If you were a lazy sports nerd like me and holed up for some sizable portion of the weekend due to inclement weather, you might have caught the most-excellent "America's Game" marathon on the NFL Network that counted down fan's favorite Super Bowl teams of all time. I was thrilled to see the 2009 Saints land the second place spot (can't really argue with the 2008 Giants on that one), and I thought it would be a perfect time to recap what I think are the 10 most memorable games of this past season:
10) Rams 24, 49ers 24 in Week 10
San Francisco looked like a Super Bowl contender from Week 1 with an effortless win over a Packers team at Lambeau Field that had gone 15 - 1 the year before. But with their upfront, physical style of play, the St. Louis Rams proved to be one of the 49ers’ toughest matchups of the season... twice. This Week 10 game marked the first tie game in the NFL since 2008 and the first serious playing time for this guy you might have heard of since then, Colin Kaepernick. Alex Smith went down with a concussion in the first quarter and the rest, as they say, is history. Although not as explosive in the scoring department as he would later become, Kaep proved shovel-ready in his efficiency, completing 11 of 17 passes with no picks averaging over 10 yards per pass and over 8 yards per carry on the day. But two lonesome kickers ruined both of these teams’ chances of winning outright in overtime with bad shanks.
9) 49ers 41, Patriots 34 in Week 15
If Week 10 in the 2012 season was Colin Kaepernick’s true debut, consider this game his coming out party. The 49ers were looking just fine after Jim Harbaugh’s controversial decision to stick with the second-year QB despite Alex Smith also having a career year, but then again the Patriots were looking even better after putting up Tecmo-like numbers against the Texans and Jets in previous weeks. San Francisco absolutely owned the Patriots going into the third quarter, forcing four turnovers and going up 31 - 3. Kaepernick put up 4 TDs and over 200 yards on just 14 completed passes. But in a way maybe only the Patriots [and 49ers] can, the Patriots stormed back from certain death by putting up 28 more points of their own in the 4th quarter... with a full 10 minutes to spare. San Francisco’s ugly collapse seemed imminent during the commercial break until LaMichael James returned the ensuing kickoff for a 62-yard touchdown. In what I like to call the Black Mamba Bowl, these two teams demonstrated their otherwise unmatched ability to strike quickly against big time competitors, and we got a window into just how dangerous the 49ers would become in the postseason no matter the scoreboard at halftime.
8) Broncos 35, San Diego Chargers 24 in Week 6
This game was an all-too-fitting end for that crazy Week 6 in which Vegas underdogs went 9 - 5 and up was down in my game picks. For the first half of this Monday Night thriller, the Chargers wasted no time putting up a 24 - 0 lead on a Broncos team that looked too big for its hyped up shoes. You could hear the sense of deep apathy in Jon Gruden’s voice as these AFC West rivals went back to the tunnel. And then a miracle of Rorschach tests happened: either Philip Rivers’ Chargers had the most epic collapse of all time or Peyton Manning’s Broncos put on one of the biggest comebacks of all time. I put a whole lot more stock in Column A than Column B since Rivers somehow managed to cough up 6 turnovers (4 INTs and 2 fumbles) over that time, but give it to Denver for taking poise and opportunity all the way to victory when those 60 minutes were up.
7) The Circle of Blowouts
Speaking of the above, the 2012 season will be remembered by many as a golden era of parity, upsets and turning tables in the NFL as evidenced by this handy graphic. Teams that looked unstoppable by routing elite competition would go down in a similarly huge fashion the next week. Just look at this circle of “statement” games against some of the league’s most respected winning teams this year (all but one made the playoffs anyway, by the way):
- Patriots 42, Texans 14 in Week 14
- Texans 43, Ravens 13 in Week7
- Ravens 44, Bengals 13 in Week 1
- Bengals 31, Giants 13 in Week10
- Giants 26, 49ers 3 in Week6
- 49ers 41, Patriots 34 in Week 15
If ever there was a turning point for a team this season, the Indianapolis Colts’ stunning Week 5 comeback against the Green Bay Packers is that moment. With a young roster and new coaching staff just finding their grounding, Indianapolis looked poised for a rebuilding season with reasonable but low expectations. Then shortly before Week 5, the team learned that new coach Chuck Pagano would be out indefinitely after being diagnosed with leukemia, and the Colts seemed destined for a season of beatdowns. In fact, they trailed 21 - 3 against Aaron Rodgers’ Packers going into halftime. But Indy quickly found its focus and fight in a big way. On the arms and legs of Andrew Luck and Adam Vinatieri, the Colts put up 19 unanswered points and then a final go-ahead touchdown on a beautiful Luck-to-Wayne pass. The clincher here is that this game wasn’t some flukey emotional win, it was the start of an odds-defying season with the Colts improving their record over the previous year by nine wins that included many inspired last-minute drives on the shoulders of Luck.
5) Titans 44, Lions 41 in Week 3
There are games that made this list because they had big playoff implications or made a statement about a team and its players, and then there’s this matchup between the otherwise unremarkable Lions and Titans of 2012. But that doesn’t mean mediocre teams can’t put on one of the wildest, most entertaining 60+ minutes of football we’ve ever seen. The Titans went into the half with a 20 - 9 lead over the Lions and would end the day as the only team in NFL history with 5 TDs of 60 yards or longer. But that alone wasn’t enough to clinch the game for Tennessee. The two teams combined for an ungodly 46 points in the 4th quarter, and the Lions scored the final 2 TDs of regulation in under 20 seconds to send the game to overtime. Crazy enough, those stats don’t even begin to capture the flavor of events that occurred in this single game including: 1) Tennessee reenacting the Music City Miracle with a lateral punt return for a TD;2) Tennessee returning a kickoff for a TD; 3) Tennessee returning a fumble for a TD; 4) Detroit recovering an onside kick to set up the tying overtime score, which happened to be... 5) a Hail Mary that was deflected by the Titans but then caught and brought to the end zone by the Lions’ Titus Young; and6) one of the weirdest game-ending coaching mistakes of all time when the Lions were inside the 10-yard line in overtime on 4th down and [unsuccessfully] tried to convert instead of kicking a field goal. Did you get all that? Me neither.
4) Falcons 30, Seahawks 28 in the Divisional Round
In what has widely been touted as one of the best playoff weekends of all time, the 2013 Divisional Round playoffs were the stuff of legends. The first of two divisional games to make this list wasn’t so memorable in the first half, especially if you’re a Seattle fan. The previously snake-bitten Falcons looked like they would cruise to their first win in the Matt Ryan/Mike Smith era with a 20-point lead at halftime. That lead would persist into the 4th quarter, which started with Atlanta up 27 - 7. Then Russell Wilson shook off the Seattle jet lag and put on a quarterback clinic with two TDs (one rushing, one passing) and a go-ahead hand off to Marshawn Lynch to put the Seahawks up 28 - 27 with just 34 seconds left on the clock. The game looked to be one of the greatest comebacks in playoff history and yet another epic January collapse for the Falcons. Only this time Matt Ryan ascended to a whole new level of play with a never better sub-one minute drill. In fact, Ryan didn’t need that whole 34 seconds to march the Falcons down into field goal range. Starting from the Atlanta 28, Ryan completed two huge passes in just 23 seconds--one to Harry Douglas for 22 yards and one to Tony Gonzalez for 19 yards--for Matt Bryant to attempt a 49-yard field goal. We might be talking about a different ending had Pete Carroll not tried to ice the kicker, as Bryant’s first attempt sailed wide right, but the ball went straight through the uprights on the second try and the world melted with Tony Gonzalez’s tears when he finally won the first playoff game of his 16-year Hall of Fame career.
3) Vikings 37, Packers 34 in Week 17
Raise your hand if prior to December you thought this game would be anything but Green Bay phoning in a meaningless season closer before a bye week while the Vikings suffered through another rebuilding year. Didn’t think so. Instead, this was one of the best games a football fan could have hoped for to close out the season with subplots aplenty. In no small part due to another game on this list, the Packers were contending for a playoff bye and home field advantage in the divisional round in Week 17. Meanwhile, the Vikings were riding high on an improbable late season hot streak and could clinch the final NFC playoff berth with a win in the Metrodome. Did I also mention Adrian Peterson was just over 200 yards shy of beating Eric Dickerson’s all-time single season rushing record? Despite the Packers’ Ahab-like obsession with stopping AP (which allowed QB Christian Ponder to have a heck of a game), he still had a huge day to cap off his MVP season that ended just 9 yards short of the record. With time winding down and the score tied, Peterson burst through the Green Bay box for a 27-yard gain that set up Blair Walsh’s game-winning field goal. AP got within 9 and took his previously 3 - 13 team to the playoffs exactly one year after tearing his ACL and MCL at FedEx Field. You just can’t write this stuff, folks.
2) Seahawks 14, Packers 12 in Week 3
Ah, the botched call heard round the world that ended a ridiculously unnecessary NFL referee lockout. (Side note: Though unintentional, it’s pretty interesting that three of the best games listed here involve the Packers playing second fiddle to unlikely victors.) But before we get back to that, let’s not forget that this was actually a really great 59 minutes of football despite the low score and ridiculous ending. Seattle rookie QB Russell Wilson still hadn’t totally found his rhythm, but the Seahawks’ defense had a killer game with a forced fumble and 8 sacks, holding Aaron Rodgers to 0 TD passes on the day. Even so, the game wouldn’t be particularly memorable if left to those 59 minutes in a close but admirable loss for the young Seahawks. Then a... miracle?... happened. With the clock expiring and the ‘Hawks down 7 - 12, Wilson scrambled to throw a Hail Mary from midfield that went right into the arms of the Packers’ MD Jennings with Seattle’s Golden Tate trying to wrestle possession away underneath him. While initially ruled simultaneous possession and therefore a TD for the Seahawks, ill-fated replacement referee Wayne Elliott went under the hood to review the call. While Elliott took his time, replay after replay clearly showed that Jennings had intercepted the pass, which should have given the game to the Packers. Instead, against all reason Elliott confirmed the initial TD ruling giving the game to the Seahawks. The CenturyLink crowd went wild while the horrified Packers had to be coaxed out of the locker room for 10 minutes in order for Seattle to kick an arbitrary extra point. While devastating to the Green Bay faithful, the Fail Mary had finally done what three weeks of embarrassingly poor officiating had not: created a situation in which 1) the final outcome of the game was entirely contingent on a referee call; 2) the right call was obvious to players, coaches and fans alike; and 3) the wrong call was awarded, costing a team a win and also, ever so tangentially, swinging the Vegas line exchange $300 million. Three days later, the real refs returned to the field with the most thunderous, short-lived applause they will ever receive.
1) Ravens 38, Broncos 35 in the Divisional Round
This game really had it all. A David and Goliatch matchup between two first ballot Hall of Famers and their teams. Two overtime periods. Explosive plays. Back and forth scoring. Manning face. With the whole postseason in the rear view, it's isn't nearly as surprising in retrospect that the Baltimore Ravens were able to knock off the heavily favored Denver Broncos with a disruptive defense and the arm of Joe Flacco. There isn't a play that better captures the Ravens' against-all-odds Super Bowl season than the Flacco-to-Jacoby Jones bomb to tie the game with 30 seconds left in regulation, which by most standards, is also the most memorable play of the whole season. Boy did Patriots fans feel silly temporarily rooting for Baltimore on a brutally cold evening at Mile High.
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