certain point, even though I hated being on the receiving end of it for two decades. When I see how fleeting success at the highest level of the game is for everyone else around the league, saying he’s “exceptional” doesn’t really cover it. As a fan of the game, it’s such a disservice to sell him short over and over again. It’s one thing for some rando online to not understand all the things Tom does throughout a game that make a difference, but for sports media to have continued entertaining the argument that any other QB in the league is on his level is just hot air to get attention. Either that or they’re an overpaid on-air personality who just doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about. After a postseason that saw him win on the road three times and vanquish both Brees and Rodgers with their Top-10 defenses in the process, the debate is over.
Rodgers, like Brees, will be a sure fire first-ballot Hall of Famer. No question. But when it comes to the history of QB hierarchy in the NFL, neither of those guys is on the same tier as Brady. If you really want to get into it, I wouldn’t put them in the tier directly below him either. Only 12 quarterbacks have won multiple Super Bowls and neither Brees or Rodgers are on that list. They’ve both had teams that have been near or at the top of their conference for multiple years but neither has even reached a second Super Bowl. Rodgers is now 1-4 in the NFC title game so, realistically, he’s underachieving. Ben Roethlisberger (the only active) and the Manning brothers (retired) have much stronges cases as Brady’s true contemporaries, each with a pair of Super Bowls wins and having reached the big game in losing efforts during the TB12 era. They also each did it with significant gaps between wins, so it’s not like they had the best team in the league for several consecutive years either. Even those guys are a tier below Brady. He is simply on a level by himself and we haven’t seen anyone come close yet.
A head-to-head Super Bowl for Mahomes would certainly be an important step for that young man’s legacy. It would immediately catapult him into that two-ring club that’s already insanely exclusive. It would also give Mahomes the edge in total head-to-head record vs Brady, with an AFC Championship and Super Bowl on the list. A win for Brady would do the same for their head-to-head record. Even though KC looked unstoppable vs Buffalo, counting Tom out is clearly a mistake. Fortunately, we won’t have to speculate much longer and we should be in for a great Super Bowl.