10) New England Patriots 30, New Orleans Saints 27 - Week 6
Even recalling this game is as painful as Edward Norton pouring lye on his hand in Fight Club. I can say that because it was fake, and I just want to move on from this one. For Saints fans, that trip to New England in October was a dagger to the heart, but for everyone else, it was one heckuva game with another memorable comeback for Tom Terrific. The Saints were leading by four with less than two minutes to go, and they got the ball back on an errant Brady pass-turned-interception. But with some excellent clock management, the Pats got the ball back and drove downfield in less than a minute. The Brady-to-Thompkins corner fade in the endzone will be on the highlight reel for a long time to come, a symbol of how resilient this year's Patriots were despite the enormous adversity they faced.
9) Philadelphia Eagles 33, Washington Redskins 27 - Week 1
In the grand scheme of things, this wasn't all that important of a game considering how far the Redskins fell from their magical wild card year in 2012. But before we knew how awful Washington's defense was, we were blown away by Chip Kelly's NFL debut and the fast-paced spread offense that dazzled and decimated in Week 1. The Redskins made a late charge to overcome a 33 - 7 deficit, but Philly's defense didn't break in the end, and Kelly's Eagles started the journey to a wild card bid in his first year.
8) Carolina Panthers 10, San Francisco 49ers 9 - Week 10
If you were looking for a blast from the NFL past this season, look no further than this low-scoring Week 10 clash of two powerhouse defenses in San Francisco. The Panthers came in riding a 5-game win streak, but jerks like me were arguing that they'd hit a wall facing a much tougher opponent like the 49ers. Carolina simply disagreed. In fact, this team was downright brutal on the Niners' offense, holding them to 150 total yards and sacking Colin Kaepernick 6 times. The difference in the game ended up being one 27-yard TD run from DeAngelo Williams and a forced fumble in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter to keep San Francisco from responding. It was a stunner that would be a sign of good defensive things to come in the NFL this season and of the best Panthers season in years.
7) New England Patriots 34, Denver Broncos 31 (OT) - Week 12
Similar to the Panthers-49ers rumble above, this matchup played out so much better in the regular season than the playoffs in terms of excitement. At halftime on that cold Foxboro night, the Patriots looked dead in the water after starting out 0 - 24 against the dark lord Peyton Manning. More than a few fans filed out to start the traffic jam a little bit early, but I'm sure they'll tell you a year from now how they kept the faith and watched the Pats rack up 31 unanswered points and ultimately go to overtime. It was a sloppy and wild affair that saw 6 fumbles between these two teams and kept the game very interesting. Evil genius Bill Belichick did the rare thing and opted to kick off in OT so that the Pats would have the wind against their backs if they could stop the Broncos. Stop Denver they did as the game went scoreless for the first 13 minutes of extra time of back and forth punts. But Wes Welker finally proved clutch for New England (old joke, I know) and muffed one of those punts with less than two minutes to go, sealing another unlikely win for the never-say-die Patriots. This chilly overtime bout marked one of the better chapters in the long-standing Manning-Brady rivalry.
6) Detroit Lions 31, Dallas Cowboys 30 - Week 8
Confession: I am really starting to feel bad for the Dallas Cowboys. Really. When you look back over their recent history, I can't think of another team that has had more potential coupled with purely awful luck and self-sabotage - and this is just one of two examples I'll reference from this season. In terms of individual accomplishment, this Week 8 game between the Lions and Cowboys was Calvin Johnson's day. He racked up a staggering 329 reception yards, the second largest number in a single game in NFL history. Still, Dallas had the game firmly in hand, leading by 10 with 6 minutes to go and by 6 in the final minute of play. But the Cowboys' defense being what it is, Matt Stafford had no problem marching his team downfield inside the two yard line with ten seconds to go. Channeling Dan Marino, No. 9 made arguably the smartest play of his career, signaling to his team that he was going to spike the ball to set up a couple final shots at the end zone before sneaking the ball across the goal line to stun the Cowboys and give the Lions an extraordinary victory.
***Fasten your seat belt. Part II coming later this week!***
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