NFL: Aaron Rodgers has Inexperienced Bay on fringe of playoffs as Tom Brady thrives
Regardless of curler coaster seasons, Tom Brady has Tampa Bay again within the playoffs — and Aaron Rodgers and Inexperienced Bay are proper on the verge simply when it appeared like his time within the solar was over.
Like a pair of grizzled deputies in a film Western, left for goners in a corn silo by the outlaws three scenes in the past …
Like a few classic, chrome-bumpered pick-ups discovered below dusty tarps in an deserted barn …
Like a set of workplace spider vegetation you haven’t bothered to water since Lyndon Johnson was wandering the White Home …
Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers are alive! Let me say it a little bit louder for the grizzled deputies within the again: They’re alive, child!
First: Brady. The world’s most second-guessed un-retiree is again into the playoffs after a stirring efficiency Sunday through which the almost 91-year-old quarterback chucked passes for 432 yards and three touchdowns, hilariously flopped to the bottom as if he had been stung by an Australian field jellyfish (the refs didn’t purchase his efficiency) and rallied the mediocre Tampa Bay Buccaneers to victory over Carolina and one other NFC South division title.
The NFC South is crummy, which is how the crummy 8-8 Bucs in some way managed to clinch it per week earlier than the season’s finish (and get a playoff house sport as well). I don’t make the principles, folks! After a rocky season through which he grumpily stalked the sideline wanting like a person who got here to the grocery store in search of toothpicks, however can’t discover the toothpicks, a revived Brady avoids the ignominy of a uncommon playoff miss and exhibits there’s nonetheless some magic in that pliable proper arm.
As for Rodgers: He’s gone Pickleball Age Beast Mode, too. At 39, he’s a bottle of Beujolais nouveau subsequent to Brady, however his Inexperienced Bay Packers spent a lot of the 2022 season wanting much more unhappy sacky than the Buccaneers. Three days after Thanksgiving, the Packers had been 4-8, spinning out, and there was real discuss whether or not Inexperienced Bay could be higher served asking Rodgers to step apart and provides some airtime to the alleged QB of the long run, Jordan Love.
Now it’s 2023, and a month later, and the Packers have received 4 straight. On Sunday they thumped the Loopy Vikings 41-17, and subsequent weekend they’ll host a showdown with 8-8 Detroit for a win-and-in common season finale. Strangest improvement of all: Rodgers appears to be having a blast. The scruffy NorCal contrarian is energised like a rookie, thanking the Cleveland Browns for eliminating Dan Snyder’s Washington Disappointment Machine to provide the Pack an sudden likelihood, and, most significantly, gelling along with his previously-erratic Inexperienced Bay offence.
Including Rodgers and the Packers to the Bucs and Brady would throw a loud Wrench of Suspense into the playoffs. Neither has performed like an MVP this 12 months, however do you actually need to face both Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers in a do-or-die playoff? In actual fact, if you happen to can look right into a digital camera and rhetorically ask “Do you actually need to face Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady in a do-or-die playoff?” you’re greater than midway to your individual NFL studio present.
The reality is, sure, positive, you would possibly need to see Rodgers or Brady within the playoffs, particularly if the choice is staring down on the barrel of the world’s finest quarterback, Unbeatable Brock Purdy, and the surging San Francisco 49ers. However the remainder of the NFC is risky, with the Cowboys the variable Cowboys, the Eagles using a two-game dropping streak within the absence of the injured Jalen Hurts, and the Vikings enjoying like an uncle it’s important to stay away from the bourbon at a marriage.
It’s a large number, and maybe, the geezers clear up.
– Wall Street Journal
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