The Great Debate: Peyton Manning vs Tom Brady

Peyton Manning or Tom Brady? The debate has gone on for years.

Cory Puffett

I’ll be honest, after the way the Patriots whooped Peyton Manning’s butt last week I toyed with the idea of not writing this at all. Tom Brady didn’t play a great game, but he played a great third quarter. Peyton Manning didn’t play a great game; in fact, he played a horrid game.

But one game does not define a career; one game does not change who or what a given player is.

Peyton Manning is great. Tom Brady is great. Whether you are a Peyton fan, a Brady fan, or are not crazy about either, both of those statements are absolutely accurate. Yes, I am going to make a case for why I think one is a better quarterback than the other. But I hope it is clear that I mean no disrespect to either player. Both are great in their own right and I would be shocked if either is not a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Unless you don’t know me and have never read my blog, you know that I am a huge Peyton Manning fan. He is my favorite professional athlete. So I’ll understand if you consider my forthcoming argument to be biased. For many years, it was.

But as I have matured (and I’m not done yet) as a football analyst, I have realized that just because I like one more than the other, it does not mean I have to believe that player is better than the other. In this case, however, I truly believe Peyton Manning is a cut above Brady.

But why?

Argument for Tom Brady

Brady fans always make the same argument. He has three Super Bowl rings, five appearances, and has the most career playoff wins of any quarterback in NFL history.

These stats are all well and good, and I’m not going to open a can of worms by bringing up Spygate. Whether that has anything to do with New England’s recent playoff struggles, I don’t think it matters in looking at Tom Brady. These are all team achievements. If anything, I think it is more telling that the Patriots have struggled in the playoffs since their defense regressed from the great units they had in the early 2000s.

Argument for Peyton Manning

Four MVPs.

Ridiculous. How is this an argument? While MVPs are much more telling of an individual player’s achievements than are Super Bowls and win percentages, the MVP award is also very circumstantial. Though Peyton absolutely earned every one of those four awards, there were other quarterbacks that were as, or nearly as, deserving as Peyton in three of those four seasons.

Again, this is not a sound argument.

Comparing Peyton & Tom

Peyton Manning entered the league two seasons before Tom Brady. Brady did not start any games in his rookie season. They have each missed, essentially, a full season (for all intents and purposes, Brady missed the entire 2008 season).

So Manning has 15 seasons under his belt while Brady has 12 (this includes the 11 games each has played this season). Because of this disparity we cannot use career numbers such as total yards, total touchdowns, etc. Instead, we’ll look mostly at per/season statistics.

Yards per Season

Peyton – 4213.9

Tom – 3968.3 (-245.6)

Touchdowns per Season

Peyton – 31.5

Tom – 29.25 (-2.25)

Interceptions per Season

Tom – 10.8

Peyton – 14.4 (+3.6)

Career Completions Percentage

Peyton – 65.4%

Tom – 63.5% (-1.9)

Career Passer Rating

Peyton – 96.7

Tom – 95.9 (-0.8)

Overall, these stats are pretty inconclusive. Though Peyton leads four of the five, his completion percentage and passer rating are not that far ahead. And though Peyton does lead in yards per season by a pretty sizeable margin, Tom has a little better TD/INT radio, at 2.68 to 2.19 for Manning.

So let’s look at the playoffs. Tom Brady has played 24 playoff games, compared to 20 for Peyton Manning. This time, we’ll look at per game stats.

Yards per Game

Peyton – 284.0

Tom – 247.9 (-36.1)

Touchdowns per Game

Tom – 1.75

Peyton – 1.60 (-0.15)

Interceptions per Game

Tom – 0.9

Peyton – 1.1 (+0.2)

Completion Percentage

Peyton – 63.2

Tom – 62.3 (-0.9)

Passer Rating

Peyton – 88.4

Tom – 87.4 (-1.0)

Again, these numbers are fairly inconclusive. However, I will point out that Peyton has a better career passer rating in the playoffs despite throwing for slightly fewer touchdowns and slightly more interceptions per game, which is interesting.

So this all brings me to…

My Pro Manning Arguments

1

You can take or leave what I am about to say. At this point, it truly does become slightly more based in opinion and slightly less based in fact. I’ve explained why I don’t believe that Super Bowls, MVPs, or win percentages can be used as the foundation of an argument over who is the better quarterback.

I’ve also shown that, (a) despite Brady being heralded as the greatest playoff quarterback of all time, Peyton’s numbers are every bit as good, as well as (b) despite Manning being called the greatest regular season quarterback of all time, Brady isn’t all that far off in a lot of categories. In fact, Brady is right on Manning’s tail in other categories I didn’t even mention, such as game-winning drives per season.

My argument is based on mechanics. Starting with pocket awareness and the footwork needed to use that awareness to his advantage. I argue strongly that Peyton Manning is the second best active quarterback in both of these categories. Ben Roethlisberger is the only player who can move around inside the pocket at a higher level than Manning. Peyton always has his feet moving in the pocket, ready to pivot, turn his hips, climb the pocket, side step…anything he needs to do to avoid the rush.

You’ll argue that Manning has had consistently better blocking than Tom Brady is. Though that certainly wasn’t true for the final three years or so of Manning’s time as a starter in Indianapolis, it was absolutely true earlier in his career. But is there a line in football that can give up less than 20 sacks a season every season? Well, even with the poorer lines he had late in his career as a Colt, and the poor line he’s dealt with this season, Peyton has only been sacked about 18 times per season, compared to about 28 times per season for Brady.

Blame the lines all you want, but considering how many fewer drop backs Brady has than Manning each season, I firmly believe pocket presence is the bigger factor here.

2

My next argument has to do with football IQ. Again, this is not a knock on Tom Brady. I just consider Peyton’s to be a little higher. I’ll admit that sometimes it works to Manning’s disadvantage because he tries to do too much. Peyton opened the door for the no-huddle offense to become commonplace in the NFL. Both quarterbacks run it efficiently. But the style that New England runs is much more basic. That’s not to say that basic isn’t effective. It clearly has been in New England. But Manning runs a much more complex style of no-huddle and it’s mind-numbing that he can keep all the calls straight.

When he was in Indianapolis, I heard and read stories on a weekly basis about how Peyton or his receiver would realize that the defense has caught on to one or more of their signals. Manning’s off-the-charts football IQ allowed him to take those signals, and change them to mean something else that would not negatively impact the blocking and other routes on the play. It may not sound hard, but it’s not easy to change something on the fly like that and not have receivers crossing paths or blocking assignments missed.

I’ve never heard of Brady doing anything like this. Coach Belichick is in control of that team. Knowing Belichick’s ego, or lack thereof, if Brady had the ability to do that on the fly the way Peyton does, he wouldn’t stop Brady from doing so.

3

Defenses. Peyton hasn’t had them, Brady has. The Patriots had top 10 defenses for their 2003 and 2004 Super Bowl years, and though their defense wasn’t highly ranked in 2001, they did give up the 6^th fewest points that season.

During Indy’s 2006 Super Bowl season, the defense was ranked 21^st in yards allowed and 23^rd in points allowed. The offensive run game was ranked 18^th in yards. Peyton won despite them.

During New England’s 2007 16-0 season, the defense was ranked 4^th in both yards and points allowed. Brady lost in the Super Bowl despite them.

Now again, these are single games. The Colts stepped up in the playoffs in 2006, and Manning didn’t have a particularly great Super Bowl performance. And New England’s offense as a whole played bad in the 2007 Super Bowl, it wasn’t just Brady. But it may convince some of you that Peyton isn’t the only one who has played poorly in a few important games.

4

My final argument is based on coaching, and it might be my weakest one, which is why I saved it for last.

Bill Belichick will be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Tony Dungy may find himself in Canton one day, but he won’t make it on his first ballot. He was never a great coach. He was a good coach made more popular by his strong faith and work with Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

As for Jim Caldwell, I can’t imagine anybody would disagree when I say Peyton carried him to the Super Bowl.

We all saw what happened to Caldwell when Peyton was unavailable in 2011. I doubt Dungy, a defensive coach who never seemed to put a particularly good unit together, would have done much better.

Bill Belichick managed to win 10 games with Matt Cassel at quarterback in 2008. Let me be clear: I am not saying that Tom Brady is a product of Belichick’s system. I’m just saying that Belichick’s offensive system is built so that quarterbacks of different abilities can succeed and won’t cause the rest of the offense to suffer. But it does make me wonder if Brady would have a .773 regular season winning percentage if Belichick weren’t his coach.

Conclusion

Goes against my prior arguments, but
with recent playoff woes, this may
be a fair solution.

Again, I have a great level of respect for both of these players. Both of them play huge roles in the history of the NFL. Other current quarterbacks like Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger are also very good, maybe as good right now, and may be compared to Manning and Brady one day in terms of career accomplishments.

You look at the great quarterbacks of the past. Dan Marino is considered one of the best despite never winning a Super Bowl. Joe Montana only had a few big-number seasons in his career, and managed not to have his numbers shoot up even once Jerry Rice came to town. John Elway may be the most clutch quarterback of all time.

And of course you have to talk about Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, Otto Graham and others.

But Manning and Brady will likely go down as the best two to ever play the game. It would be a damn shame if we all do what I used to do, hope one fails so the one I prefer will be remembered as the greatest.

So while I won’t ever be hoping for Brady to fail, I am going to stick to my guns and my sincere belief that Peyton Manning is the better of the two active NFL greats, at least until further notice.

2013 Offseason Update, Week 17

Tom Brady is working with new receivers during OTAs. Three of his
top receivers from 2012 are inactive with injuries and four more are
no longer with the team. Photo credit to BusinessInsider.com.

We had yet another slow week of NFL news. But it’s June, so that is certainly something to be excited about. We’re another month through the offseason and that much closer to football!

JaMarcus Russell

Fifty pounds is a lot to drop for anyone. For JaMarcus Russell, it was essential if he wanted any chance of returning to professional football. He has done it and is now down to 265, his weight from 2007. He is rumored to have the interest of multiple NFL teams and some CFL teams, though no teams have been named as suitors. Russell has said that he is open to signing with a CFL team if he doesn’t do so in the NFL some time in the next four to six weeks.

Cam Newton has also shed some weight this offseason, twelve pounds to be exact. It appears to be mostly fat weight he’s shed as he looks a little more toned. Hopefully that leads to a healthy season as he tries to carry the Panthers to a better finish in the NFC South in 2013.

Opening for the Dolphins?

I haven’t offered much insight into my predictions for the upcoming season yet, so here is a little on the AFC East. I expect the Dolphins to finish second, but there may be an opening for them to leapfrog the Patriots. With the various surgeries Rob Gronkowski has gone through and is recovering from, Tom Brady is without his top seven pass-catchers from 2012.

Here is the list:

• Wes Welker (118 receptions) – Denver Broncos
• Brandon Lloyd (74) – Free Agent
• Rob Gronkowski (55) – Inactive, rehabbing arm and upcoming back surgery
• Aaron Hernandez (51) – Inactive, rehabbing shoulder injury
• Danny Woodhead (40) – San Diego Chargers
• Julian Edelman (21) – Inactive, foot injury
• Deion Branch (16) – Free Agent

Madden NFL 25

I always look forward to Madden and keep close tabs on the development of the games. This year, Connected Careers returns with modes where you can play as a coach, player, or owner. Unfortunately, owners can’t bid to host Super Bowls, so there goes my idea of building a state-of-the-art dome with real grass for the Redskins.

There will be a sideline reporter, Adam Schefter will provide commentary during the draft and replays are supposed to look more authentic, like what you see during actual broadcasts. In addition, the Infinity Engine has been touched up so we should see more realistic foot-planting when running with the ball and players shouldn’t be able to float up onto their feet after the play.

Reminder

As I mentioned at the beginning of the offseason, I am now writing for ACC Battles, covering several athletic teams here at the University of Maryland. Because of that, I have less time for projects like this blog.

That said, covering the NFL truly is my passion and I am not prepared to give it up completely. So this year I will be doing something a little different. During the regular season, I will be focusing on the Redskins and Ravens, the two local teams. I will also cover prime-time games in depth (Thursday-, Sunday- and Monday-night games) and will predict every game of every week. But, until the playoffs, my main focus will be the Redskins and Ravens. I will still be watching as many games as possible, but I will not recap every game as I did last season.

If I am missing anything important, or if you just want to hear my thoughts on any other offseason news from the past week, feel free to contact me via my Twitter account, @cpuffnfl.

2013 Offseason Update, Week 4

Andy Reid got Kansas City a quarterback. Now he has to decide what to
do with the team's top overall draft pick. Photo credit to CBS Sports.

Every Monday during the offseason, I will be recapping some of the biggest stories of the previous week that I did not cover individually. So let’s get to last week’s news.

QB Contracts

The biggest news out of the offseason’s fourth week was definitely quarterback contracts. Joe Flacco got a huge deal in Baltimore that local fans can only hope doesn’t rock the boat. Meanwhile, up north, Tom Brady reworked his contract to help clear cap space for the Patriots and ensure he will be in Foxboro through 2017.

I don’t have the full, year-by-year breakdown of Flacco’s contract, but I can tell you that in at least two of the next six seasons, Joe Flacco will make more than Tom Brady will in any single year of his five year contract, with his highest-paying year to come in 2017 when he is scheduled to make $15 million.

Now, if Baltimore does crash and burn because of Flacco’s new contract, Ravens fans can rest assured that it won’t happen in the first year of his contract. He will count for less than $7 million against the cap in 2013. Unfortunately, this means that he will be getting big numbers in the last three or four years of his contract and that could be crushing.

New England got the better deal as far as I’m concerned. Yes, Tom Brady’s whole contract is guaranteed money, which is unheard of. But to have a quarterback of his caliber and never have a year in which he is due more than $15 million is extremely rare, too.

Alex Smith Trade

Thought Joe Flacco and Tom Brady stole the spotlight, another huge story is the Alex Smith trade to Kansas City. The 49ers got a 15^th pick for the upcoming draft and a conditional pick in the 2014 draft. Andy Reid got Kansas City a quarterback for the first time since Trent Green.

Over five and a half seasons with Trent Green as their starting quarterback, the Chiefs compiled an average 48-40 record, including three winning seasons and two playoff appearances, of which they have had only one of each since.

The difference is that in Green’s first couple seasons in Kansas City, the Chiefs had little talent surrounding him. This year, they had several Pro Bowlers and way too much talent to be winning only two games. This ultimately was the reason Romeo Crennel was fired.

With Alex Smith, the Chiefs instantly become a wild-card contender, especially with a first overall draft pick and options for how to use it.

Darrelle Revis Trade Talk Picks Up Steam

About a week ago, reports came out of New York that the Jets might try to trade cornerback Darrelle Revis, who is coming off an ACL injury. So far, nothing I have read is anything more than speculation.

Still, it’s an interesting idea that the Jets could possibly trade away their most recognized current player, especially when nobody knows just how healthy he is, or even will be in 2013. But then, it is the Jets so anything is not only possibly, but likely.

Jeff Saturday a Colt Once More

No, Saturday will not suit up for Indianapolis, at least not on the field. Just before the Pro Bowl, he announced his intention to retire after this season, and he will do so. But he will go through the process many other great NFL players have done by signing a one-day contract and donning the Colts’ uniform one last time, retiring as a member of the team he spent almost all of his career with. The date for the official announcement has not yet been set.

Last week I wrote about the offseason needs of all 16 AFC teams, on division per day. Tomorrow I will start doing the same for the NFC, so be sure to check back daily.

If you would like to hear my thoughts on any other offseason news from the past week, feel free to contact me via my blog’s Facebook page or my Twitter account, @cpuffnfl.

AFC Championship Afterword: Patriots vs Ravens

Another year, another case of Bradying. Brady made some atypical poor decisions
late in the game and was as much to blame as anyone else for their loss.
Photo credit to The Boston Globe.

For a while, neither team really deserved to win this game. The Ravens weren’t playing all that well in the first half and the Patriots, Wes Welker in particular, couldn’t catch to save their lives.

Joe Flacco improved to 8 touchdowns and no interceptions this postseason with another solid outing. He had a few poor throws, but every quarterback does so you won’t see me hassling him over this game. I can’t really think of many, if any, instances where his receivers had to bail him out. He made good throws, they made good grabs, and by the end of the game, the Ravens were clearly the better team.

As I was previewing this game, I talked about a lot of stuff on my radio show, but I focused on previous stats when I previewed the game on my blog. I brought up that Joe Flacco always seems to show up against the Patriots, that there is only one team he plays better against. Low and behold, he had a pretty terrific game yesterday.

And what about Tom Brady? I mentioned that he has played well enough against the Ravens but that he has below average numbers in Conference Championship games. He completed 53% of his passes, threw one touchdown and two interceptions, though to his credit the first one wasn’t entirely his fault.

New England’s predictable passing attack haunted them badly. When your quarterback is Tom Brady and your entire receiving corps only averages about 11 yards per catch, that’s a sign of a pretty conservative passing attack.

The Patriots run this offense often, but when they play good teams they usually switch it up more, it’s what it takes for them to get ‘over the hump’ to beat the NFL’s better teams. They didn’t do so yesterday and I feel it’s a big part of why they lost by two touchdowns.

Wes Welker had eight receptions despite having more drops than I could keep track of, so he is still Tom Brady’s favorite target at receiver. However, when you have as many bad drops as he had yesterday, you can expect plenty of questions about his future with the team.

Baltimore advances to their franchise’s second Super Bowl and the fourth appearance for the city. The Ravens won their last Super Bowl matchup against the Giants in January 2001. The Colts went 1-1 before moving their franchise to Indianapolis.

Check back with my blog daily over the next two weeks, especially next week when the focus will be fully on Super Bowl XLVII. For updates on when new blog posts are published, ‘like’ my page on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @cpuffnfl.

AFC Championship Preview: Patriots vs Ravens

Sunday, January 20, 2013

6:30pm – CBS

Baltimore Ravens @ New England Patriots

In a rematch of last year's AFC Championship, the Patriots make their
franchise's ninth appearance while the Ravens make their fourth.
The Patriots won last year, 23-20.

Ravens fans are clearly confident in their defense, and they have good reason to be. As far as I’m concerned, Baltimore’s defense matches up with New England’s offense just as well as it did earlier this season and in last year’s AFC Championship.

Joe Flacco, for as much as I give him a lot of grief, always shows up against New England. Despite a 1-2 record against them in his career, he has a Passer Rating of 103.0 in those games. The only team he’s faced multiple times and has a better rating against is the Miami Dolphins.

In those three starts against New England, Flacco has 931, 7 touchdown passes and just 2 interceptions. I’ll buy him putting up another big game this weekend, especially with how well Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith have been playing lately.

Tom Brady, on the other hand, has 5 touchdown passes and 3 interceptions in five career starts against Baltimore. In addition, the conference championship round is by far his worst of the postseason. He may be 5-1 in these games, but he’s thrown 6 touchdowns and 7 interceptions on his way to just a 78.4 passer rating in the AFC Championship.

The more I think about this pick, the less nervous I am about it. I fully understand why New England is such a big favorite in this game, and I won’t be shocked if they win. But I think Baltimore has all the tools to go into New England and beat the Patriots, just like they beat them in Baltimore earlier this season.

Puff’s Pick:

Baltimore Ravens – 20

New England Patriots – 17

MVP: Torrey Smith


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Divisional Round Preview: Patriots vs Texans

Game 4:

Sunday, January 13, 2013

4:30pm – CBS

Houston Texans @ New England Patriots

Arian Foster (23) and Ben Tate (44) each had 46 rushing yards in Week 14,
but Foster had Houston's only rushing touchdown.
Photo credit to isportsweb.com.

Join me on a trip to Foxboro, back in Week 14, when the Patriots blew out the Houston Texans, 42-14. It was Houston’s second loss of the season, but it was a turning point for the worse.

Tom Brady had four touchdown passes in the game, despite not topping 300 passing yards. If Houston wants to win this postseason rematch, they have to force New England to settle for some field goals.

New England’s defense has been shoddy at times, but one thing they have excelled at is forcing turnovers. Matt Schaub has had some trouble with turnovers in the past several weeks, and if he doesn’t protect the football I give Houston no chance at winning. Tom Brady may have struggled in the last game or two of the season, but he is still Tom Brady and he will hurt you if you give him extra possessions.

The Patriots have a solid ground game this year. In their Week 14 meeting with Houston, Steven Ridley and Shane Vereen combined for 112 yards on 26 carries. Houston’s defense is usually very good, and last week’s effort against Cincinnati was no exception. They will have to repeat last week’s performance and shut down New England’s ground game in order to effectively rattle Brady with pass rushing.

Bottom line, I don’t trust Houston’s offense right now. They have so many weapons that on paper, Houston has the ability to blow out the Patriots. But they are finding themselves in too many third down situations and they are turning the ball over. I think the Texans’ defense will keep it close, but I don’t expect their offense to take advantage.

Puff’s Pick:

Houston Texans – 14

New England Patriots – 20

MVP: Tom Brady

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 16 Early Games

Jimmy Graham overshot a fumble near the goal line in
overtime, but turns his body to cover it up.
Photo credit to The Times-Picayune.

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! We had 15 games yesterday, so I’m going to get right into the 11 early ones, and I’ll try to keep everything short and sweet.

Cam Newton’s attitude issues apparently don’t only come out during losses. He got into it with a ref during yesterday’s 17-6 win against Oakland. He apologized after the game, but this is the kind of thing he’s got to clean up if he wants to have a long, successful career.

Green Bay thrashed the Titans, 55-7. There really isn’t much more to say about it other than that it is scary how many teams there are who can put up 50+ points right now.

Minnesota surprised Houston as Christian Ponder had a decent game throwing the ball and ran for more than half the yards Adrian Peterson did. AP got just 86 yards and is still over 200-yards away from the single-season rushing record, and the Vikings have to play the Packers, who will be playing to keep the #2 seed in the NFC.

Tom Brady played awful early and at one point was 9/18 with no scores and 2 interceptions, letting Jacksonville lead early. He cleaned it up after that, though it was surprising not to see the Patriots run away with is like they usual do after poor starts to games. Brady finished with two touchdown passes in New England’s 23-16 win in Jacksonville.

The Colts looked good early against another terrible team, but let Kansas City back in it during the third quarter. Andrew Luck got his only touchdown pass of the game in the fourth quarter, for the go-ahead score that ultimately was the final score of the game. Luck also broke Cam Newton’s rookie single-season passing yards record in the game.

Miami handled Buffalo with little difficulty, 24-10. The Jets stayed close but fell 27-17 to the Chargers. And St. Louis took care of business against the Buccaneers, who were squarely in the playoff race a few weeks ago. The final score in that one was 28-13.

Dallas took advantage of a poor New Orleans defensive effort, but Drew Brees came to life late in the game to lead the Saints to a 14-point comeback to send the game into overtime, where they finally got a defensive stop and then drove the ball downfield for a game-winning field goal.

Washington, meanwhile, won their game in Philadelphia, 27-20. But it doesn’t mean all that much because next weeks matchup with Dallas, which has been flexed to Sunday Night Football, will decide the winner of the NFC East. If Dallas looses, they’re out. If Washington loses, they are almost definitely out, and we’ll know for sure by the time the game starts. These are two of the hottest teams in the NFL right now, and I’m sure this game will remind many people of past days when this was a common division-deciding matchup to see late in the season.

The final game of the early afternoon was in Pittsburgh, where Cincinnati knocked the Steelers out of the playoffs and knocked themselves in. All six AFC playoff spots are decided, the only thing left to determine is seeding, so there won’t be too much resting of starters next week because there is still plenty to play for.

Check back later for my Sunday Football Afterword for the four late games. Thanks for reading everyone!

Sunday Football Afterword Deluxe: Week 14 Late Games & Monday Night Football

Rookie running back David Wilson celebrates after scoring
in New York's key victory over New Orleans on Sunday.
Photo credit to Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.

Because I had other things I had to get done yesterday, I have to combine my second Monday post with my usual Tuesday post, which isn’t all that bad really considering it’s only five games to cover, so let’s get to it.

The 49ers were one of the few teams who easily did what they expected to on Sunday with a 27-13 home win over the Dolphins. Colin Kaepernick bounced back nicely from a disappointing Week 13 performance against the Rams.

The Redskins were looking for some help from the Saints, but got none as New Orleans put up decent points but allowed Eli Manning and rookie David Wilson to put up a 50-berger and suddenly we’re right back where we were after Week 12, with the Giants looking like clearly the best team in the NFC East.

New York wasn’t the only team to KO a scoreboard on Sunday. The Seahawks demolished the Cardinals. Well, not exactly. ‘Demolished’ isn’t nearly strong enough of a word for a 58-0 beat down on the strength of eight turnovers by Arizona. Seattle looks more and more like a legitimate NFC title contender every week.

Detroit took an early 14-0 lead in snowy Green Bay on Sunday Night and it looked like Chicago would get the help they needed and a strange Sunday would be complete, but Aaron Rodgers slowly got his team back in the game. Calvin Johnson continued to chase Jerry Rice’s single-season receiving yards record, but it was not enough in a 27-20 losing effort.

After a Sunday of fairly boring games – even the Packers/Lions ordeal lacked a certain level of excitement for me – I had hoped that the Monday Night game on ESPN would reveal itself as Week 14’s true game of the week.

Instead the Patriots scored on each of their first three drives while their often-struggling defense shut down Arian Foster and contained the Texans’ passing attack. Houston’s defense settled down and kept New England from scoring on their next four drives, but their offense had no such luck. The Patriots did get things rolling again later and eventually finished with 42 points against arguably the best overall defense in the NFL.

Tom Brady threw for 4 touchdowns and no interceptions and has now done so twice more than any quarterback in NFL history and he did so on fewer than 300 passing yards, a testament to a better rushing attack than we’ve seen from New England in recent years. Brady also tied former Chiefs great Len Dawson for the most starts at quarterback resulting in 40 or more points, an impressive feat for Dawson to have his name anywhere near considering he threw for fewer than 30,000 yards in his 19-year career.

Thank you for reading and be sure to come back tomorrow for my Week 15, 10 Things You Need to Know post.