Sports News With The NFL

Aaron Rodgers did it again. The Green Bay Packers quarterback engineered a 10-point comeback in the final two minutes to lead his team to a 33-30 victory on Monday night over the San Francisco 49ers.

Rodgers finished the game with 425 passing yards and two touchdown tosses, plus another 34 yards rushing. It capped a remarkable weekend of play by quarterbacks young and old.

Rodgers, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Andy Dalton – they’re the old guard. All of them led comebacks, though Dalton’s Cincinnati Bengals still managed to lose to Roethlisberger’s Pittsburgh Steelers.

Kirk Cousins continues to excel for the Minnesota Vikings. Philip Rivers has thrown 15 touchdown passes and only three interceptions for the Los Angeles Chargers. Matthew Stafford runs up gaudy numbers for the always-mediocre Detroit Lions. Drew Brees keeps piling up records for the potent New Orleans Saints.

And the young guys? If you’ve watched the Kansas City Chiefs at all, you know what a gem they have in Patrick Mahomes. Same for the Los Angeles Rams, with Jared Goff. And at some point, the Houston Texans will get production similar to last year’s from Deshaun Watson.

The NFL, with its constant adjustment of the rules to make life more difficult for defenses, gets some of the credit for quarterback stats. Defenses cannot hit quarterbacks high or low, fall on them with their full body weight, touch receivers after they are five yards past the line of scrimmage or say mean things (I made up the last one). This has all opened up offense and scoring, which is on a record pace and which fans (especially those in fantasy leagues) enjoy.

Still, the quarterback must make the right reads and the throws. He must lead. He must be able to outduel his opponent in these constant comebacks.

These are good times for quarterbacks. We should enjoy it.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman