At some point, the dire predictions of the demise of the Patriots and Tom Brady are going to be true. Sunday night in New England would have been a good night for another round of obituaries to start, because Patrick Mahomes was firing shot-for-shot like the young challenger is supposed to do.
But Brady just refuses to yield, refuses to get rattled by an upstart who was already creating a reputation for the kind of comebacks Brady has mastered. The gap in ages between him and Mahomes is not as important as the fact that Brady is 41, period, and not just playing — Brett Favre and Peyton Manning did not reach that football age — but winning these showdowns as if they still were inevitable.
Brady's also past the point of denying it. Asked after the Patriots beat the previously-unbeaten Chiefs, 43-40 at the gun, what he thought when the Chiefs tied the game late, he replied, "I said, 'Good, score quick.'"
And Mahomes has no reason to deny it, either: "For us, we’ve got to find ways to win games like this. If you want to get to where you want to get to, you have to win games that are gonna be tied and are gonna be against really good opponents."
WATCH: Full Patriots vs. Chiefs highlights
The Chiefs and Mahomes just did win a game like this, two weeks ago on Monday night, a comeback in Denver in which they left time for the Broncos to get them back. Brady, though, is still different, still making everyone wonder when his skills will evaporate, or at least decline enough for a transcendent player like Mahomes to claim his throne.
Mahomes trailed at halftime 24-9, could not get the Chiefs into the end zone and threw the kind of pick at the end of the half that kids like him throw. He shrugged it off and put the Patriots in a second-half vise that most quarterbacks would not escape, and certainly no aging ones would.
Brady escaped.
Part of his escape was on a four-yard touchdown run. He was not making plays like that at 31, or 36 or any other time.
He won not by being crafty, or resourceful, or by milking everything out of his weakening arm. He matched Mahomes bomb for bomb, then hit them with his legs, then bombed them one last time, the one to Rob Gronkowski to set up the decisive field goal. Just like he'd been doing since the early 2000s.
Brady did not win because Mahomes was too young, or because of his own wisdom or aura. He won because he’s still just better, and he isn’t going to stop being better anytime soon.
— Coaching malpractice in Tennessee
A case can be made that the league, its competition committee and its heavy-handed officials do a better job protecting their prize assets at quarterback than head coaches do. The latest case in point: the Titans’ Mike Vrabel.
The Ravens, first of all, deserve tons of credit for being so dominant at the line and in the Titans’ backfield that they set a franchise record with 11 sacks. Having said that, to see Marcus Mariota taking that 11th sack with four minutes left in the game, inside his own 10, behind 21-0, was appalling.
Worse, it was an abdication of coaching responsibility.
WATCH: All 11 sacks from Ravens
Vrabel is a first-time head coach, but that should not be an excuse. Especially since Mariota was still wearing a specially-fit glove on his throwing hand, a month after missing a game and coming off the bench in another because of elbow problems in that arm.
Why so many coaches have this particular blind spot is hard to understand, knowing that the relationship with the QB and awareness of his circumstances are so necessary. Yet we've now seen in recent years Ron Rivera and Cam Newton, Bill O’Brien and Tom Savage, Rex Ryan and Tyrod Taylor, Jeff Fisher and Case Keenum, going back to Mike Shanahan and Robert Griffin III, just to name a few.
It's inexcusable that when defenders are getting flagged for giving QBs a sharp glare, QBs are subject to their coaches’ judgment on when they have taken enough punishment. When that judgment fails, the QB is in danger.
The coach’s job security should be, too.
— That goes for you, too, Jason Garrett
A thought-provoking addition to this topic from Dallas radio host and long-time Cowboys reporter Jean-Jacques Taylor:
Cowboys did this to Dak against Atlanta, and he’s still got PTSD https://t.co/R06XLHVAie
— Jean-Jacques Taylor (@JJT_Journalist) October 14, 2018
"Peep his numbers," he added. Well …
In the first eight weeks of 2017, Dak Prescott looked good: 16 touchdowns, four interceptions, six games of 200-plus passing yards, four 100-plus passer ratings, a 5-3 record. Then Tyron Smith missed the Week 9 game in Atlanta, Prescott was sacked eight times, the Cowboys lost decisively — and his production fell off a cliff. In the 13 games before Sunday's blowout win over the Jaguars, Prescott threw 11 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, cracked 200 yards just four times and a 100 rating twice ... and had a 6-7 record.
That Falcons game also was the first of Ezekiel Elliott’s six-game suspension, which played no small role. But it’s worth re-thinking every plot line assigned to Prescott since midseason last year. And now, add whether Garrett made matters worse by either not protecting Prescott better that day … or letting him take that beating for too long.
— Against old team, embattled Norman back to normal
Week 6 in Washington ended on a high note for Josh Norman — and, thus, for Washington. The entire organization took a nationwide beating after the primetime beatdown they absorbed in New Orleans last week, but Norman got the worst of it by far in the aftermath. As if facing his old Panthers team, which had yanked its franchise tag three seasons ago to open his window to go to Washington, was not enough.
One interception of Cam Newton (with whom he once got into a training-camp scuffle), one strip of rookie D.J. Moore and one Washington 23-17 win later, Norman reflected on the chaos.
"It's like I’m playing cornerback vs. everybody," he recalled, “not just the opposing team, but the outside team and the noise of just everything. But when I went home, into my nice humble abode — La Grande Evasion, I call it — everything shuts off, everything goes quiet."
Norman and his fellow defensive players, though, got talkative with each other during the week, holding multiple players-only meetings to get back on the same page in every way. It worked, especially on their final stand Sunday to stop the Panthers’ drive to a possible winning touchdown.
For the record, Norman got into clashes with, more or less in order: Saints receiver Michael Thomas (on the field and on Twitter), former teammate DeAngelo Hall and, most notably, coach Jay Gruden, he of the halftime headphones incident.
Norman's early second-quarter pick of Newton was not only sweet redemption (he still is close to several ex-teammates, though) but ended his drought. He had none all last season, with numerous aggravating drops and close calls.
"If God’s angels had lifted me up and gone to get it, I wouldn’t let them take it from me if they were out there," Norman said, grinning wide.
— Bills are ‘pick’-ing favorites
More fun with numbers!
Nathan Peterman now has 10 interceptions on 82 career pass attempts for an INT rate of 12.2%.
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) October 14, 2018
The best INT rate over that timeframe is Alex Smith (1.0 percent).
Peterman would have to throw his next 931 consecutive passes without an interception to top Smith’s rate.
It's sad, though, that Peterman has become a league-wide punch line merely for going out and playing games he doesn't play that well. He’s not forcing his way into the Bills’ huddle at gunpoint. Coach Sean McDermott is now well into Season 2 of sending him out there as if he’s up to the task. In the wake of the latest Peterman disaster, two questions loom over the franchise: Does anyone else beside the head coach really think he’s an NFL-caliber quarterback? And why does the head coach think it?
The Bills last week did sign Derek Anderson, Cam Newton’s backup while McDermott was in Carolina. Anderson, 35, was inactive Sunday in Houston. When Josh Allen got knocked out, Peterman was on deck, obviously by design. He threw the game-deciding pick-six.
The Bills have been completely overmatched twice (Ravens, Packers), soundly beaten once (Chargers) and were very good or at least competitive otherwise. They can’t protect any of their quarterbacks, they have no reliable receivers (one of them is Kelvin Benjamin, so …) and Allen's health the rest of the season might be up in the air. If the Bills are choosing between Peterman and Anderson … it’s not much of a choice, but what reason can there be anymore to keep sending Peterman out there?
— Are these the real Texans?
It seems like about five minutes ago that the Texans were 0-3 and looking like the underachievers of the year. Three straight wins makes things look prettier, and after the twin bludgeonings of the Jaguars and Titans, the Texans are tied for the AFC South lead. Are they better? Are they finally who we thought they were?
They definitely have caught every conceivable break. From the blown fourth-down try by the Colts leading to the winning overtime field goal, to Jason Garrett’s sudden timidity in overtime last week, to the gift from the Bills Sunday, they have to feel grateful.
To be fair, though … Ka’imi Fairbairn had to make two straight overtime game-winners, DeAndre Hopkins made the catch-and-run to set up the win over the Cowboys and Jonathan Joseph made the play on the ill-conceived Peterman throw.
The Texans clearly don’t look like what the sum of all their parts should be, but suddenly, what they’re doing when they need to has been good enough.
