Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Baker Mayfield head into this weekend's NFL divisional playoff games as an exciting mixture of future Hall of Famers, MVPs and rising young quarterbacks peaking at the right moment.
Marquee QBs ready to claim Super Bowl; Rams ready to blow them up
On the NFL: No. 1 defenses have had past Super Bowl success.
January 12, 2021 at 1:17PM
Then there's Sean McVay's ragtag trio — struggling Jared Goff, who played last week with three pins in his passing thumb; woefully inexperienced John Wolford, whose second career start and first playoff appearance ended with a first-quarter neck injury and an ambulance ride to a Seattle hospital; and former first-round flop Blake Bortles, who might be active as a backup Saturday when the sixth-seeded Rams play the top-seeded Packers in an NFC divisional game at Lambeau Field.
But …
The Rams' QBs have something those seven other teams don't: The No. 1 scoring defense (18.5 points per game), which could come in handy when facing likely MVP Aaron Rodgers and the Packers' No. 1 scoring offense (31.8 points per game).
Since 2002, seven No. 1 scoring defenses have reached the Super Bowl and gone 5-2. Meanwhile, six No. 1 scoring offenses have reached the Super Bowl and gone 1-5.
Eight of 54 Super Bowls have featured the No. 1 scoring defense against the No. 1 scoring offense. The top defenders hold a 7-1 advantage, including one victory by a Patriots team that also had a guy named Tom Brady on the other side of the ball.
Ask Russell Wilson how big a deal the league's best defense is.
In three games against the Rams this year, the Seahawks quarterback was sacked 16 times and threw three interceptions. In Saturday's 30-20 wild-card loss, Wilson was sacked five times, hit 10 times, completed just 11 of 27 passes and threw a pick-six.
Defensive tackle and two-time defensive player of the year Aaron Donald had two sacks before sitting out much of the second half because of a rib injury that's not expected to keep him from playing Saturday.
Outside linebacker Leonard Floyd, who had a career-high 10½ sacks this season, had two more.
Morgan Fox had one sack and three hits on Wilson. Nsimba Webster had the game-changing pick-six. And Jalen Ramsey is one of the league's best corners and will be seeing a lot of Davante Adams on Saturday.
The 13-3 Packers haven't faced a defense this good. The Rams also are No. 1 in yards allowed (281.9), yards allowed per play (4.56), passing yards allowed (190.7), yards allowed per pass (5.57) and first downs allowed (17.5).
Yeah, the Rams lost to the Jets a month ago. But Seattle was no match for them on Sunday. The Seahawks had 11 first downs and failed to register a first down on seven of their 14 possessions.
The Rams also rank second in sacks per pass play (9.67). The Packers are fifth in sacks allowed per pass play (3.99) but will be without All-Pro first-team left tackle David Bahktiari.
The top five scoring defenses made the playoffs. No. 3 Pittsburgh and No. 4 Washington have been eliminated. The No. 2 Ravens (18.9) and No. 5 Saints (21.1) remain. The Buccaneers rank eighth (22.2) while the No. 11 Chiefs (22.6), No. 13 Packers (23.1), No. 16 Bills (23.4) and No. 21 Browns (26.2) follow.
The other three divisional games are intriguing as well.
AFC No. 5 Baltimore is at No. 2 Buffalo in a battle between the league's hottest teams. Baltimore has won six straight with basically all of them being elimination games. Buffalo has won a league-high seven straight.
And NFC No. 5 Tampa Bay is at No. 2 New Orleans in the third meeting of the season between Brady and Brees. Brees won the first two, 34-23 at home in Week 1 and 38-3 on Nov. 8 in Tampa.
Oddsmakers are certain by seven points that Rodgers will be hosting either Brees or Brady in the NFC Championship game. Of course, another future Hall of Famer named Aaron (Donald) might have something forceful to say about that come Saturday afternoon.
Mark Craig is an NFL and Vikings Insider. Twitter: @markcraigNFL. E-mail: mcraig@startribune.com
Mike Conley was in Minneapolis, where he sounded the Gjallarhorn at the Vikings game, on Sunday during the robbery.
