Four Great Games, Four Wild Finishes

I've been watching football since the mid-1970s and I can honestly say, without hesitation, that this past weekend's playoff games were the best I've ever seen. Period! I defy anyone to prove me wrong.

You might find one game that matched what we saw yesterday; hell, you might even find two; but you'll never find four. If you're a fan of the game, this was special; this was a treat.

Consider the following: Each game was decided on the last play and the combined margin for all four games was 15 points: three field goals and an overtime touchdown. 

Game one: Cincinnati at Tennessee

Joe "Cool" Burrow against Derrick "King" Henry. If ever there was a player with ice water in his veins it's Burrow. The Bengals quarterback was sacked nine times, yet still hung in the pocket to complete 28 of 37 pass attempts for 348 yards.

But as good as Burrow was, the reason the Bengals won this game was because for some strange reason, Titans' head coach Mike Vrabel thought his quarterback was Peyton Manning. With the best running game in the NFL, Vrabel allowed Ryan Tannehill to throw the ball 24 times, resulting in three picks; the last one led to the winning field goal. 

Look, I wasn't a big believer in Tennessee going all the way. In this game you need an elite quarterback to have a shot at a Super Bowl, but this was a winnable game for the Titans and their coach chose a particular inopportune time to have a bad day. Dumb, simply dumb.

Game two: San Francisco at Green Bay 

January at Lambeau, the frozen tundra, scene of the infamous ice bowl. Game-time temps in the single digits, wind chill below zero. The team from the Bay area taking on the team that was built for this weather. There was just one tiny problem: the team from the fair-weather city seemed to handle the elements better, or at least came better prepared, than the home-town team.

Yes, the blocked field goal and the blocked punt hurt, but that was not the reason the Packers lost. They lost because they scored only ten points; and they scored only ten points because the most celebrated quarterback in a generation played like shit when his team needed him most. The fact is in the middle of a snow squall, with 3:40 left in regulation, and the scored tied at 10, with the ball at his own 28 and needing only 11 yards for a first down, Aaron Rodgers decided to heave a 40-yard pass downfield to Davante Adams that the Niners were all over. The pass was broken up and the Packers were forced to punt.

That gave Jimmy Garoppolo three minutes to navigate his team down field and set up the game-winning field goal. Yes, as strange as it may seem, Jimmy G, God's gift to defensive coordinators, looked like the king of the two-minute drill, while his counterpart looked like Daniel Jones.

If that sounds harsh, it was meant to. There's a reason why Rodgers has only one Super Bowl ring despite a plethora of opportunities to get more. He's simply not a clutch performer when it counts. Think about it. He could've chosen to, as Hank Stram used to say, "matriculate the football down the field." But, alas, his ego got in the way. So he forced a play he had no business forcing and cost his team a win they should've had going away. Chalk this one up to sheer arrogance. 

Oh, and by the way, Aaron, Brandon sends his love.

Game three: Los Angeles at Tampa Bay

Matt Stafford versus the GOAT. The last time Sean McVay went head to head with Tom Brady, Brady beat him in the Super Bowl. This time around, he brought his own gun slinger with him. To be honest, I wasn't much of a Stafford fan, but he showed me something yesterday. Stafford was a cool customer, besting Brady in yards and completion percentage. Indeed, the only interception in the game was thrown by Brady.

The fact is, had it not been for the four turnovers the Rams committed, none of which were Stafford's fault, this game would've been a rout. Even after the Bucs mounted a successful comeback to tie the game, Stafford had enough composure to throw a strike to a wide open Cooper Kupp at the 12 yard line line to set up the winning field goal as time expired. Not bad for a guy everybody, including yours truly, thought was overrated.

Didn't think it could get any better? Well...

Game four: Buffalo at Kansas City

Now we come to the pièce de résistance. If you missed this game, you missed one helluva match. Three lead changes in the final two minutes of regulation; both quarterbacks combining for 707 yards, 7 touchdowns and no picks. 

This was not a game for the faint of heart, believe me. I must've said "Holy shit" at least a dozen times. Hey, Giants and Jets fans, this is how football was meant to be played.

It's a shame that one of these quarterbacks had to lose; that's how great both Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen were. We might never see a performance like this again. But if you're a Buffalo Bills fan, you have a right to be pissed at your coaching staff, particularly the special teams coaching staff.

After Mahomes threw a slant to Tyreek Hill that he took all the way to the end zone goal for the go-ahead touchdown with 1:02 left, Allen successfully navigated his team downfield and threw his 4th touchdown of the night with 13 seconds remaining to put the Bills ahead 36-33. All the Bills had to do was protect that lead for a lousy 13 seconds - a lousy 13 seconds!

But rather than attempt a squib kick and force the Chiefs to field the ball, thus running some time off the clock, the Bills elected to kick the ball into the end zone, which gave Mahomes the full 13 seconds to get his team in position to kick the game-tying field goal and force overtime. And that's exactly what Mahomes did. And after the Chiefs won the coin toss, Mahomes sliced and diced his way through an exhausted Buffalo defense and connected with Travis Kelce for the game-winning touchdown.

It was a heartbreaking loss for a Bills team that, two years in a row, has lost to the Chiefs in the postseason. They deserved a better fate this time around. But for the majority of us football fans who didn't have a horse in this race, this was a game for the ages.

Memo to Joe Schoen, new GM of the New York Giants: as you continue your search for the team's next head coach, Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll should be at the top of your list. Both men have done an outstanding job with their respective teams, and either would make a great choice, especially for an organization that hasn't had a functioning offense in more than a decade.

Belichick To Giants Isn't As Far Fetched As You Might Think

Twenty years ago, Bill Belichick shocked the football world when he resigned as head coach of the New York Jets - a position he'd been promoted to only 24 hours earlier - to become the head coach of the New England Patriots. Over the last nineteen seasons, Belichick, with the help of the best quarterback the game has ever seen, has coached the Pats to nine Super Bowl appearances, winning six of them. No franchise in NFL history has come close to accomplishing that feat; not the Steelers, not the Cowboys, not the Packers, not the 49ers, no one.

Now that the Patriots are out of the playoffs, having lost to the Tennessee Titans last night, there's a lot of speculation about what happens with Tom Brady. Does he retire? Does he re-sign with New England? Or does he leave for another team? And where does Josh McDaniels - Brady's offensive coordinator - wind up?

But no one has dared ask the most important question; the one that's on the tip of everyone's tongue. What happens with Belichick? He's been such a fixture in New England sports that no one can conceive of a life without him. But as in love as they may be with Belichick, the hall of fame head coach has a soft spot in his heart for another franchise, and it's the one where he got his start: the New York Giants.

Deep down, Belichick never forgave the Mara family for passing him over for the head coaching job when Bill Parcels stepped down, even though the decision was actually George Young's. For their part, I'm pretty sure the Maras probably wish they could have a do over, given that Ray Handley botched things up in his brief two-year stint. And even though Jim Fassel led the franchise back to the Super Bowl in 2000, it would take seven more seasons before another former Parcells' assistant - Tom Coughlin - allowed them to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. Imagine what might've been if the Giants had had the foresight Robert Kraft possessed two decades ago.

Look, this may sound crazy, but I wouldn't be shocked one bit if over the next couple of days Belichick announces that he is stepping down as head coach of the Patriots to become the next head coach of the Giants. I also wouldn't be shocked to learn that as a condition of him leaving the Pats, John Mara and Steve Tisch have agreed to give him complete veto power over all personnel decisions Dave Gettleman makes, including draft picks and free agents signings. In other words, Belichick would be in charge.

Far Fetched? Perhaps. After all, knowing how things are done at 1925 Giants Drive, it's much more likely that they end up signing Matt Rhule as their next head coach, especially now that Mike McCarthy has decided to stay an extra couple of days in Dallas. But I'm not so sure that this is as far fetched as most would think. Let me explain.

Belichick knows that Brady's days are numbered. In fact, you could say the entire organization has been holding its breath, hoping to squeeze one more year out of that magic arm. But the sad truth is that after an 8-0 start, the Pats came crashing down to earth. The offense became predictable and one dimensional, and the vaunted defense was simply unable to compensate. Put succinctly, there's nothing more for Belichick to prove here. Even if he retools during the off season, at best he'd still be the coach of a 42 year old quarterback who is doing his best to cheat father time one game at a time. At some point, reality is going to set in and hit this franchise hard. Belichick knows this, and deep down so do the millions of diehard fans in New England.

With the Giants, Belichick would have the opportunity to mold another young quarterback and rebuild a defense that once upon a time put the fear of God in opposing offenses. He'd also have Saquon Barkley in the backfield instead of Sony Michel. And if the current crop of receivers the Giants have manages to stay healthy for an entire season, Daniel Jones will have a nice arsenal of targets to throw to in 2020. Sterling Shepard may not be Julian Edelman, but he's younger and faster.

They say you can't go home. I beg to differ. I think if you subjected Bill Belichick to a lie detector test, you'd learn that he would jump at the chance to come back to his old stomping grounds and return Big Blue to the promised land. And if you did the same thing to both John Mara and Steve Tisch, you'd learn that, despite all their protestations to the contrary, nothing would give them greater satisfaction.

Twenty years ago, Bill Belichick shocked the football world. I wouldn't put it past him to do it again.

Yes, Eli Manning Belongs In the Hall of Fame

That was quite a nice game Daniel Jones had against the Redskins. 28 for 42, 352 yards, five touchdowns and, most importantly, no turnovers. Whatever else you can say about this abysmal season, one thing's for certain: the Giants have found their quarterback. Jones is the real deal. Going into week 17, he has thrown for 2726 yards and 23 touchdowns - both franchise records for a rookie QB, going all the way back to Charlie Conerly in 1948. While he has had a problem with fumbles, his TD to Int ratio 23 to 11 is better than what Sam Darnold - his counterpart on the Jets - posted in his rookie year. It's now all too apparent that he was the best QB taken in the 2019 draft. Imagine where this team might've been if they had had any defense this year.

But while the future certainly looks bright with Jones under center, the man who started his last game for the team against the Dolphins last week will likely be out of football when the season comes to a close. And when that happens the discussion will immediately pivot to whether he belongs in Canton. Let me just cut right to the chase here. Yes, Eli Manning deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Just compare and contrast his stats with another Hall of Fame QB: Joe Namath.

Manning:
Completion %: 60.3; TD-Int ratio: 366-244; Total Yards: 57,023.

Namath:

Completion %: 50.1; TD-Int ratio: 173-220; Total Yards: 27,663.

Yes, Broadway Joe will forever be remembered for his "guarantee" win over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, and, yes, he was hobbled by injuries throughout his career, but Eli beat the greatest quarterback in NFL history not once, but twice in Super Bowls 42 and 46. And he was the MVP in both games. You wanna say he was lucky? Fine, but was he lucky twice? I doubt it. Consider this: as incredible as Ron Swaboda's catch in the '69 World Series was, there's no way in hell he makes that catch again. Lightning never strikes twice in the same place.

My point is that every successful athlete at some point has lady luck shine on them, but the truly great ones, more often than not, make their own luck. And Eli, when his team needed him the most, came through in the clutch. No he wasn't as prolific as his brother Peyton, but in the postseason he was a better quarterback than Peyton. And as I wrote in an earlier piece, had this franchise done a better job of providing him with the weapons he needed, he might've had a third ring.

The sad truth is that Eli is going to be judged for the last six years of his career; a period that admittedly wasn't as spectacular as his first ten. And that's both unfortunate and unfair. Show me one potential hall of fame quarterback who could win with the team Eli was saddled with. I doubt even Tom Brady would be able to overcome this level of incompetence. What John Mara and Steve Tisch have allowed to happen to this once proud franchise is a disgrace. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Look, if it was up to me, Eli would be in the Hall of Fame in a heartbeat. Pound for pound, he was the best signal caller the franchise has ever had. He belongs in the Hall of Fame, right up there with fellow Giant Lawrence Taylor. To not punch his ticket to Canton would be to do a disservice to a good man who has done nothing but distinguish himself for an organization that in my opinion never truly appreciated what it had.

Daniel Jones Has Earned the Right To Start

Before we go any further, let me just reiterate what I wrote back in April. The decision to draft Daniel Jones with the 6th overall pick was a big mistake. By all accounts, not one NFL team had Jones rated that high on their board. The Giants could’ve drafted Josh Allen 6th overall and Jones would’ve still been available at 17. Having said that, and after having seen him in the preseason, it’s clear that of all the quarterbacks taken in the 2019 draft, Jones is by far the best of the lot. It’s not even close.

Just look at the stats. After 3 preseason games, Jones’s passer rating of 140 is off the charts. He has completed an astounding 83.3 percent of his passes, going 25 of 30 for 369 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Compare and contrast him with Dwayne Haskins – the quarterback everyone wanted the Giants to take. He’s completed just 22 of 41 passes – a 53.7 completion percentage - for 305 yards with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions and a passer rating of just 66.

And Jones has looked good both in the pocket as well as in the shotgun. He has thrown the deep ball well, which was a huge question mark with him, and more importantly, he has thrown the ball where only his receivers can catch it; a feat that Eli Manning still hasn’t mastered after 15 seasons. The kid has handled himself better than could be expected, given the controversy surrounding his drafting. If there’s such a thing as ice water in a person’s veins, Jones’s nickname should be Mr. Freeze.

Based on his performance, he has earned the right to start the regular season under center. Yes I know Manning is the starter, and yes I know he’s getting paid over $23 million. You don’t pay that kind of money to a bench player. But let’s be honest here for a moment. Unless Eli and the Giants get off to a fast start, you and I both know the boo birds will be chanting “We want Jones” every incomplete pass or interception Eli throws. Do Dave Gettleman and Pat Shurmur – not to mention John Mara and Steve Tisch – really want that nightmare hanging over this team the entire year. Face it, if the plan is to not sign Eli for 2020, then it’s only a matter of time before the kid takes over the reigns. The longer this drags out, the more painful it will be for all involved.

Loyalty is a good thing; and this franchise has certainly been loyal to Eli. And he has repaid that loyalty by being a good soldier. But there comes a point where loyalty has to take a back seat to common sense. If Jones had had, say, an average preseason like Haskins, then I would say sit him for a year and let Eli play out the string. But Jones has had anything but an average preseason. In fact, he’s been exceptional. With a revamped offensive line in front of him, the best running back in the league in Saquon Barkley behind him and a number of talented receivers who are more than capable, Jones will have plenty of weapons at his disposal. It’s not like he’s going to be Kyler Murray out there.

Deep down, Manning knows the end is near. 15 years ago, he was the new kid on the block who took over for a Super Bowl winning quarterback. Now the shoe is on the other foot. Football, like all other sports, is a business. And that business can be cruel and exacting. But it is what it is. Mara’s responsibility, first and foremost, is not to consider the feelings of any one player, but to look after the long-term interests of the team. And those long-term interests are best served by making Jones the starter now.

This Thursday, Jones will start against the Patriots in the last preseason game. It'll be the toughest test of his brief NFL career. If he continues to perform the way he has so far, Shurmur will be faced with the toughest decision of his coaching career.

Look, what Eli Manning has done for this franchise is incalculable and will be hard, if not impossible, to replicate. After all, it isn't every quarterback who can boast that he beat Tom Brady twice in the Super Bowl. Those accomplishments notwithstanding, he shouldn't be allowed to determine when he rides off into the sunset.