Tom Brady has won five Super Bowls, but his career 89.6 playoff passer rating is below that of supposed playoff flop Tony Romo (93.0)and far below Drew Brees (100.7). Brady is a top-five all-time QB, but New England's defense is vastly underrated. Critics say the Jaguars, Vikings and Eagles win with defense, but the Patriots have allowed 17 or fewer points in 11 of their last 13 games. Compare that to Pittsburgh. Despite being known for defense, the Steelers have allowed an NFL-high 25.2 points in their nine playoff defeats since 2002. 

The difference between Tom Brady (26-9 in the playoffs) and Drew Brees (7-6) is the rest of their team. In five of Brady's seven Super Bowls, the opposing QB had a higher passer rating in the big game, including Matt Ryan (by 49 points), but also Jake Delhomme, Russell Wilson and Eli Manning (twice).

Bears from worst to 1st?

The Bears became the first NFC North team to finish last in the division four years in a row. Being more futile than the Lions — a franchise with one playoff victory in 60 years — is almost as bad as being worse than the Browns. On the other hand, two teams that finished last in their division are in Sunday's Final Four. Maybe the the Bears can continue that trend: If, that is, Mitch Trubisky turns out to be as good as the Eagles' Carson Wentz, or if Chicago can sign defensive free-agents as good as the Jaguars' Calais Campbell and A.J. Bouye, who both made All-Pro in their first season in Jacksonville.

Getting most out of Mitch

New Bears offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich sees a lot of comparisons, both good and bad, between Mitch Trubisky and Tennessee's Marcus Mariota, whom he coached at Oregon. If true, the Bears need coaches who can help Trubisky more than Tennessee has helped Mariota, who has never been ranked higher than 13th in Total QBR in his three seasons. And this was the first year Mariota's feet helped him to a higher QBR (13th) than his passer rating (27th). It's crazy for someone who runs as well as Mariota to have higher passer ratings (17th and 10th) his first two years than Total QBR (26th and 13th), which counts runs. But the same was true of Trubisky (28th in passer rating, 29th in Total QBR), who ran for 248 yards but fumbled 10 times.

Matt Trowbridge: 815-987-1383; mtrowbridge@rrstar.com; @matttrowbridge