By WILL HEATLEY
Staff Writer
Another couple of weeks of football has passed us by, accompanied by the many headlines and predictions for the rest of the season. The biggest headlines from the past weeks involved a couple of personal milestones. Tom Brady and Drew Brees, quarterbacks for the New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints respectively, added to their incredible legacies.
Brady joined the 500 (regular season) touchdown club, extended his own personal win record, and broke the record for touchdowns thrown to 72 different receivers, previously held by Vinny Testaverde. Brees, right behind Brady on the TDs list, broke the all time regular season passing yards record, previously held by Peyton Manning. The 39 year old has consistently produced great seasons, averaging over three thousand passing yards each year. Brees’s offense will continue to put up great numbers if he is the one throwing the ball.
It’s amazing to see players like Brady and Brees continuing to dominate the game despite their older ages. To put things into perspective, there is an 18 year age gap between Brady and Patrick Mahomes, rookie starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs. The two met for the first time for Sunday Night Football last week and put on a clinic.
New England dominated the first half by holding Mahomes and his offense to three field goals, forcing two turnovers, one before half time, to keep the gap wide. However, several missed tackles and a fumble by the Patriots in the third quarter allowed the Chiefs to rally and score 17 points. Mahomes threw several completions on third down that kept their drives alive, allowing the Chiefs to come back into the game. In the last few minutes of the fourth quarter, Mahomes threw a long touchdown pass to receiver Tyreek Hill, which tied the game at 40 a piece.
However, it left too much time for TB12 and his offense which ran down the clock, before a long completion to star tight end Rob Gronkowski set up the game winning field goal for the Patriots. It’s quite possible these two clubs could meet again in the postseason, vying to represent the AFC in Super Bowl LIII.
Having been given their first loss of the year at the hands of the Pats, the AFC West is now wide open. Philip Rivers and the Chargers are one game back behind the Chiefs, and could potentially win their next several games when star defensive end Joey Bosa returns from injury. Generally the teams that play in October rarely are the same as they are in December/January. The Patriots are a great example of this, which is why teams can’t get complacent.
Elsewhere in the league the Jared Goff led L.A. Rams continued their unbeaten start to the season. Goff’s high powered offense beat both Seattle and Denver respectively. With the addition of star receiver Brandin Cooks in the offseason, Goff has found a new deep threat to compliment Todd Gurley’s running game. The next few weeks should be interesting to see if any clubs can beat the Rams who are now the only undefeated team in the league. It still may be too early to tell but there is a high possibility that the Rams could become the class of the NFC this season.
That’s all for the big news around the NFL for the past few weeks. This season is starting to shape up to be a great one. Fans should look forward to another great weekend of football to come.
