My take on Brady-Manning
It’s Brady-Manning this week which means it will be non-stop “who’s the better quarterback” takes. At least we’re off the “Is Brady declining” discussion now.
I had to give my “hot take” on Brady-Manning last year when I was writing for Bleacher Report. How I really feel is far too simple to warrant an entire article trying antagonize people into clicking and commenting.
Here are my two takes on the current Brady items now.
1. Tom Brady is still good enough to lead his team to a Super Bowl.
2. If given the retroactive choice on whose career I’d want to watch and root for, I would pick Tom Brady’s over Peyton Manning’s.
Is Brady declining? Can Manning play in weather? Who’s the best QB of all-time? What matters more, stats or playoff wins? Who had more weapons? Who had a better defense? Who had better coaching?
You can throw all those arbitrary questions out the window as far as I’m concerned. Football is a team sport and extracting a single player out of the equation and judging how good they really are will never be an exact science, nor will there ever be a definitive answer, so I don’t really care to engage in pointless conversation trying to convince those who will never be convinced.
Being a Manning fan is now divided by two teams and really the story of his career isn’t all that new or interesting to me – bred to be a QB, drafted first, lived up to the hype, lit it up with the same small group of weapons during the regular seasons, but almost always got shut down in the playoffs.
Brady’s career, from a story standpoint, is just far more fascinating to me. We all know the specifics by now – drafted 199th overall, got one chance to be a starting quarterback and never let go of that chance and has developed into one of the best quarterbacks of all-time.
He’s had complete turnover around him multiple times, lost his “favorite” receiver multiple times. Somehow he’s always kept it going no matter what the pieces around him were. And his playoff flameouts were rarely as disappointing as Manning’s.
Both Brady and Manning’s careers are filled with ups and downs and I have a ton of respect for both players. Regardless of the specifics, the majority of their seasons have ended in disappointment, but I’d choose Brady’s disappointments over Manning’s. Along with his three Super Bowl wins of course.
It’s as simple as the underachiever vs. the overacheiver, and the overachiever is just a more interesting and fun story to follow.
Tight end Rob Gronkowski had his most dominant performance since his return this season from a torn right ACL, with three touchdowns on nine catches for 149 yards. The Bears had no answer for him, with Gronkowski’s final touchdown showing what makes him a complete tight end – the catch, the power to brush off a defender and then the speed to race for the remaining yards of a 46-yard scoring play.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/tight-end-rob-gronkowski-had-his-most-dominant/
Three GIFs That Defined Patriots Win over Bears
Sometimes, like last week’s game against the Jets, the key plays come right at the very end of the game. Often is the case in divisional games.
But this week the game was defined in the first couple possessions, with the Pats coming out on fire on both sides of the ball, dictating to the Bears what kind of game this was going to be.
This is exactly what New England needed to do. It was one of my points of emphasis before the game, and even Brandon Browner said it was something the team talked about this week.
Here are the three plays that immediately defined the game.
First, we have the Pats facing a third-and-18 on the Bears first possession. Granted, there were some solid plays prior to this one, but third down has been the big problem for the Pats this year so getting off the field in this spot was a huge win.
The key to it is Dominique Easley, starting in place of Chandler Jones. Instead of just blindly rushing up field, Easley has the awareness to see Matt Forte trying to slip out to catch a screen pass. Easley is having none of that and blows the whole play up. Great start for the rookie and the defense.
Next up we have the first two plays from scrimmage that the Pats ran. First comes a play that essentially told the Bears what they were in for – a whole lot of Brandon LaFell racking up YAC. Then comes a 19-yard run by Jonas Grey that put the Pats inside the red zone. Starting a game off with a big gain in the passing game, then one in the running game is hard to top. Two plays into the game and Bears are already on their heels, exactly as we hoped.
Finally comes a third down stop on the Bears second possession. These are the stops the Pats have not been getting early in the year. They’d be in position to make this play, but would miss the tackle and allow the drive to keep going. Brandon Browner made a handful of plays that made a difference yesterday. If he can continue to make them on third down, we’ll finally see the kind of elite defense we expect.
Previous Three GIFs:
