LETS effing go!!!
As the NFL’s 18-week regular season was capped by pure emotion and pathos rather than outright drama, Tom Brady’s favourite exhortation might as well be used as the promo for the upcoming play-offs.
For Brady there is never a time he won’t use his favourite sweary expression – to celebrate another epic comeback or as a pre-game statement of intent.
And yet it is also perfectly appropriate to sum up the giddy sense of anticipation as we await a six-game wildcard weekend ahead of the riches in Glendale Arizona at State Farm Stadium for Super Bowl LVII on Sunday February 12.
In a week 18 where Trevor Lawrence’s Jacksonville Jaguars clinched a playoff spot in their win-and-in battle against the Tennessee Titans, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers had a similar chance at a nose-thumbing victory.
After Seattle held up their end of the bargain on Sunday afternoon the Packers needed only to dispatch a Detroit Lions team they had owned for so many years at Lambeau Field to clinch their meteoric rise up the 2023 standings.
For the Packers, 4-8 and written off by everyone (including us) before a four-match winning streak, this would be the ultimate you-were-wrong moment.
Seattle’s overtime win over the LA Rams hours earlier meant Detroit had just been dumped from playoff contention and yet Dan Campbell’s fighting, scrapping Lions threw a series of late haymakers.
Liberated by having nothing to lose they picked off Rodgers with a critical late interception, dialled up a series of audacious trick plays, sealed the 20-16 win, then mercilessly trolled the GB quarterback on social media for his series of dismissive taunts of their side over the years.
So as the dust settled on the home and away season Seattle and Jacksonville had sealed the final two spots in a new 14-team playoff series where the No.1 seeds (Kansas City, Philadelphia) get a week of rest and 12 teams fight it out for week two match-ups.
They will do so with two of those teams carrying powerful emotions that when used correctly can defy all logic and expectation in sport.
Buffalo finished one of the more contentious and worrying weeks in NFL history having channelled the emotional journey of teammate Damar Hamlin into something overwhelmingly positive despite the shockwaves his Week 17 collapse sent across the sport and nation.
As he watched from an ICU unit only days after his cardiac arrest saw their contest against Cincinnati cancelled, teammate Nyheim Hines peeled off a stunning 96-yard punt return to open their contest against the Patriots.
For the Buffalo players, it was the shot in the arm they needed.
Another reminder they could play their hearts out despite Hamlin’s condition, as Hines repeated the dose with a longer TD return and Josh Allen survived a late red zone turnover to outlast the Patriots.
The win sealed the No.2 seed that means Buffalo will not have to play at an opponent’s home-ground in the post season, even if the complications surrounding the Week 17 cancellation mean they could play the AFC Championships at a neutral site.
But it also engendered this team with a powerful motivating force in a week where Hamlin was taken out of the ICU and became an active social media cheerleader for his team.
Buffalo has all the tools in place to win this championship and now has the powerful emotional narrative that will have many neutral fans cheering them home too.
The other side which will believe it can win from anywhere?
None other than Brady’s Tampa Bay, which had already locked away the No.4 seed after its latest Lazarus-style comeback in Week 17.
Tampa Bay takes on the Dallas Cowboys in the pick of the wildcard clashes, which unfold as follows.
-No.7 seed Seattle Seahawks at No.2 seed San Francisco.
-No.5 seed LA Chargers at No.4 seed Jacksonville Jaguars
-No.7 seed Miami Dolphins at No.2 seed Buffalo Bills
-No.6 seed NY Giants at No.3 Minnesota Vikings
-No.6 seed Baltimore Ravens at No.3 Cincinnati Bengals
-No.5 seed Dallas at No.4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Forgive us for concentrating on Brady so often in this column, but just as Lionel Messi fever gripped the World Cup the NFL’s GOAT is never far from football’s epicentre.
Why?
Because amid more speculation about his playing future and marriage status and shilling for failed crypto enterprises he has this year pulled off a series of epic comebacks for the struggling Buccaneers.
The most recent was overcoming an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit against Carolina to lock away the fourth seed, not long after December’s rally from 16-3 with 5.34 on the clock against divisional rival New Orleans.
In that Carolina game wide receiver Mike Evans caught fire with three TDs and while the prevailing view is that they can’t win the Super Bowl, they can cause Dallas plenty of heartburn.
The same Dallas team seen as a Super Bowl contender given its brilliant all-round play through much of the 2022 schedule slumped to an embarrassing 26-6 loss to a Washington team bounced from playoff contention and trialing its third-string quarterback.
So at some stage even if Tampa trails by multiple scores against Dallas, the escape artist will warm up his latest trick.
An offence that has coughed and spluttered for most of the season will find its rhythm, Brady will get that look in his eyes, Evans will get separation from his opponent and it will be on for young and old.
LFG……
As for the best of the rest?
The contenders are probably thinner than a month back, when the Ravens and Dolphins and even Vikings looked capable.
Kansas City’s Mahomes should win the MVP for his 41-touchdown season without safety blanket and electric wide receiver Tyreek Hill and his team is perfectly poised.
While fellow No.1 seed Philadelphia wants for nothing with quarterback Jalen Hurts back from a shoulder sprain and with a bye week to allow it more time to improve.
The Ravens cannot make a deep run without the return of Lamar Jackson – still in serious doubt with a PCL sprain against the Bengals – and surely cannot win four playoff games anyway.
Similarly a Miami team that was so impressive in beating Buffalo in September surely cannot repeat the dose without the return of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa from his third stint in concussion protocol.
He is still in real doubt for that Buffalo home game and while Miami was able to clinch its playoff spot without him it was an agonising 11-6 victory that only came through a 50-yard field goal with 23 seconds on the clock then a safety on the final play.
Third-string quarterback Skylar Thompson won’t get it done against Buffalo’s Allen, even if across the country a back-up of similar pedigree might be one of the season’s best stories.
Brock Purdy threw multiple touchdowns for San Francisco for the sixth straight game as they finished the season with 10 straight wins to clinch the second seed ahead of their contest against Seattle.
Purdy was the backup to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo but with both sidelined he hasn’t lost in this year’s six starts and San Francisco’s eye-popping list of weapons (George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel) if they do win the whole lot it will be awesome to watch.
Cincinnati’s meteoric rise all the way to the Super Bowl last season is ample evidence unheralded teams can catch fire through January.
The Bengals are no flash in the pan a season on with their own eight match winning streak which seems them elevated as a deserving contender with a brilliant quarterback (Joe Burrow’s), and an array of positional talent.
Their final win over the Ravens sealed a home playoff game put in doubt by the cancelled Bengals-Buffalo clash – and a reprise match-up against Baltimore this week.
Hamlin’s improved condition will allow the NFL to immediately bask in the glow of its upcoming playoffs despite all the curly questions about player safety and non-guaranteed contracts that it surely must confront.
But for the moment all eyes focus on a star-studded final 14 teams led by Brady as the NFL awaits the pyrotechnics sure to be delivered _ and legacies sealed – in the weeks to come.