Weekly Takes - Monday, January 24 Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, January 24 Edition

1. My three stars from the Maple Leafs 6-3 loss to the Rangers on Wednesday…

1. Ilya Mikheyev

2. Pierre Engvall

3. David Kampf

Blowing another lead does not concern me. I think it is nothing more than a rough patch throughout the course of a long season.

What does concern me is this loss is the type of loss that worries me come playoff time. The Leafs had no answer in the second and third period when it came to the Rangers forecheck and that was on full display on the Timothy Liljegren turnover that led to the Rangers third goal.

Sheldon Keefe’s “never give up the puck” mentality was the downfall of this team last postseason and the downfall of the team on Wednesday.

2. My three stars from the Leafs impressive bounce-back win over the Islanders on Saturday…

1. Mitch Marner

2. Engvall

3. Morgan Rielly

I thought this was one of the more impressive wins of the season given the Islanders were committed to running the Leafs out of the building early, only for it not to phase them. An important win.

3. There are always exceptions to rules (See: Foles, Nick) but the reality is, unless you have a stud at quarterback, you are nothing more than a pretender in the grand scheme of things.

That is how I felt about Ryan Tannehill and the Titans all season and I was proven right on Saturday.

Tannehill is a good quarterback. Joe Burrow is a superstar.

That is and was the difference.

4. The exception to that rule is the 49ers.

Jimmy Garroppolo is a fine quarterback but he is not someone who should be capable of going into Dallas and Green Bay and beating Dak Prescott and Aaron Rodgers.

The reason he did so is because Kyle Shanahan is a superstar of a head coach and their receiving core, running back room, and defence are elite.

I think the 49ers are the worst team left in the playoffs, outside of the Bengals, but they have a shot every week because their surrounding core around their average quarterback is so, so good.

They could win the whole thing.

5. Speaking of superstar quarterbacks, Matt Stafford cemented himself as one in Tampa Bay on Sunday.

He always had the skill and he always had the individual stats but he was never going to be considered anything more than a “guy” until he went up against an elite quarterback in the playoffs and came away with the win.

Sunday was the ultimate legacy game for him.

6. Buffalo-Kansas City was one of the greatest sporting events of all-time and the game capped off the greatest football weekend there has ever been.

Patrick Mahomes versus Josh Allen is peak football and we will get to witness it for the next decade.

There will be years where a Joe Burrow or Justin Herbert joins the party, just as Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Flacco mixed in Super Bowls during the Tom Brady-Peyton Manning era, but we are witnessing the next great golden age of a quarterback rivalry.

7. Yes, the NFL badly needs to change its overtime rules.

I do not care if they change it to the college rule or the CFL rule. All I care about is both offences having a chance to win in overtime.

8. My Conference Championship picks…

• Rams beat 49ers (+3.5)

• Kansas City beats Bengals (+6.5)

I went 2-2 in predicting both the winners and spread this weekend.

My bracket remains perfect on the AFC side. Not so much on the NFC side.