Probably the biggest piece of evidence that the NFL is a league ruled by passers is that of the final four teams remaining, each has a superstar quarterback.
Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck, Tom Brady and Russell Wilson are all among the elite pivots in the league and all likely to be among your top-5 list if you were drawing one up.
Really, who would you even consider the weakest of that quartet?
Rodgers has won a Super Bowl and is poised to be named the MVP of the 2014 season.
Brady is a future hall of famer who caught fire after a rough start to the season. He also has more playoff wins than any QB.
Wilson won the Super Bowl last year and has been lights out down the stretch. He’s more of a weapon running the ball, but that just makes him all the more dangerous overall.
All that Luck did was lead the league in touchdowns and would’ve led in yards if he wasn’t rested late in the season.
If I had to choose, I’d say the order would be Rodgers-Luck-Brady-Wilson – which makes the funniest thing about that the bottom two guys are both favoured this week and will probably be facing off in the Super Bowl.
But the real message here is that the days of getting to the Super Bowl with Brad Johnson or Trent Dilfer are over. If you don’t have an elite quarterback, you’re playing with one arm tied behind your back.
The lines are from Vegas and the home teams are in CAPs.
SEATTLE -7.5 over Green Bay
Against a team with an average defence and a struggling pass rush, Rodgers is going to have a good game. Against one of the best defences of all time that will pressure him and force Rodgers to move on his ailing calf, he’s going to struggle. This Seahawks team beat up on the Pack on opening day and I don’t think that Mike McCarthy is a good enough of a coach to come up with a better gameplan this time around. Green Bay didn’t do a good job of stopping DeMarco Murray last week and will have an equally tough time with Marshawn Lynch this week.
NEW ENGLAND -6.5 over Indianapolis
Every time that Luck has played the Pats, the game has ended in a rout. What are the odds that changes? The Colts running game is a travesty, with Dan (Boom) Herron leading a rather ineffective attack. It has gotten so bad for Trent Richardson that he was deactivated for last week’s game. While Luck can put this offence on his back, it won’t be enough against a team keying solely on him. The Pats won’t need their tricks to win this week and can actually use their running game – which was non-existent against Baltimore – to great advantage this week. After all, Jonas Gray did have his monster game against the Colts earlier this season.