It was a surreal Bay Area homecoming for Tom Brady, to say the least. There was the most successful quarterback in history, on the field for the entirety of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 35-7 blowout loss to the San Francisco 49ers, still competing long after the game had effectively been decided. Sunday will be remembered as the day one of the all-time greats was thoroughly outplayed by Mr Irrelevant.
As the meme puts it, you can never count out Touchdown Tom. We were all reminded of this just last week when Brady engineered his 44th fourth-quarter comeback win. That was a league record, one of the many that he owns, and maybe the most fitting. Brady is the football version of a superhero (or supervillain, depending on one’s rooting interests) who always jumps back to life soon after being declared dead. Heck, despite the loss, the 6-7 Bucs are still on top of the NFC South and penciled in for another playoff appearance.
This feels different though and it’s not just because Brady looked depleted in a game where he managed a single garbage-time touchdown while throwing two uncharacteristic picks. Bad games happen – and the 49ers have a very good defense. No, it was that he looked exactly like what he was: a 45-year-old man pitted against someone half his age. 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was born in 1999, a year before the New England Patriots drafted Brady in the sixth round.
This brings us to the strangest fact about this quarterback matchup. It wasn’t just that Purdy had a better afternoon than Brady on the field, throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for one more without throwing a pick or even being rattled by the loss of all-purpose receiver Deebo Samuel. No, it’s that somehow, of the two, Purdy has a more improbable origin story.
Brady was chosen in the sixth round, yes, but Purdy was the last pick of this year’s draft. They call such players “Mr Irrelevant” because that’s what they usually are: trivia answers who normally make no impact on the league. Yet here he was, playing in his second NFL game – his first start – after the 49ers lost both Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo to injury.
Can you imagine the Twilight Zone feeling Brady must have experienced on the sidelines, watching Purdy radically outperform expectations just like he had done when replacing Drew Bledsoe all those years – no, decades – ago? And for the team Brady rooted for as a kid. It’s one thing to know, intellectually, that the younger generation will eventually replace you. It’s another thing to actually see it happen right in front of you. Professional sports are particularly cruel that way.
In the fourth quarter, the 49ers pulled Purdy to keep him well-rested for his next start, meaning that a fourth-string quarterback was now in the game. Yet Brady stayed out there playing every last snap as if finally accepting the fact that he doesn’t know how many more opportunities he has to keep doing what he loves most. For someone who has been described as a football-playing cyborg who will outlast us all, it may have been one of the most stubbornly human moments we’ve seen from him.
MVP of the week
Trevor Lawrence, QB, Jacksonville Jaguars. Heading into game day, it wasn’t even certain if Lawrence was going to start for the Jaguars as he was listed as questionable with a toe injury. Instead, all he did was put together his finest passing performance in the NFL, throwing for 368 yards and three touchdowns in the Jaguars’ 36-22 road win over the Tennessee Titans. He has now thrown 10 touchdowns and zero interceptions over his last five games, and is starting to look like the player who tore college football apart before becoming the No 1 overall pick in 2021. Tennessee remain on top of the AFC South with a 7-6 record, but the 5-8 Jaguars remain theoretically alive for a potential divisional upset.
Video of the week
Good summary of the Giants first half today pic.twitter.com/9DHpKApG65
— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) December 11, 2022
There’s no shame in losing to the Philadelphia Eagles, who have established themselves as the team to beat in the NFL. However, there is something to be said about not beating yourself in the process. New York Giants punter Jamie Gillan’s botched kick ended up having the same result as an extremely long and entirely unsuccessful field goal attempt, giving Philadelphia possession at the spot of the “attempt.” The score was already 21-0 in favor of the Eagles at this point and it didn’t get much better from there. The Eagles beat the Giants 48-22 and improved their record to 12-1 and clinched a playoff berth while New York fell to 7-5-1, good for last place (via tiebreaker) in the NFC East.
Stat of the week
there have been exactly two games this season where a QB has subbed into a game and thrown 3 interceptions:
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) December 11, 2022
—Kenny Pickett subbing in for Mitch Trubisky Week 4
—Mitch Trubisky subbing in for Kenny Pickett Week 14
Two. That’s the number of times this season that a quarterback has come into a game to replace a starter and has gone on to throw three interceptions. The first time, it was rookie Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kenny Pickett, who replaced Mitch Trubisky back in Week 4. It happened for the second time on Sunday, when it was Trubisky’s turn to accomplish this dubious mark after Pickett went into concussion protocols during the game against the Baltimore Ravens. Sometimes football gives us moments of beautiful symmetry. The Ravens, however, were playing with their third-string quarterback in Anthony Brown after they lost Tyler Huntley to a concussion. Baltimore barely held on to a 16-14 win in the backup battle.
Quote of the week
“I don’t think there’s anything I can’t do that he’s doing out there” – 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams on comparisons to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
While this is the confidence you want in your starting quarterback, it feels like Mahomes took the college star’s words as a challenge when he uncorked maybe his most improbable touchdown throw yet during the Chiefs’ 34-28 victory over the Denver Broncos. While it wasn’t Mahomes’s best performance of the year – he threw three interceptions alongside three touchdowns – it will mostly be remembered for this ridiculous no-look pass.
NO LOOK TOSS??? @PatrickMahomes who are you?!?#ProBowlVote pic.twitter.com/J4jfxgn04K
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) December 11, 2022
Your move, Mr Williams.
Elsewhere around the league
-- Justin Herbert hadn’t looked quite his self since injuring his ribs against the Chiefs in September. But he’s slowly been inching his way back to full fitness and was excellent against the Miami Dolphins in the Los Angeles Chargers’ 23-17 victory on Sunday Night Football, throwing for 367 yards and a touchdown. The severely depleted Chargers defense was impressive too against Tua Tagovailoa, who had his second iffy performance in succession, completing just 10 of his 28 passes, for 145 yards (and 60 of those yards came on a TD throw to Tyreek Hill). The Chargers’ victory moved them into the final wildcard spot in the AFC, although the New England Patriots can replace them if they beat the Arizona Cardinals on Monday night.
As a sidenote, it must seem very unfair to force a fumble only for Hill to recover and do this:
Tyreek Hill, oh my god. Something new every week in this league. pic.twitter.com/2MBleHQUGF
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 12, 2022
-- The Houston Texans, a team who have been playing for the top pick in next year’s draft, managed an all-time moral victory on Sunday. Despite playing the heavily favored 9-3 Dallas Cowboys, the Texans had a 23-20 lead and were a yard away from a probable game-clinching touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Then they turned it over on downs rather than go for a chip-shot field goal. After that, the inevitable happened as Ezekiel Elliot scored the actual game-winning touchdown, as Dallas defeated Houston 27-23. Maybe it was the best-case scenario for a tanking team like the now 1-11-1 Texans who secretly may not have wanted to risk their chances of that No 1 selection next year.
-- The New York Jets lost more than a game on Sunday when they fell to the Buffalo Bills 20-12. The Jets lost DT Quinnen Williams to a calf injury and wide receiver Corey Davis to a concussion. For a scary moment, it even looked like they would lose quarterback Mike White after the newly-established starter took a massive hit that forced the nearly-retired Joe Flacco into the game. (Notably, Zach Wilson was inactive.)
Luckily for the Jets, White did return but was taken to hospital after the game for a precautionary check-up. When he was playing he once again showed more poise and precision than Wilson has at any point this season. Unfortunately for the Jets, it wasn’t enough for them to beat a Bills team who were simply better on the day. The Bills improved to 10-3, putting them in pole position in the AFC East. The Jets are 7-6, and making the playoffs will be a battle.
-- Coming into Detroit, the perennially overlooked Minnesota Vikings had a chance to prove to their doubters that their 10-2 record was no mirage. Instead, all they did was provide more evidence that they aren’t quite as good as their record suggests. The Lions, maybe the most unpredictable team in the league, beat them 34-23 in a game in which Minnesota could have clinched the division.
No. 58 reports as an eligible receiver. No. 58 is an eligible receiver.@peneisewell58 #ProBowlVote pic.twitter.com/DiihvbkkeS
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) December 11, 2022
The 10-3 Vikings remain playoff locks but that’s about all we can say for certain about them at the moment, along with the brilliance of Justin Jefferson, who had yet another huge day with 223 receiving yards. But perhaps the most impressive receiving performance of the day came from Detroit’s 335lb offensive tackle Penei Sewell, who hauled in a nine-yard catch to convert a third-down in the fourth quarter as the Lions looked to seal the game.
