Excitement at last. Excitement ahead?
Until Sunday, this NFL season had been primarily about sagging television ratings, national anthem protests and plenty of uninspiring football.
That changed with Sunday’s two tremendous games, the Dallas Cowboys’ late-afternoon triumph at Pittsburgh followed by the Seattle Seahawks’ nighttime victory over the New England Patriots in Foxborough, Mass.
Which leads to the question: Which would be a more compelling Super Bowl matchup, Cowboys vs. Patriots or a Seahawks-Patriots rematch?
The answer: Either one would be plenty good and exactly what the NFL needs to cap a 2016 season in which so many observers have been quick to criticize the on-field product.
The Cowboys’ 35-30 win over the Steelers featured seven lead changes, including four in the fourth quarter, three in the final two minutes and two in the last minute. The two prized rookies for Dallas, quarterback Dak Prescott and tailback Ezekiel Elliott, were brilliant.
“It was a crazy game,” Elliott told Fox after the game. “Another nail-biter, man. That’s how every game in the NFL is gonna be. So it was fun to come into this fun environment playing against a great team (and) come out with a win.”
The Cowboys extended their winning streak to eight games and upped their record to 8-1. Their performance led Tony Dungy, the former Super Bowl-winning coach for the Indianapolis Colts, to sound very much like he was declaring them the NFC’s Super Bowl front-runner at halftime of the NBC telecast of the Patriots-Seahawks game.
“I like where they are in the NFC,” Dungy said. “They’re playing the best ball.”
The Seahawks might have something to say about that, however. They held on for a 31-24 win in Foxborough when safety Kam Chancellor tied up Rob Gronkowski and kept the tight end from catching quarterback Tom Brady’s lob into the end zone on a fourth-and-goal play from the Seattle 1-yard line with 11 seconds to go.
“Mental toughness, man,” Chancellor told NBC after the game.
“Physical toughness. Never giving up — that’s one thing we preach on our team. We want to fight until we can’t fight no more. And whether that’s 60 minutes or however long we’ve got to go, we go the distance. But we want to play until we can’t play no more.”
The Seahawks, at 6-2-1, have ground to make up on the Cowboys in the race for the top seed in the NFC playoffs. Either would be a formidable Super Bowl test for the Patriots if New England, seeking its fifth Super Bowl title with Brady and coach Bill Belichick, can get there.
Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson threw three touchdown passes Sunday night to wide receiver Doug Baldwin in a game that also featured seven lead changes.
The Seahawks won after having to travel across the country on a short week following their victory at home Monday night over the Buffalo Bills. They handed the Patriots their first loss since Brady’s return from his four-game Deflategate suspension.
And this time it was the Patriots who could not score from the 1-yard line, just as the Seahawks so famously were thwarted at the 1-yard line when they lost to New England in the Super Bowl to close the 2014 season.
“It was a challenge, obviously, coming to Foxborough — a tough, tough place to play,” Wilson told NBC late Sunday night. “It’s not easy to win here. There are not many losses here [to] opponents for them.
“But it was a battle. We played one play at a time. The defense stepped up when we needed to right there and made some great plays.”
The offense, we made great plays when we really needed to, man, and we were clutch on third downs when we needed to. We battled. Guys made phenomenal catches. . .. So many guys made plays.”