2014 NFL Tournament of Champions Second Round: Joe Montana Bracket

I'm trying to crank out a bunch of these today, given how busy the coming weekend is going to be. Four teams have already fallen today, with 28 still standing. Four more will fall in the next few minutes of your reading.

The Joe Montana Bracket will largely put its name on display in this round, with three of his Super Bowl-winning teams doing battle. Unfortunately for him, one of them is guaranteed to be eliminated. It's just a question of which. We also have the top seed of the tournament ready to go today, so we'll see if they can hold serve.

So as we prepare for the second battle of the second round, a quick reminder of how this works: I will simulate these games as a best-of-three, with the "clinching" game being the official result. I'll try to take weather forecasts to paint as accurate a picture of the conditions as possible. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's play.

(XXXII) '77 Dallas Cowboys @ (I) '91 Washington Redskins
Game 1: '77 DAL 24, '91 WAS 20
Game 2: '91 WAS 27, '77 DAL 24
Game 3: '91 WAS 14, '77 DAL 9
Mark Rypien was effective, going 13 of 20 for 126 yards, two touchdowns and a pick in the win. Ricky Ervins picked up 67 yards on 12 carries as well. Washington's defense stepped up though, holding Dallas to only converting 25 percent of its third downs and stood their ground on a lone fourth down attempt. Roger Staubach completed 11 of 22 passes for 174 yards but was sacked 3 times.

(XVII) '89 San Francisco 49ers @ (XVI) '09 New Orleans Saints
Game 1: '89 SF 41, '09 NO 34
Game 2: '89 SF 27, '09 NO 20
A great game for this one. Joe Montana completed 20 of 29 passes for 245 yards, a touchdown and a pick, but also ran for a touchdown that put San Fran up 20-6 late in the third quarter. Drew Brees led the Saints back though, picking up his lone touchdown three minutes later and set up Pierre Thomas' tying touchdown run. Brees finished 12 of 18 for 114 yards, but he left too much time for San Francisco. Montana led the Niners 77 yards in just over three minutes, capped by a six yard Roger Craig sweep with just 18 seconds left.

(XXV) '86 New York Giants @ (VIII) '04 New England Patriots
Game 1: '04 NE 24, '86 NYG 10
Game 2: '04 NE 24, '86 NYG 13
Most of the damage was done by Corey Dillon, who ran for 108 yards on 19 carries, though Kevin Faulk had the lone rushing touchdown. Tom Brady completed 11 of 15 passes for 152 yards and two scores. The only thing that even kept the Giants in the game was the fact that they sacked Brady five times, four of them by Lawrence Taylor. Phil Simms went 17 of 28 for 233  yards and a pick.

(XLI) '88 San Francisco 49ers @ (IX) '84 San Francisco 49ers
Game 1: '84 SF 30, '88 SF 20
Game 2: '88 SF 24, '84 SF 17
Game 3: '88 SF 30, '84 SF 10
'88 Joe Montana really outdueled his '84 self, coompleting 18 of 25 passes for 205 yards and a pair of touchdowns. '84 Montana only threw 11 passes, completing five for 78 yards. Each Roger Craig ran for a touchdown, but the '84 version ran for 14 yards on nine carries, while '88 Craig ran 25 times for 104 yards. I guess it helped '88 Montana that Jerry Rice was around, since he caught five passes for 111 yards.

To see the bracket so far, click here.

Two more road teams prevailed in this bracket, bringing the total to four out of eight teams in the second round. Recency bias for the round rebalanced out though, as three of the four advancers have come about after the teams they vanquished. This bracket's namesake still has two of his teams playing down in the Sweet 16.

This is it for today, but I still have two more brackets to get through. Those will happen tomorrow, so check back to see if more namesakes can advance in the NFL Tournament of Champions!