Remember when nine or 10-win teams like the Green Bay Packers, New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens would sneak into the playoffs, get hot and win the Super Bowl? Yeah… it’s safe to say those days are a distant memory.
As it stands, the league’s number one overall seeds have each reached the Super Bowl in the last three seasons. That’s six for six. In this postseason specifically, there were a number of memorable finishes, but there were very few upset games, at least until Super Bowl.
Below I will highlight the five most memorable moments of the 2015-16 postseason, a list that includes at least one moment from each round of the postseason and two for the eventual Super Bowl champion.
5 – Tom Brady touchdown drive falls short in last-second comeback attempt.
For all the talk of the beatdown the Broncos laid on Tom Brady and the Patriots in the AFC championship game, they still allowed a last-second touchdown drive to the game’s best quarterback. Despite a porous offensive line that allowed its leader to be hit 23 times throughout the game, Brady orchestrated a memorable touchdown drive that featured just three gains of positive yardage. The biggest came on 4th and 10 from midfield when Brady completed a 40-yard bomb to Rob Gronkowski, who was battling severe dehydration throughout the game. Brady’s four-yard score to Gronk, also on the fourth down, put the Patriots in position to tie the game and improbably force overtime. But the Broncos intercepted Brady’s conversion attempt, essentially sealing a victory that sent Denver to its record-tying eighth Super Bowl.
4 – Blair Walsh misses chip shot game-winning field goal.
It’s the shortest do-or-die game-winning field goal attempt in a postseason game in NFL history. Just 27 yards. That’s all Blair Walsh needed to do to send the Vikings to Carolina on the heels of a shocking upset against the back-to-back NFC champion Seattle Seahawks. But Walsh, one of the league’s best kickers, inexplicably missed, giving the Seahawks an unlikely last-second win – unlike last year’s Super Bowl.
3 – Aaron Rodgers’ double Hail Marys force overtime.
Maybe the Green Bay Packers should have just made the Hail Mary a regular part of their offense during the 2015 season. After all, they couldn’t move the ball or score points any other way. Against all odds, a team quarterbacked by two-time MVP Aaron Rodgers ranked just 15th in points scored in 2015, backing into the playoffs as a wild-card team. But they defeated the surprising Washington Redskins in the wild-card round, setting up a showdown with the powerful Arizona Cardinals. In the game’s final minute, with the Packers trailing 20-13, Rodgers turned in two of the most incredible plays you’ll ever see.
On 4th and 20 from his own four-yard line, Rodgers eluded several Cardinals’ pass-rushers, sprinted to his left and uncorked a perfect spiral to little-used wide receiver Jeff Janis for a 60-yard completion. The Packers had just an 0.4 percent chance of winning the game before the play. Two plays later, on the final play of regulation, Rodgers launched a desperation heave into the end zone, a 41-yard Hail Mary that was somehow, against all odds, caught for the game-tying touchdown by Janis. But the Packers ultimately lose in overtime on a long catch-and-run and a short touchdown by Larry Fitzgerald in what should go down as the wildest finish of any postseason game this season.
2 – Historic Denver defense stifles MVP Cam Newton.
In one of the best defensive performances in Super Bowl history, the Broncos completely shut down the 500-point Carolina Panthers and regular-season MVP Cam Newton. The most disruptive player on the field was linebacker Von Miller, who collected 2.5 sacks and a pair of forced fumbles. One led to a touchdown recovery in the end one by defensive tackle Malik Jackson, while the other sealed the game with less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. It was an unbelievable team performance spearheaded by a defensive coordinator, Wade Phillips, who was out of football for the 2014 season. It’s safe to say the 2015 Broncos are one of the best single-season defensive teams of the new millennium.
1 – Peyton Manning retires a Super Bowl champion.
Okay, so Peyton Manning hasn’t officially retired. But he very likely will. And if he doesn’t, well, that’s a shame, because he showed throughout all of the 2015 season that he just can’t play efficient football any longer. He threw for 9 touchdowns against 17 interceptions in nine games before missing time with plantar fasciitis. He was then unofficially benched before head coach Gary Kubiak made the bold decision to insert Manning in the lineup in the second half of the Week 17 game against the Chargers. Ignore Manning’s Super Bowl performance. He was pretty awful. That doesn’t change what he’s accomplished throughout his career. He’s a top two or three quarterback in the history of the NFL, with five regular season MVP awards, career records in passing yards and touchdowns, and now the owner of a pair of Super Bowl rings. The game may never again see a player like him.
