Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll reacts after the Seahawks beat the New Orleans Saints 34-7 in an NFL football game in Seattle.
Atlanta Falcons kicker Matt Bryant, right, is congratulated by teammate Justin Blalock (63) after kicking the game winning field goal during overtime NFL football action against the Buffalo Bills in Toronto.Leave it up to the Atlanta Falcons to win a game they need to lose and lose the games they need to win. So it goes.
If this past weekend revealed anything, the NFL truly has become as much about avoiding injury as it about the starting quarterback. And when those two worlds collide, man, ask the Green Bay Packers, who were humiliated on Thanksgiving by the Detroit Lions.
There are two things that are now crystallizing for us: The AFC will come down to New England and Denver. Period. The Patriots have survived a slew of injuries, and each of those teams has an elite-level quarterback. (Side note: Peyton Manning’s numbers are off the charts: After throwing for 400-plus yards and five touchdowns in the Broncos’ win over Kansas City, he has 41 TDs and 4,125 passing yards while completing better than 68 percent of his passes. He has reached that rarified air in athletics where you expect every pass to be complete, not unlike how we expected every Tiger Woods 6-footer to go in during the early 2000s and every big-moment MJ jumper to fall. In fact, when Manning throws an incompletion, the two thoughts are either “He was throwing it away” or “Wonder who ran the wrong route?” Dude is scary right now. Well, scary as long as it’s warmer than 32 degrees.)
Here are the best and worst in the NFL heading into the final quarter of the season:
Top five
• 1. Seattle: The Seahawks manhandled New Orleans on Monday, showing that they are a complete football team and nearly impossible to handle at home. In fact, with Russell Wilson at quarterback, the Seahawks are unbeaten in Seattle.