The final week of the regular season came and went without so much as a Monday night game. No worries, though, because we still received an admittedly odd group of unstoppable performers.
The first name isn't surprising. The rest? Well...
Unstoppable Performer
Tom Brady, New England Patriots
Everyone has a name for him. Mr. Cool. Tom Terrific. G.O.A.T. But on Sunday, if you scrolled Twitter during the early portion of the Patriots-Jets game, you'd find more people calling attention to Brady's age and -- gasp -- #GradualDecline than you would his excellence.
That's because he missed a wide open receiver over the middle in the end zone, which happens to everyone occasionally, I suppose. It just got more play because it's 41-year-old Brady.
What should have gotten more attention, though, was the way Brady carved up a Jets secondary that was so thin, only Jamal Adams' name was recognizable. The result: 24-of-33 passing, 250 yards and four touchdowns. Each of those four scores went to different targets (including Phillip Dorsett!). New England also secured a first-round bye with the win for the ninth straight season, which is difficult enough to comprehend.
Perhaps "chef" should be added to Brady's list of nicknames.
Also considered ...
C.J. Anderson, Los Angeles Rams
Two straight weeks of an Anderson-heavy attack have scored two wins for the Rams and two appearances in this space for the running back who spent the majority of the season on his couch. Did I make that reference last week? Perhaps. But did Anderson break 100 yards rushing again this week? You betcha!
Anderson rushed 23 times for 132 yards and a touchdown, as the Rams rolled to a 48-32 win that wasn't as close as the score indicates. His 132 yards gave him 299 in his first two games, the most of any running back in his first two games with the Rams since 1970, per NFL Research. For comparison, Eric Dickerson logged just 179 in his first two games, and Marshall Faulk, 159. Todd Gurley isn't even on the list (though we can't hold the state of the Rams in 2015 against him).
Anderson added three catches for 22 yards, which isn't much but shows he isn't just a guy to whom you hand the ball. His 299 yards in the last two weeks lead the NFL in that span of time. Simply, no one has been hotter from Christmas Eve's Eve to New Year's Eve than Anderson. Luckily for the Rams, it doesn't snow in Southern California.
Matt Prater
It's Week 17 (well, it was), so let's get wacky.
Prater owns the record for the longest field goal made in NFL history at 64 yards. That's high-quality stuff. He's a serviceable kicker in terms of field-goal accuracy (87.5 percent in 2018), and is quite reliable on extra points (98.1 percent).
But throwing the ball?
In a lucky set of circumstances, Prater threw his first career touchdown pass on a fake field goal -- and former bombastic punter Pat McAfee was on the call. Listen for yourself:
How fun is that?
In a mostly lost season, the Lions got a feel-good win to close the campaign by way of timely offensive play and a stifling defense that found itself fortunate to face DeShone Kizer instead of Aaron Rodgers. Prater's touchdown was the icing on that farewell cake.
(Oh, and he made a field goal and four extra points, too.)
