Once again, Tom Brady showed he is better suited than Peyton Manning for a frigid playoff night in January.
If you are a Broncos fan, you are wracked with concern after watching Manning fail to hold a 24-0 lead and fail to close out Brady on a night when Knowshon Moreno rushes for 224 yards.
While the velocity on Manning’s throws was undoubtedly hampered by the condition of his ankle(s), Brady’s fastball whistled through the Foxborough night air as he fashioned the greatest comeback in franchise history in the 34-31 overtime victory.
The talk at the beginning of the season was all Peyton all the time. But now Brady is reminding us why he has shared this generation’s stage with Manning.
Brady didn’t have Rob Gronkowski at the start of the season and Danny Amendola, Wes Welker’s replacement, was in and out of the lineup. Remember his gesticulations the night his inexperienced receivers weren’t on his page against the Jets? Brady worked tirelessly to get them on his page, and now Gronk and Amendola and Shane Vereen, his pass-catching back, are thriving.
All the while, Manning had the luxury of a quartet of targets that had him feeling like a kid in the candy store: Welker, Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker and exploding TE Julius Thomas. Not to mention a reborn Moreno.
Julius Thomas missed the overtime thriller, and Manning didn’t connect with his other Thomas until the fourth quarter. There were times when Manning looked helpless again against his forever nemesis Bill Belichick. Which happens to be the best argument for those who champion Manning over Brady: He’s had to play against Belichick, and Brady has not. Brady improved to 1o-4 in their head-to-head bouts.
We hope we see Manning versus Brady again in the playoffs, perhaps the AFC Championship. Edge Brady. Tuck Rule or no Tuck Rule, he’s better in the icy elements. And he has Belichick on his side. And should he go on and capture his fourth ring before Manning can capture his second, that debate will be over.
Cardinals are contenders. Seriously.
The Cardinals are no longer winning ugly, and it might be time to start taking them seriously in the NFC title race.
Arizona had been muddling along on the strength of their defense, which is as good as ever, but the continued rejuvenation of Carson Palmer is what’s really putting the Cardinals over the top.
Palmer was terrific again in Sunday’s 40-11 swamping of Andrew Luck and the Colts, throwing for 314 yards and two touchdowns without an interception as Arizona improved to 7-4 with its fourth consecutive victory.
It’s been a long, tortured road back for Palmer from that famously devastating knee injury, but the former No. 1 overall pick looks like a franchise quarterback again. During the Cardinals’ four-game hot streak, Palmer has completed 69 percent of his passes with 10 touchdowns and just two interceptions.
Palmer got off to a slow start in his first season in Arizona, but it looks as if he’s getting the hang of new coach Bruce Arians’ pass-first offense after throwing for a season-high 419 yards against the Jaguars last week and 314 yards Sunday on Indianapolis.
Palmer’s play, in turn, is helping Arians continue his own incredible career rejuvenation.
Run out of Pittsburgh by coach Mike Tomlin after the 2011 season, Arians was named NFL Coach of the Year last year for his interim work with the Colts in place of Chuck Pagano and could be in line for it again with the Cardinals already having topped their five-win total for 2012 with five games left.
When you combine that with a defense that hasn’t allowed more than 292 total yards in any of the four games during the Cardinals’ win streak, it’s clear Arizona is no fluke.
Glennon up to his tall task
Scouts were generally skeptical of Mike Glennon in the draft last spring, in large part because of his very skinny frame and the poor track record of NFL quarterbacks who are NFL 6-foot-7 or taller (think: Dan McGwire).
Even the Buccaneers didn’t seem entirely sold on the North Carolina State product, waiting until the third round to pick Glennon and doing so with the notion he was a project who probably needed to be brought along slowly.
But every season in recent years seems to have a rookie QB who “gets it” right away, and Glennon looks to be that guy this year. He might also be the guy who saves Greg Schiano’s job.
After an 0-8 start made them the butt of jokes around the league, the Buccaneers are suddenly the owners of a three-game winning streak after Sunday’s 24-21 win at Detroit — and Glennon is a big reason why.
The emergence of running back Bobby Rainey has allowed Tampa Bay to be more balanced on offense, and the switch has had a noticeable and beneficial impact on Glennon.
In their first four games after releasing Josh Freeman, the Bucs went 0-4 with Glennon attempting at least 43 passes in all of them. In the four games since, Glennon hasn’t thrown more than 23 passes in any contest — and Tampa Bay is 3-1, with the only loss a respectable OT setback at Seattle.
The smaller workload has taken the pressure off Glennon, and he’s been much more efficient as a result. In the Bucs’ 3-1 stretch, Glennon has thrown seven touchdowns against just one interception while completing 70 percent of his passes, compared to six TDs, three interceptions and a 57 percent completion rate when Schiano was having him fill the air with footballs.
Tampa Bay will have plenty of needs to fill in the draft and free agency in the offseason, but it now appears — surprisingly — quarterback won’t be one of them.
Packers still in business
All is not lost (or tied) for the Packers. Far from it, in fact.
Despite the grumbling after Green Bay followed Aaron Rodgers’ collarbone injury with three consecutive losses and Sunday’s ugly, 26-26 tie with the Vikings, the Packers still appear to be in relatively decent shape at 5-5-1, a half-game out of first place in the NFC North.
There are plenty of reasons for that, but they start with Rodgers himself. He threw in warmups before the Minnesota game, and he appears to have a good chance of returning to the lineup Thanksgiving Day, when Green Bay travels to Detroit.
That’s obviously good news to the point of delirium to Packer Nation after they watched Seneca Wallace, Scott Tolzien and Matt Flynn mostly flail away in Rodgers’ absence.
But if Rodgers comes back this week, his month away won’t have been a total disaster for Green Bay.
That’s because the Packers discovered what looks like a potent running game led by Eddie Lacy — the big rookie has 100 or more yards rushing in two of the last four games — and the rest of the NFC North flopped right along with Green Bay the last month.