CHICAGO, January 2, 2012 – When Week 16 in the NFL ended last week, there was only one serious candidate for the Most Valuable Player award. That man, the one who resembles Bert from Sesame Street, resides in Title Town, Wisconsin, also known as Green Bay. His value to his team was so great that his coach decided to rest him for the finale due to the minimal chance of him being hurt badly enough that he couldn’t play in their playoff opener two weeks later.
That decision should cost Rodgers his award. Matt Flynn proved to America that it doesn’t take a master to put up those kinds of numbers with the Packers, and that Rodgers wasn’t truly as indispensable as he seemed.
Up until Week 17, the last week of the regular season, Rodgers and Brees would have been in a deadlock had Rodgers’ Packers not beaten Brees’ Saints in the first week of the season. The clinching play in that game, after a furious Brees-led drive to try to tie the game, was Clay Matthews’ stopping of Mark Ingram on the goal line.
Therefore, in a sense, Rodgers’ MVP award was clinched by his team’s linebacker. How ironic that it would be taken away by his backup?
Statistically speaking, Brees had a better season. Rodgers had a slightly better passer rating (122.5 to 110.6) and fewer interceptions (14 to 6), while Brees had significantly more passing yards (5476 to 4643) and didn’t have nearly the supporting cast that Rodgers had. Both had monstrous tight ends, but any sane quarterback would prefer Jennings, Jordy Nelson, James Jones, Donald Driver and Randall Cobb to Marques Colston, Lance Moore and Robert Meachem.
To strengthen Brees’ case to key word is “valuable.” it’s very important to see what happened in the last week of the regular season, and to see how Matt Flynn discredited Rodgers’ season by putting up such incredible numbers. Is there any chance that another quarterback on the Saints could step in with their supporting cast and put up such a monstrous game? Nope.
Flynn, a quarterback without any real previous NFL success, stepped into Rodgers shoes for the regular season finale. Not only did he have a better game than Rodgers had all year, but he had the best game of any Packer, ever: over 400 yards and 6 touchdowns. A few people that never had such a game include Bart Starr and Brett Favre, if you’ve ever heard of them.
When your backup outclasses you in his one opportunity, are you really the most valuable player in the entire league? Matt Flynn made it look like even the great Caleb Hanie could step in and have a 400-yard day for the Packers.
Brees, however, has been the rock for this Saints team since the midpoint of the season, also known as the time when stars become superstars. How about Brees shattering Dan Marino’s single season passing yards record by a full game’s worth of yardage? How about Brees breaking his own completion percentage record, having more completions overall, having more first-down throws and leading his team to the breaking of the overall yardage record previously held by the greatest show on turf?
Aaron Rodgers was undeniably having an MVP-caliber season, but Flynn’s game raises the question of just how much that says about someone in Rodgers’ position. Rodgers supporting cast was rock-solid, but as soon as one of his fleet of weapons, Greg Jennings, got hurt for a few weeks, the Packers lost their shot at a 19-0 season. With Jennings, the Packers beat the Saints, the Falcons, and a good Chargers team. Without him, they can’t get more than 14 points against an average Kansas City defense.
When Rodgers is gone, the Packers can outgun the potent Lions. But when one of his weapons is gone, they can’t outgun the Kyle Orton-led Chiefs? That doesn’t scream valuable.
Drew Brees has had the better statistical season, but more importantly, he was the more valuable player to his team. While Rodgers had been a lock before Flynn stepped in, Flynn proved that the Packers are more about the targets than the gunslinger. Brees was truly indispensable to his team, as no one has ever had that good of a statistical season, and deserves the MVP award.
To contact Nick Goralka, see above to send him an e-mail containing a question, comment, or scathing insult. His work appears in Alley-oops for Touchdowns! in the Communities at the Washington Times Online.
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