10) Baltimore Ravens 33, Cleveland Browns 27 - Week 12
Here's the part where I give you the caveat that "most memorable" certainly does not have to mean good. The Ravens and Browns were pretty much a lost cause from the start this year, so there wasn't exactly a lot of hype going into this meaningless Week 12 matchup featuring the backup quarterback "talents" of Matt Schaub and Josh McCown. Schaub gifted the Browns his usual pick six and a second interception late in the fourth quarter that would set up the game-winning field goal as time expired. Even if the kick had sailed, this game would have gone to overtime. Instead, because Browns' gonna Browns, the kick was not only blocked but returned for the game-winning touchdown in the other end zone in one of the more brutal 9-point swings you will ever see. The Kick Six heard 'round
9) Pittsburgh Steelers 24, San Diego Chargers 20 - Week 5
How about a dramatic finish that actually ends well unless you're a Chargers fan? And if you are, maybe now you're okay with the gut-wrenching feeling owner Dean Spanos must have felt watching his team's season slip away. Anyway, this Monday night AFC contest started out slow with just two scoring drives and a whole lotta punts in the first half, but things came to a boil later when Pittsburgh and San Diego combined for 27 points in the fourth quarter. The Chargers gave up a pick six and a one-play 72-yard touchdown from Michael Vick to Markus Wheaton but managed to pull ahead of the Steelers by a field goal with three minutes to go. Pittsburgh marched down the field and set up at the 1-yardline with five seconds on the clock. But where 95% of NFL coaches would have kicked a field goal to go to overtime, Mike Tomlin dialed up a gutsy game-winning touchdown run for Le'Veon Bell. The odds would tell you this was absolutely the right call because it's much easier to punch the ball in from a yard out than take your chances in overtime, and it was suspenseful but satisfying to see it work out for a coach who's not afraid to take risks. Per another game below, Mike McCarthy should take note.
As is true every year, there isn't a weirder division in the NFL than the NFC East, and this season was no exception. Given that no team has won consecutive division titles since 2004, it made perfect sense that last year's first place finisher, the Cowboys, would swap places with the worst-to-first Redskinks. But they were a turbulent 2 - 4 team with an unreliable interception machine called Kirk Cousins going into this bout with the Buccaneers. Trailing 7 - 24 at halftime, Washington looked dead in the water to a young Tampa team that they should not have been losing to. Then that old Kirk magic came to life, lifting the Redskinks to their largest comeback win in franchise history with three touchdown passes as well as one on the ground. The game served as the pat narrative turning point for Cousins' future as a viable starting quarterback who'll be getting paid this offseason instead of a journeyman backup still hoping to prove himself on the Browns or whatever. Did we like that? Yes, we liked that.
Even though the Seahawks came back to make a respectable if futile showing in these teams' divisional round rematch, the first of this season's Panthers-Seahawks brawls was certainly the more spectacular one to watch. Although Carolina came into Seattle 4 - 0, many expected the Seahawks to get the better of this rivalry yet again on their home field. Seattle indeed found itself in pole position, leading by nine points with less than five minutes remaining. But then Cam Newton conjured that MVP mojo (with lots of help from Greg Olsen) and marched his offense up the field for a quick touchdown to get within three. After a clutch stop from the Panthers' defense on the ensuing drive, Newton had his chance to tie or go ahead with two minutes on the clock. Despite getting sacked, he only needed 90 seconds to find Olsen wide open near the end zone on busted coverage to give Carolina the final lead and stun the crowd at CenturyLink. This game was memorable for its electrifying end, but it also signaled a changing of the guard at the top of the NFC where Newton would will his way to MVP status and the Panthers would become a resilient team that could blow plenty of bad teams out of the water but also contend with the top conference brass too.
6) New Orleans Saints 52, New York Giants 49 - Week 8
And now for something completely different on the other end of the quality spectrum in the NFC. There wasn't much for the Saints or Giants to write home about this season, especially on defense where they gave up more points and yards than any other team in the league. Turns out, that makes for an incredibly exciting 60 minutes when these two offenses are in the zone. They combined for 13 touchdowns (the most ever in a game), 63 first downs (the second most ever), and 101 points (the third most ever) in what was essentially a tennis match instead of a football game. Drew Brees carried the day slightly more than Eli Manning (aka Drew Brees got the ball last) with 7 TDs and 511 yards of passing that proved he's still got it in the winter of his career. But funny enough, after an adrenaline-fueled shootout that had these teams tied at 49 with 30 seconds to go, it was a New Orleans defensive stop and field goal that finally put the Saints ahead for good. Then we all went out and doubled up on our blood pressure meds and did some mindful breathing exercises in an unlit room.
I was debating where to put this game in these arbitrary rankings since it was ugly in all the wrong ways, but it's certainly a game we'll be talking about for years to come and for that, it is highly memorable. The Steelers-Bengals Wild Card matchup was bound to be a physical slog in the driving rain, and Pittsburgh made the most of it by working their way to a 15-0 lead to start the fourth quarter. But shots were exchanged between two hated rivals on and off the field that were brewing toward something bigger. First, Steelers assistant coach Mike Munchak grabbed Reggie Nelson's hair after he took a tackle out of bounds. Then, Vontaze Burfict tackled Ben Roethlisberger hard on his shoulder and kneed it for good measure. The Cincy crowd threw debris at the opposing quarterback as he was carted off the field. With the Steelers' offense hobbled, the Bengals managed to rally in the fourth quarter with 16 unanswered points and a chance to run out the clock in field goal range with 90 seconds left. Instead, Jeremy Hill had the worst-timed fumble yet of his career. Roethlisberger returned to the game but was clearly not himself with errant, low-velocity passes. Pittsburgh managed to get to the Bengals' 45-yardline with no timeouts left for one last play. The desperation pass fell incomplete, but Burfict laid a brutal unnecessary hit on Antonio Brown, and in the fray that followed, Adam Jones picked up another personal foul for unsportsmanlike conduct. That instant gave the Steelers 30 yards of field position to kick the chip shot that sent them to the divisional round and the Bengals to an especially agonizing place of offseason purgatory. In a word, it was gruesome.
4) Green Bay Packers 27, Detroit Lions 23 - Week 13
This was by no means a thrilling game for the first 59 minutes, but sometimes a single play is more than enough to make the whole thing jaw-dropping. Having lost four of their previous five games, the Packers looked like they were going to add another disappointing loss to the record against the lowly Lions, dropping to 0 - 20 in the third quarter. They rallied to come within four points of Detroit but found themselves at their own 20-yardline with just 20 seconds to work with. The Packers made it to their 40 for a final play of laterals that the Lions sniffed out quickly, sacking Rodgers to end the game. Not so fast. Detroit was called for a facemask by the thinnest of margins that gave Green Bay 15 yards and one untimed down. Rodgers scrambled deep into his own territory and rolled to the right for a shot at one 60-yard Hail Mary pass to Richard Rodgers... and it worked. Anyone watching immediately felt that the Miracle in Motown they saw was a once-in-a-lifetime play. As we'll see shortly, they were wrong.
3) Denver Broncos 30, New England Patriots 24 (OT) - Week 12
2) Denver Broncos 20, New England Patriots 18 - AFC Championship
No, Pats fans, I'm not trying to torture you by bringing your seasonal nightmares back to life. Look on the bright side, you have four rings! Anyway, even with Peyton Manning sidelined in one of these games and barely a shell of himself in the other, these two Broncos-Patriots battles lived up to everything you could have wanted in this longstanding quarterback rivalry in terms of competitive, thrilling football. These teams' first meeting happened on a snowy Mile High field where the formidable 11 - 0 Patriots faced off with the Brock Osweiler-led Broncos. Denver rallied from two 14-point deficits, getting to Tom Brady three times and racking up nearly 180 rushing yards to wear New England's defense down and eventually nabbed the win in overtime. It was impressive, but most thought the Patriots would have the upper hand when these teams met again in the AFC Championship since they were missing their three top receivers in the previous meeting. As it turns out, the bigger hole in the roster from Week 12 was DeMarcus Ware, who returned from back injury for the playoffs and played jelly to Von Miller's peanut butter in the Broncos' pass rush. Miller and Ware were relentless in dismantling the Patriots' tackles and forcing Brady to get rid of the ball immediately when he wasn't being driven into the turf. 20 knockdowns, four sacks and two interceptions later, Denver's defense proved that they didn't need a functional offense to win games - they were just that good and carried that vortex of destruction into a huge Super Bowl upset two weeks later.
Just when we thought Aaron Rodgers couldn't dazzle us any better than he did against the Lions in Week 12, he did something even more impressive against a hot Arizona Cardinals team in the NFC divisional round. After the Packers had been trounced by the Cardinals in Glendale just weeks earlier, they made a better but seemingly futile showing in January. Green Bay was down by seven late. Making matters worse, Dwight Freeney sacked Rodgers for a near safety, and the Packers found themselves facing a 4th-and-20 with a minute left on their own 4-yardline. Having lost his top two targets in Davante Adams and Randall Cobb, Rodgers had no choice but to heave the ball 60 yards downfield to third-stringer Jeff Janis for a season-extending first down. All of America collectively muttered, "No way." And then, with five seconds left, the two connected again on a 40-yard Hail Mary touchdown that sent these teams to overtime. Unfortunately for Green Bay, their playoff defense let them down yet again as Carson Palmer found a wide-open Larry Fitzgerald for a 75-yard catch and run on the first OT play from scrimmage that set up the Cardinals' game-winning touchdown. It was an incredible two minutes of football that gave Arizona its first NFC Championship appearance since 2009 while also raising new questions about overtime rules and coin flips. I don't agree with changing either of those things, but Aaron Rodgers' incredible sequence to give the Packers a chance in extra time was just that good that everyone outside of Arizona wanted more. What a delightfully gonzo finish to a game!
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