re: Drew Brees vs. Kurt Warner (At their Best)

You're not a coach in the NFL - don't pretend you are.

"Watching Kurt Warner dissect Green Bay's No. 2 ranked defense in Sunday's record-breaking shootout, it struck me that 10 years ago this very month we first witnessed Warner on a national stage, putting on the kind of virtuoso performance that finished off the Packers.

Consider this: The two bookends of Warner's NFL postseason career at the moment are his five-touchdown, 391-yard, 27-of-33 passing day in the Rams' wild 49-37 NFC divisional round defeat of Minnesota on Jan. 16, 2000 -- his first-ever playoff appearance -- and his equally ridiculous masterpiece Sunday against Green Bay, when he was 29 of 33, for 379 yards, and five touchdowns in Arizona's unforgettable 51-45 overtime win.

To have one five-touchdown playoff game on your résumé is a feat. To have done it twice, almost a decade apart to the day, at age 28, and again at 38, is simply remarkable. Only Oakland's Daryle Lamonica and Warner have twice thrown for five touchdowns in the postseason.

The math alone for Warner from those two playoff games is mind-boggling: 56 of 66 passing, for 770 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 100 points scored, with just one interception. Warner is now 9-3 in his career as a playoff starter, but how can he ever top the first or last chapters in his postseason saga, when he played two of the closest-to-perfect games ever turned in by an NFL quarterback?

Warner's head coach of 10 years ago, the Rams' Dick Vermeil, watched his former quarterback's latest playoff work of art on Sunday from his home in southeast Pennsylvania. In Vermeil's eyes, it was Warner's finest hour ever, and maybe the signature game of his NFL career. He hopes it finally pushes Warner's Hall of Fame candidacy into slam-dunk territory.

"It's amazing,'' Vermeil said, on the phone. "That performance on Sunday was a Hall of Fame performance. I mean no disrespect, but if Tom Brady or Peyton Manning had done the same thing, people would be going bonzai. But Kurt Warner does it, and it's, 'Well, he had a great game.' But they move on.''

Why, I asked Vermeil, is Warner still underappreciated, even after everything he's done in his rather unique playing career?

"I just think many commentators and people in the media are hesitant to give Kurt the same amount of credit, maybe because of his background, and how he came up without the pedigree,'' Vermeil said. "And he's not a glamour guy. He's not dating models. He's just a low-key, super human being. A devout Christian and an outstanding football player. He doesn't draw attention to himself, other than when he plays on Sundays."


Read More: LINK