I hate making this post.
Last week was a bad week for the NFL. Very bad. Once again, Bizzaro World struck heavily.
First, Carolina lost...and didn't make the playoffs.
Blah. I guess it wasn't meant to be.
After their first game with the Saints I thought Jim Haslett was as good as fired. This time, their receivers covered Muhammad and Colbert quite well, and didn't allow any big plays to develop. It was the exact opposite for us, as Gamble gave up a couple of bombs and they allowed McAllister to get a 71 yard run. That combined with 3 turnovers was enough to put us away. We were lucky to get a last shot at a 60 yard FG to put the game in OT (but I'd rather had Delhomme go for the bomb at the end of the game, but I'm only Monday quarterbacking).
I'm proud of them. Not too many teams would give themselves a chance after losing a key receiver, three running backs, a safety, and two defensive linemen. They can still hold their heads up high for the job they did this year. If they can resign Muhsin Muhammad, maybe work on that secondary a bit more in free agency, and keep everyone healthy they should be considered Super Bowl contenders next year and regain the NFC South title.
Anyway, let's talk about the playoffs. The NFC has the worst playoff teams I've ever seen:
- Philly, who's without TO and lost their last two (a legit excuse, as they did bench their starters).
- Atlanta, who's got a hurt Vick, was upset by Seattle last week, and has a two-faced defense. You never know which face will show up.
- Green Bay. Can quarterbacks go through a mid-life crisis? Farve seems like he suffers from it every week.
- Seattle, which has a porus secondary that couldn't knock a mosquito out of the air with a mudflap and finds a way to lose games.
- St. Louis, who has the worst head coach in football. Any halfway decent coach would have had that team sitting home this week with a first-round bye.
- Minnesota. See Seattle, but add a better quarterback and receiver corp. But take that "finds a way to lose games" and multiply it by 10. Don't believe me? The Vikes lost seven of their last ten, and five of those games were by less than a touchdown.
Let's put it this way: If Philly - even without TO - can't get the job done this year, they'll never get it done. But all in all, this week's NFC wild card games are a tale of which team finds more ways to lose than the other.
I'm rooting for Green Bay. I want to see Brett Farve go out with a trip to Jacksonville.
The AFC looks much better. This could go either way.
- Pittsburgh has been the polar opposite of Seattle and Minn in that they find ways to win. And Ben Roethlisberger, aka the Baby Jesus, has yet to taste defeat.
- New England..well, they're New England. They have a hellafied coach and the second-best quarterback in the league. Will three times be a charm?
- Indianapolis. The best quarterback in the league having the best season a quarterback has ever had. The major question is can that get him out of the shadow that is Tom Brady and New England? Dwight Freeney needs to have a hell of a playoffs to get them to Jacksonville.
- San Diego is considered the sleeper of the playoffs. They have just enough on both sides of the ball to beat any team in the league.
- The Jets. I respect the whole team. They have a good coach, a good defense, a great RB, among other things. But that chokefest against the Rams bothers me THREE much. Yeah I know Bulger returned, but cmon, that's no excuse for losing a crucial game like that.
- Denver is the only one that I am skeptical of. I think Shanahan has done a bad job with their secondary and made a bad decision in the offseason by going after Jake Plummer. While he was at Arizona he had an excuse, but now he's under a good system at Denver and has a decent offensive line and he has not done anything impressive.
The only bad thing about the AFC? It's being covered by CBS instead of Fox. For some reason I fall asleep on CBS's games. It's as if they intentionally try to silence the crowd in the games.
It won't seem right without my Panthers in the playoffs this year, but I will still watch with interest. It will be fun seeing how bad the NFC wild card games can get and how good the AFC wild cards can be.
