I just spent what.. 16 hours watching football... in what is supposedly the best weekend of football each year... the Divisional Playoffs. Er, the Cards are hosting the NFC Championship game??? That's really insane, the playoffs on the NFC side is just nuts... I'm rooting against an all Pennsylvania Super Bowl. But if it ends up being Baltimore vs Arizona... well, that is just flat out wierd. With both the Giants and Chargers knocked out, I'm not sure who to root for. I'll tell you though, the Panthers game last night... don't they throw a friggin screen pass in Carolina? They waited until about 2 min's left in the game, down 33 to 7 before they threw a screen (unless I missed something). Not to say it would have mattered the way Delhomme was giving away the game. It would have slowed down that pass rush though and maybe given Delhomme some time to think before he did something stupid... But credit to the Cards, Fitzgerald is a monster and he seems to have a good head on his shoulders, which for a receiver in today's game is saying something. Then there's the Giants... today... They average over 4 yards rushing the ball (they must have but I didn't confirm) so what happens when they get inside the Eagles' 30 yard line... they throw the ball... wow... The play calling in that game was atrotious. Kevin Gilbride, NY Giants OC for Raiders HC? ok... Then the Chargers vs Steelers... Pittsburgh wins in spite of Mike Tomlin trying to throw the game in the first half (fake punt????). That third quarter was ugly for SD... one play... which was intercepted. And Weddle (who I think is an outstanding safety) muffing the punt off his head. That game obviously turned in the 3rd quarter. But Pittsburgh set it up with that 2 min drive to end the first half. The Ravens and Steelers are so much like one another... that game next week will be special. The best game was clearly the Titans vs Ravens. But when Chris Johnson went out of the game (btw, does he have Turrets?) with the injury, the Titans chances of beating that defense went down the drains. Fisher, who is a very good coach, got caught with his pants down IMO for this game. The turnovers, the penalties (I think a dozen if I recall) really sealed the Titans' fate. I think I'm rooting for the Ravens. Even rooting for Cam Cameron. He's a heck of an offensive coordinator, and a good guy. Lastly... what's up with the six seeds recently? Should we expand the playoffs to include 8 teams from each conference so that the top two teams don't have byes? It would seem to be somewhat of a disadvantage to have the week off. In the late 80's and most of the 90's... it was a lock that at least half of the top seeds would advance to the Championship game, and most certainly the SuperBowl. What happened? Why even play the regular season? (ok that was sarcastic)
I am rooting for the Eagles....the Steelers already got lucky once by winning the SB with a very average team and Big Ben at the helm......Flacco is about at bad as Trent Dilfer and I don't see another average Raven's team winning it. I don't see how the Cardinals went from looking so horrible to looking halfway decent in a matter of a weeks, but the Eagles are going to put an end to their season next week. I see the Eagles beating the Ravens in the Superbowl 28-17.
The fake punt by Tomlin was a good call imo by challenging his team. They were playing pretty sluggish up to that point. After that they just dominated. The D gave up 3 from the FP, but then the O came back with 2 scoring drives and both sides conspired to hold the Bolts to .... 17 SECONDS .... of possession in the 3rd quarter. Sometimes when you tell your team to man up, they do. Im going with Steelers-Cards in the SB, Steelers with the W. Of course, ive picked wrong about 3 out of every 4 games in the playoffs so far so ....
these playoffs just reinforced three critical things every playoff team needs to succeed 1) dominant offensive line 2) strong armed QB to stretch the field (dink and dunk doesnt fly in the playoffs) 3) disciplined and error free football
Balt. already smoked Philly this season, and Flacco bad as Dilfer??? Lets see a cast off veteran with a rag arm, and a rookie with a rocket arm. Dam dude.... HH
..exactly..the common theme shared with the winning teams is pass rush. To me that trumps the need for a strong armed QB. ..myself, I'm going to cheer for the Cards. They need a trip to the big game.
