Give Matthew Stafford some "credit": he got himself traded to a better team and had the "guts" to make the plays the spineless Rodgers couldn't under pressure

 

This year’s Super Bowl was one of those affairs where you suspected that the best teams from the respective conferences were not playing in this game. I haven’t done any investigating on the subject, but I suspect that the combine 12 regular season losses by the Rams and the Bengals is a Super Bowl “record.” The only real “interest” I had in this game was that I wasn’t rooting for the Rams to win, and Matthew Stafford (and that's not a misspelling) in particular.

In 12 years with the Lions, Stafford always seemed to be one of those quarterbacks who put up big numbers but just lacked that certain “something” that was necessary to win games. In seven of those years he had Calvin Johnson, a six-time Pro Bowl selection and first-team All-Pro three times, but Stafford himself had only one Pro Bowl selection in all those years. He “led” the Lions to just four winning seasons, and only two in double-digits. This added up to a 74-90-1 career regular season record, and 0-3 in three playoff appearances.

Yet Stafford played in this Super Bowl and Aaron Rodgers is not this season, but this time with a different team. Granted, the Rams had been in the playoffs three of the previous four seasons with Jared Goff as the quarterback, including one Super Bowl appearance. The Lions finished in last place in the NFC North during Stafford’s last three years with the team, and Goff seemed to be at least capable of playing well enough to “win” games for the Rams. But the quarterback “swap” with Stafford didn’t quite work out for the Lions, who again finished in last place, winning just three games—which only proved that the Lions are not a very good team, and the Rams are.

We have discussed the Aaron Rodgers Playoff Follies ad nauseam, but at least he made it as far as the NFC Championship Game five times, and actually got into the Super Bowl the first time, if memory serves. But there is a very good reason why Stafford is playing in the Super Bowl this year, and Rodgers yet again has failed despite now being a four-time MVP: when the pressure was at its greatest, Stafford went for the “big play” in the divisional round game, and Rodgers was like Linus clutching his blanket. After Tom Brady and Buccaneers stormed back from a 27-3 deficit to tie the game with 30 seconds to play in regulation, Stafford didn’t play it “safe,” but threw the ball downfield for two huge plays that put the Rams into game-winning field goal range on the final play.

That isn’t what you saw Rodgers do against the 49ers; he was so focused on his “security blanket,” Davante Adams, that he missed two wide open receivers for probable touchdown plays on the Packers last drive (Allen Lazard and Marquez Valdes-Scantling), and like he did against the Buccaneers last year, stupidly threw uncatchable balls to a blanketed Adams. This was the difference between Rodgers and Stafford in this playoff season—the latter also overcoming a 10-point deficit against the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game. Stafford took advantage of the weapons he had in do-or-die situations, and Rodgers played the sniveling, fearful coward. Other teams that want him on their team should take note if their intention is to actually get to a Super Bowl.

As it happened, The Rams took an early 13-3 lead, after misfiring on a head-scratching two-point conversion play. The Bengals, like the Buccaneers, then staged a comeback, scoring 17 unanswered points behind second-year quarterback Joe Burrow. But despite Stafford throwing two interceptions, the Bengals could not take advantage to put this game away. When the Rams reach inside the Bengals 10 in the final minutes, I kept praying that Stafford would throw another interception.

But on third-and-nine, a nit-picky pass interference call gave the Rams a first down at the four-yard-line. And then after a Rams touchdown was nullified on a penalty, another pass interference penalty was called on the Bengals and another first down for the Rams, this time at the one-yard line. I know people are going to talk about this after the game, since the Bengals were only called for two prior penalties the previous 58 minutes, and the Rams were only called for two penalties for 10 yards the whole 60 minutes. Are the Bengal defenders now afraid that every time they go near Cooper Kupp they'll be called for a penalty? There goes another pass to Kupp and the Rams take the lead and the game, 23-20, after Burrow fails to cover one measly yard for a first down on the Rams 49 on three plays.

I’m thinking that OK, Stafford got into a Super Bowl not because he is a particularly “great” quarterback, but because he got into a good situation, he’s a little better and more experienced than Jared Goff, and in the Super Bowl the refs bailed him out twice at the end. But hey, he did something that the alleged MVP couldn’t do on an allegedly better team, and that is make the plays he needed to make because he wasn't afraid to trust his teammates.