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Questions That Require a Super Bowl to Settle
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Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters
Ray McDonald sacking the Patriots’ Tom Brady in the 49ers’ 41-34 win Sunday in Foxborough, Mass. It was a rare December home loss for New England, which had rallied from a 31-3 deficit.
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Statement Sunday, the somewhat grandiose nickname attached to Week 15 of the N.F.L. season, was supposed to answer more questions than it created.
In some places, maybe it did: Houston and Atlanta came up with impressive, important bounce-back victories to regain some momentum and confidence heading into the playoffs; the Ravens, the Bears and the Steelers continue to reel, raising concerns not just about their short-term playoff futures but about the long-term state of their offenses.
But in a cold rain in Foxborough, Mass., late Sunday night, the questions only multiplied in a game that could be repeated in little more than a month in New Orleans in the Super Bowl. It says something about the N.F.L., and about this season in particular, that the ground shifts so significantly each week between the league’s powerhouses, that in the ephemeral power rankings so popular around the country, the top teams come and go as rapidly as teen idols. But the aftermath of this game, a 41-34 San Francisco victory, felt less earthshaking and more like a small but perceptible shift that unsettled, even if it did not topple, the most strongly held beliefs.
Are the Patriots, heretofore the best team in the league, still susceptible to the kind of physical defensive play that upended their two most recent Super Bowl efforts? Are the 49ers now so well balanced with the league’s best defense and the dynamic playmaking of a breakout quarterback that they are the team to beat? Or is a defense that can give up a 31-3 lead now suspect? Are the Patriots to be feared because even a 31-3 lead, and a series of bobbles and stumbles, are not enough to sink them? Are the 49ers fortified by being able to take the considerable punches Tom Brady can throw and still walk away victors?
The answer is, maybe all of that. San Francisco looks like the best team in the league, except that the 49ers cannot beat the Rams and we should probably withhold further judgment until they play Seattle on Sunday night. The Patriots fell short of an epic comeback victory in one of their sloppiest games of the season, but still look to be at the top of the A.F.C.
“To beat the 49ers, you’ve got to be good in the kicking game. They weren’t,” said the NFL Network analyst Michael Lombardi, who retains close ties to Patriots Coach Bill Belichick. “Stop the big play. They didn’t. Make chunks of yards downfield. They didn’t do that until the second half. They got to 31-31, and then the problems creeped up again in the kicking game.”
When the schedule was released in the spring, consecutive home games for New England against Houston and San Francisco were immediately recognized for what they were: a significant test for the Patriots in a place where they rarely lose. It had been a decade since a visitor won in December in Foxborough, but that New England lost on Sunday night only imperils its chances of hosting a series of playoff games, not of marching through the A.F.C.
San Francisco exposed the holes that lesser opponents have not been able to — in the Patriots’ secondary, in inconsistent offensive line play, among less experienced players like Stevan Ridley whose mistakes are magnified in the biggest moments. But the Patriots also played a mistake-riddled game, and they executed their comeback without their second-best offensive weapon, Rob Gronkowski, whom they presumably will have for the playoffs.
That there might not be a team in the A.F.C. as good as the 49ers, though, has to be some comfort to the Patriots. They have beaten the Texans and the Broncos, and while Denver is undoubtedly better than it was when it lost in Foxborough in early October, the Patriots might be better, too, with a more established running game.
“I thought they fought hard, absolutely,” Belichick said of his team Monday morning. “Yeah, I thought they fought hard and competed well, it just wasn’t good enough. It was just too many bad plays, too many mistakes; it just wasn’t good enough. But yeah, I thought we competed, we fought, we hung in there until the end. But we just didn’t perform well enough in any area.”
Still, one of the best slugfests of the season might be just a tantalizing prequel.
Even if Kirk Cousins does not play another snap this season, the use of a fourth-round draft pick on a rookie backup quarterback, roundly questioned when the Washington Redskins did it in April, has proved to be a master stroke. Cousins has already accounted for two victories in two weeks as the Redskins have surged into a first-place tie in the N.F.C. East. He threw for 329 yards and 2 touchdowns against Cleveland on Sunday.
But what do the Redskins do with Cousins for an encore? The blockbuster trade the Redskins pulled off with the Rams to take Robert Griffin III was clearly worth the steep price, but the Redskins still need plenty of complementary parts, even if they do make the playoffs this year. Their offensive line needs shoring up, their defense has numerous holes and a young, fast receiver would certainly help.
But because they gave up so much to get Griffin — first-round picks in 2013 and 2014 to the Rams, in addition to their first- and second-round picks in the 2012 draft — the Redskins will have to be creative to fill the gaps. After the draft, the Redskins indicated that they might consider trading Cousins in the future. After his performances against the Ravens and the Browns, and with several teams in dire quarterback straits, Cousins’s stock is skyrocketing.
Cousins is a luxury for the Redskins, a fantastic backup for Griffin, whose style of play makes him both thrilling to watch and vulnerable to injury. But that is a luxury the Redskins might not be able to afford if they want to win at the highest level immediately, which this year’s results indicate they are close to doing. Charley Casserly, the former personnel executive for the Redskins and the Texans, does not know if the Redskins would be willing to trade Cousins. But if they were?
“Probably depends on the offer,” Casserly texted Sunday night. “If he doesn’t play again, I would say a second plus something. Maybe even two seconds. I am thinking Schaub and Kolb trades.”
Those trades have had wildly different outcomes. Matt Schaub, whom the Texans acquired from Atlanta in 2007, has the Texans on the verge of clinching home-field advantage throughout the A.F.C. playoffs. Kevin Kolb, who was traded from the Eagles to the Arizona Cardinals, has been unable to secure the starting job.
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