NFLEddie OttoComment

Brady and Rodgers One Step Away From Dream Super Bowl LI Showdown

NFLEddie OttoComment
Brady and Rodgers One Step Away From Dream Super Bowl LI Showdown

Rodgers and Brady On Collision Course For Houston  

Anyone fancy a Tom Brady versus Aaron Rodgers Super Bowl? I know I certainly do after I predicted as much in pre-season.  Brady and Rodgers have never clashed in the playoffs, given Brady plays in the AFC and Rodgers in the NFC. What better way for them to meet than with all the chips on the table in Super Bowl LI in Houston in February. Brady and Rodgers are still the best two players in the NFL, even at ages 39 and 33 respectively. Brady is perhaps the best quarterback of all time, with four Super Bowl rings to show for over a decade of dominance. While  Rodgers has just the one Super Bowl ring in Green Bay, he has often been described as the most talented Quarterback of all time. No more so has that statement looked like fact as in the past two weeks, as Rodgers has single handedly sliced and diced his way through the New York Giants.

Brady, since returning from his four game deflate-gate suspension at the start of the season, has been a man on a mission to get square with the NFL. Brady, in his "Psycho Tom" mode, has been close to unplayable this year, throwing 30 touchdowns to only 4 interceptions. Many quarterbacks start to decline at age 38 or 39, however Brady is arguably playing the best football of his career as he approaches his 40th birthday. Brady has guided his side to a 14-2, and a convincing 34-16, rout of the Houston Texans, to advance serenely to the AFC Championship game. The Patriots are unbeaten at home this year under Brady, and will fancy their chances of advancing to yet another Super Bowl when they host the Pittsburgh Steelers next weekend. The Steelers are a far more dangerous opponent than the Kansas City Chiefs would have been, now having won eight straight games and coming into New England with Big Ben Roethlisberger fit and healthy. 

While Brady has waltzed into the Championship game, Rodgers has had to do things the hard way. The Packers were 4-6 and self combusting before their magical eight game winning run. During that sequence, Rodgers has throw 22 touchdowns to only 1 interception. Rodgers was at his free wheeling best as the Packers knocked out the Number 1 seeded Dallas Cowboys in an epic 34-31 heart stopper in Dallas. The Packers now advance to Atlanta for the NFC Championship game, to face perhaps the most explosive offence in the NFL in the Falcons. The Falcons have weapons all over the field, and led by MVP candidate Matt Ryan at quarterback will be devilishly tough to beat at home. The Falcons ran rough shod over the vaunted Seattle defence in claiming a dominant 36-20 victory. This game will be a genuine track meet, in the dome in Atalanta. Crucially, Rodgers loves playing the Falcons, having thrown 16 touchdowns to 1 interception in his six career games against them. When the sides met earlier this year in Atlanta, the Falcons pulled out a thrilling 33-32 victory. One can only hope this match-up will come close to that game with a place in Super Bowl LI at stake. 

A fifth Super Bowl Victory would solidify Tom Brady's place as the greatest Quarterback of all time as the leading member of Bill Belichick's machine. A second Super Bowl title for Rodgers would take him past long time rival Brett Favre, who was also a Packers' great. Rodgers won't admit it publicly, but he would desperately want to surpass Favre. To do that, he is going to have to beat Atlanta and then beat the greatest of all time. It's no mean feat, but I, for one, am not betting against him.