WAKE
ME UP WHEN THE WILD CARDS ARE OVER
Snooooze
fest. Where were the great stories (the whole Favre thing
aside)? Where were the great teams? I’ll tell you where
they were: they had byes.
Like
never before, I couldn’t have cared much less about the
games this past weekend. The Panthers? Yawn.
Quincy Carter? Wake me up when it’s over. Steve
McNair? Peyton Manning? MVPs? Whatever.
There
were two close games which were good games. I mean, they
were close, there were some exciting plays, some guys messed
up, some guys excelled. And I just didn’t care.
Because
this whole weekend it did seem, unlike other years, like the
four best teams weren’t playing. Thank God the Divisional
Round us upon us . . .
THE
FAVRE EFFECT
Two
weeks ago, Brett Favre won over my heart with a great
performance against Oakland after the loss of his
father. I was a Packer fan for a week. Or two. After yet
another weekend of hearing about the “magic” and “destiny”
and “God smiling on Brett Favre” and all this crap, I just
want the Packers to lose now.
The
media – and I hold ESPN and Fox 90% responsible in this case
– really know how to ruin a good thing. You can’t get
coverage of the Packers this week without hearing about this
crap. And if the Packers beat the Eagles and Favre
has a good game – look out. You’re not going to hear the
end of it.
This
hasn’t changed my perspective on Favre – I’m sold. I just
want to see his team lose. He’s done Dad good.
While
I’ll be cheering for the Packers this weekend (them beating
the Iggles would help DRAMATICALLY in a pool I’m in), I will
find great pleasure if they lose.
ADIOS, ORLANDO
Orlando
Brown
should be cut. Now. Immediately. Two personal fouls in
one game? And one in the waning minutes of his playoff game
against Tennessee? I can’t remember seeing a lineman
lose it – and lose the game – in that way since Kyle
Turley freaked out against the Jets a couple years ago.
And now it comes out that Brown has seen a psychologist
about his temper and even had a goldfish in his locker to
calm him down? My question is, how did he get a spot on the
Ravens’ offense line in the first place?
THE
BILLS
Bill
Parcells
ran into a brick wall in Carolina. His name was
Quincy Carter. The guy seems to have some talent and a
great work ethic. But, no matter who Bill Parcells won a
Super Bowl with (and he won one with Jeff Hostettler),
he isn’t going to win one with this guy. Another prediction
(and this one is going out on a smaller limb): the Cowboys
won’t make the playoffs next year and will struggle to seven
wins. It’s called the Parcells roller coaster, and it goes
down as often as it goes up.
The
other Bill – the one who was named Coach of the Year in
New England – does the same thing. Up and down and up
and down. This year, his team is up – way up. There’s a
reason he won that Coach of the Year Award: expectations.
This Pats team was picked by most to finish third at best in
their division. After a 31-0 blowout in Week 1 and mounted
injuries, a 2-2 start pointed the Patriots to a
football-free January. Now, most don’t even think they’ll
have a football-free February.
MY
PLAYOFF PICKS:
Carolina
24, St. Louis 20.
The Panthers look a lot like the Ravens looked when they won
the Super Bowl: strong defense, solid running back,
serviceable quarterback. John Fox’s defense led a similar
New York Giants team to the Super Bowl in 2000 – and I think
he has a serious chance at returning to that game.
Philadelphia 31, Green Bay 16.
The Packers’ pass defense was bad on Sunday, allowing over
300 yards through the air. They’re now on the road facing a
better quarterback who’s backed by a better running game.
Kansas
City 37, Indianapolis 20.
Kansas City at home plays strong defensively, nutty on
special teams, and brilliant on offense. While the Colts
have a 7-1 road record this season, they haven’t faced an
offense this good on the road.
New
England 20, Tennessee 19.
New England’s run to the Super Bowl was made up of three
great games that were even closer than their final scores
showed. Their playoff appearance this year will start with
the same: a cold day in Foxboro against a strong team who
will run out of luck in the fourth quarter. |
--Best homoerotic lines of a
superb, riveting
weekend of football, all heard on television broadcasts:
-
Al Harris,
the Green Bay Packers cornerback who scored the game-winning
touchdown against Seattle, on why he hasn't done a Lambeau Leap into
the stands: "I have been seeing some guys being touched in some
weird spots."
-
Jon Gruden,
as an ABC analyst, saying if he was with the Tennessee Titans, he
would be massaging Steve McNair’s injured legs the whole flight
home.
-
Jake Delhomme,
Carolina quarterback, saying he wished the Panthers offense had
“been able to stick it in there” on a failed third-and-goal from the
Dallas 1.
--Bonehead play
of the weekend was the four Denver defenders standing around and
arguing after the Colts’ Marvin Harrison caught a third-down
pass. Only trouble was, none of them thought to touch Harrison, who
got up and strolled in 26 yards for a score.
That play epitomized
the meltdown by the Broncos, who were routed 41-10 by Indianapolis.
Leave it to Denver tight end Shannon Sharpe to sum it up: ‘‘The
way we performed today, I'm embarrassed. Offensively, defensively,
special teams, I am just totally, totally embarrassed with what we put
out there today for the whole world to see. That's pathetic.''
--The genius label
should be stripped from Denver coach Mike Shanahan. He has not
won a playoff game since John Elway retired, going 0-2 and
seeing his teams outscored 62-13 in the games (Indy on Sunday and
Baltimore in 2000).
--It was awesome to
see Colts QB Peyton Manning finally shed the tag that he can’t
win a playoff game. He was statistically perfect (as determined by the
NFL’s quarterback rating system), throwing for 377 yards and five
touchdowns. It was only the fifth perfect rating by a quarterback in
the history of the playoffs.
Colts running back
Edgerrin James knows that such questions come with the territory
of being a quarterback. "All those past games weren't his fault, but
being our quarterback, everyone is going to put the pressure on him,”
James said. “Now that he's won a game in the playoffs, he's got to get
to a Super Bowl now. . . . He's raised the bar.”
Manning was planning
to celebrate in high style. "We'll go to St. Elmo's and I'll have a
shrimp cocktail and a big steak and enjoy it tonight, but I do that
after every win.” Shrimp cocktail!? Gee, the guy knows how to live it
up.
--The dagger in the
Colts’ win was Manning’s 87-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Stokely
at the two-minute warning on the first half to give Indianapolis a
28-3 lead. Here’s why it was a great call: Manning took the snap with
2:01 left. Since the clock was going to stop at the two-minute warning
anyway, an incomplete pass would be no worse from a time standpoint
than a run. Denver was caught playing the run and Stokely got wide
open.
--The Green Bay
Packers’ 33-27 overtime win over the Seattle Seahawks was awesome
to watch. The game ended on Harris’ 52-yard interception return for a
score. It was the 18th postseason overtime game in NFL
history and the first one decided by a defensive touchdown.
As soon as Harris
picked off Matt Hasselbeck and started running towards the end
zone he raised his left hand in victory. “I wasn’t going to let a
quarterback catch me,” Harris said.
--Hasselbeck put his
foot in his mouth during the coin toss to begin overtime. The
Seahawks won the toss and Hasselbeck said: “We want the ball and we’re
gonna score.” Must have meant "they're gonna score."
--Two plays in the
Seattle game showed why the NFL needs to keep replay. Both
times, plays that were ruled Seattle fumbles recovered by Green Bay
were correctly reversed. For all its flaws, getting rid of replay
would be a huge mistake.
--It was lovely to see
the Baltimore Ravens go out in the first round, 20-17 losers to
the Tennessee Titans. The Ravens have always come across as
front-running bullies, more than willing to shoot off their mouths
until they lost.
So it was not a
surprise that key Ravens fled the scene as soon as the game was over.
''Ray (Lewis) would have stayed on the field if we'd have lost
and (Chris) McAlister would have stayed on the field, but a lot
of them ran off the field and into their locker room,'' Titans
receiver Derrick Mason told the Nashville Tennessean. ''Hey, I
don't know what to say about them. Be a good sport about it, shake our
hands. After each game we've lost against them, we shake their hands
and go about our business. That just goes to show how truly arrogant
those guys truly are.''
--Baltimore was
outcoached as the Titans came up with a great game plan to stop
Jamal Lewis (2,066 yards rushing), holding him to 35 yards and
forcing the generally inept QB Anthony Wright to beat them.
Wright had one clutch pass, but five times the Ravens went three plays
and a punt. This allowed Tennessee to control the clock and wear down
the Ravens defense.
--A
key play turned out to be a stupid personal foul penalty against
Baltimore’s Orlando Brown late in the game. The 15 yards pushed
the Ravens’ punting team back and gave Tennessee great field position.
The Titans took advantage and won on a 46-yard field goal by
44-year-old kicker Gary Anderson with 29 seconds left.
"It wasn't anything intentional," Brown said. "I
just see my man [Tennessee’s Javon Kearse] choking one of my
boys [Baltimore’s Terry Jones], and I was like, 'Get off.' I
heard my man hollering." Brown should know that they always catch the
second guy in the scuffle and he’s been around enough to know not to
retaliate. It was his second personal foul penalty of the game.
--The fourth game of
the weekend was the most uninteresting. Carolina whipped
Dallas, 29-10, and it was as much about Cowboys ineptness as
Panther dominance.
--I went 4-0 in my
wild card picks and this is how I see Round 2. Word of warning:
Home teams are 43-9 in this round since 1990, so my two road picks fly
against tradition:
St. Louis 30,
Carolina 13. The Panthers will be playing an actual NFL offense
this week, not the frauds that were the Dallas Cowboys. The only wild
card is how Rams QB Marc Bulger performs under pressure. Even if
he struggles, it's hard to see the Panthers winning.
New England 20,
Tennessee 10. If Steve McNair and Eddie George were healthy, the
Titans would have a shot since they play so well under adversity. But
they are not and New England is too tough at home.
Indianapolis 34,
Kansas City 31. Two great offenses, two so-so defenses. Indy was a
league-best 7-1 on the road this season. Peyton Manning is 3-0
against the Chiefs, including two wins at Arrowhead.
Green Bay 24,
Philadelphia 20. After the miracle that got them into the
playoffs, the Packers are playing with house money. The ride continues
in Philadelphia, where the Eagles are only 5-3 this year. |
