Well I will say this: Back in the early days of Brady’s Patriots and Peyton’s Colts, there was a weird dynamic where the Patriots owned the Colts who owned the Broncos who owned the Patriots. This wasn’t confined to the playoffs, although the Broncos did hand Brady his first ever playoff loss.
But having to start a career backup at QB who has no significant starts under his belt does not bode well for that trend to continue. We’ll see if he can Jeff Hostetler his way to the Superbowl, but count me skeptical.
This is getting way ahead of things, but the Patriots will have an interesting psychological advantage over the Seahawks if they meet in the Super Bowl and hold a narrow lead late over Seattle in the fourth quarter. They will know that the Seahawks will have basically no choice but to run the ball on the goal line because they’d be vilified to the extreme if they again tried to throw passes after what happened in 2014. Which in turn will let New England stack the box even more.
Not after what had happened at the goal line a few minutes earlier. They tried both running and passing in that short-yardage situation and failed at both.
Hostetler started the last two games of the regular season that year, as well as all of the playoff games. I understand the reference, but the situations are not quite the same.
Somehow I doubt that this play from a decade ago will be much of a factor in Seattle’s play calling during a goal-to-go situation.
Hypothetically losing to the Super Bowl champions* would make the Packer’s losses more understandable, but I’m OK with the Bears losing.
I did not watch any of the games, and now that the Pack is out of it my interest is very low (but obviously not zero or I wouldn’t have made this comment)
I honestly do not have a favorite or even an anti-favorite at this point.
Brian
* I’m aware that winning the recent game was a necessary but not sufficient condition
The key players and coaches on both teams from that game are all gone. Hell, several of them went to other teams and are gone from those teams as well.
To the extent there’s any psychological factor, it’ll be on the part of sports gamblers, not whoever is on the field.
I am trying very hard not to fall into this line of thinking, because that’s exactly the sort of thing that results in a quarterback having a legendary day and defying all odds.
Maybe if I expect Stidham to have that kind of day, I can double-bluff the football gods.
I don’t understand the takes. I mean, Nix is a loss, but I watched Stidham with the Patriots, almost all pre-season obviously, and I do think he has some kind of possible reasonable performance in him, especially at home and with that OL. And that might be all they need.
The Broncos like to blitz, and the Patriots will test Stidham and that OL…should be a fun game.
Maye wasn’t exactly stellar yesterday, 16 for 27 for 179 yards and 1 interception, 4 fumbles, of which 2 were lost. Yes, the conditions sucked, but quite frankly, it was the Pats defense that won the game.
I’m guessing it will be another defensive battle in Denver on Sunday. And Maye absolutely cannot turn the ball over 3 times.
As a Broncos fan, I was hoping that maybe they’d squeak into the playoffs as a wild card while still being hamstrung by all the dead cap money going to Wilson. Then they kept winning games they should have lost, barely won games they should have easily won, and somehow held onto the 1 seed. If they lose, especially with Nix out, it’s easy to write off and hope that next year they won’t manage to make every game a squeaker.
I think they can win, but it’ll have to be mostly the defense making some big plays while the offense doesn’t make any mistakes and keeps the clock moving.
Just for the record, the play calling in 2014 was not wrong. It was the execution that was the problem. Russ was supposed to throw the ball into the end zone only in the event that a receiver miraculously got open, otherwise he was supposed to just toss it up into the stands to stop the clock. Then they would have one more play, and that was gonna be Marshawn’s run.
Russ has a hero complex. He just couldn’t control his urge to make the big splashy play.
No, the play was a rub concept that didn’t rub, mainly because the defense had seen and planned for it. Wilson threw it where it was supposed to be thrown. A pass play to the outside, shallow TE crosser or a corner fade, would have allowed for a throwaway. The inside play that was called couldn’t have a throw where it was “my guy or nobody” like the situation needed.
Sorry. I’ve obviously applied to significant amount of copium to the distant memories of that day. I believe and trust you, but I’m going to continue to tell myself the other story so I don’t wake up at night screaming.
OTOH, this AP article lists six other quarterbacks since 1950 who made their first start of the season in a playoff game (so, a closer analogy). Two of them (Roger Staubach, Gary Danielson) were one-time starters who returned to the role for one reason or another; the others (Frank Reich, Joe Webb, Taylor Heineicke, Connor Cook) were backups who were pressed into the job due to injuries.
Of the six, only Reich got the win in his playoff start (though Staubach had pulled off a come-from-behind win the prior week, when he came in, in relief of the ineffective Craig Morton, during the divisional round).
Zach Charbonnet who is part of the one-two punch in Seattle’s running game (which steamrolled San Francisco two games in a row) is out for the playoffs (at least). Torn ACL.
He has 12 touchdowns on the year and has been a reliable “punch it in” guy all year, so it’s a significant loss.
Thank goodness Kenneth Walker III is so good (he had three touchdowns on Saturday) so they still have a run game but it’s not going to be as good, and with the Rams coming to Seattle (and they always play the Seahawks rough) that’s going to make things really difficult.
My hot take… Beating the Rams in the NFC Championship is going to be harder than beating either the Patriots or Broncos in the Super Bowl. I’m getting memories of the 2013 season, where Seattle fans considered the NFC Championship against the Niners to be the “real” Super Bowl, as that was a tough fight down to the wire in an instant classic. They absolutely destroyed the Broncos in the following Super Bowl in a game that was really no contest.