Before the NFL playoffs start, I have the following random thoughts.
- Look at the teams that have won the Super Bowl this decade. You can win with any kind of quarterback – an unproven rookie/first year starter (’05 Steelers, ’01 Pats…and frankly I’m not sure that Big Ben is even that good), a very mediocre veteran (’00 Ravens, ’02 Bucs), or a star QB in their prime (’03-04 Pats). If you go back a couple of years, you can add in a star QB that’s a little bit washed up (for Elway’s Broncos). Every one of those teams had awesome defenses, though.
- The only defenses that consistently have made me think “wow, this team is really tough to move the ball against” this year are the Ravens and Bears, which is unusual because there are normally four or five teams like that. But think about it. Did you consider sitting any of your fantasy starters against any other teams this year? I didn’t think so. And honestly, the Bears defense hasn’t looked that great in three weeks, although I’m hoping this is mostly due to lack of motivation and the fact that they were resting multiple guys with minor injuries (and legal problems).
- As much as everyone wants to blame Grossman for everything bad that happens to the Bears, they lost against Carolina last year because the defense came out flat and didn’t look like it did during the season. If that happens again, they’re going to lose. If the defense dominates like it did during the first part of this year, they’ll beat anybody they play. Period.
- There’s more hard evidence that Shawne Merriman used steroids than there is against Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa combined. The NFL, fans, and media can let it slide, but the football gods aren’t letting this go unpunished (note: I don’t actually believe in football gods, but I do think karma/justice has a way of rearing its head in sports, especially in playoff games - explain it however you want to). (Second note: can we all just agree on one way to spell "Shawn?")
- Three teams are supposedly in trouble because they’re relying on young QBs that have looked bad at times this year – the Bears, Cowboys, and Chargers. For some reason the Cowboys are getting a free pass from everyone in this respect, when in actuality they’re the only team on that list that depends on the quarterback to wins games for them on a regular basis.
- Drew Brees passed for almost 4500 yards this year. That’s a pantheon passing attack, right up there with the Dan Fouts Chargers, Marino’s Dolphins, Manning’s Colts, and Warner’s Rams. By the way, anyone want to guess how many road playoff games/playoff upsets those teams won combined? Anyway, I don’t have time to look it up, but I don’t think it was a lot. I’m amending the Sports Guy’s first rule of playoff gambling – mine goes “Never back a Quarterback with ridiculous numbers on the road.”
- I have to work next weekend, so pray that the Bears are the Saturday night game so I can catch the whole thing (and also that they are NOT the early game on Sunday).
- I’m not going to predict everything since that went soooooo well with baseball this year, but I think the best game of the first round will be the Jets-Patriots – it’s a division game with more bad blood and better teams than Giants-Eagles.
- The NFC East this year reminds me of the NFC Central back in the ‘90s: you occasionally had one legitimately good team, but for the most part you had three or four average teams that beat up on each other and one or two bad teams. And other than the Packers winning the NFC a couple of times, those teams always were disappointing in the playoffs, too.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
A half order of Nacho-Rama, with playoffs.
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5 comments:
Well said, especially about the Cowboys. Of course this looks lame because it's after the fact, but we should quickly review how the Seahawks won: Hasselbeck threw two touchdown passes to Jerramy Stevens, the defense came up with two huge plays, and Tony Romo blew the game. That's it. (Well, that's it for the ending...of course other things contributed.)
I'm assuming Carlton - wrote that last comment. Ek, I commend you for your working in carrying the VT all of these months. Your due diligence will not go unrewarded.
Also, there was a great article in the AJC about how Ownership transfers (for both the Hawks and Braves) are ruining those franchises ability to compete. An excellent read (I'll try to figure out how to link to it).
Yeah, it was. For some reason, when we switched to the new version of Blogger, all of Carlton's comments - and nobody else's - got switched to "anonymous." So, sorry about that, Carlton.
I know that nobody will believe this now, but I would have gotten at least three, and possibly all four, games right this weekend had I picked them (I'm not sure which way I would have gone on Jets-Patriots; in retrospect it would have been idiotic to pick the Jets, but I could easily see myself having done it anyway). If I had to pick next week's games now, I'd be going with the Pats, Ravens, Bears, and Saints, although that's strictly based on my initial hunches.
And, barring a miracle, it looks like I'm going to miss the entire Bears game at work. Grr. Hopefully they will win so that I'll get to watch them in at least one playoff game this year...and feast on a delicious Ruth's Chris steak for free.
Ek...we are going to miss you this weekend at Rob's place. Sorry to hear you are missing the Bears game. That sucks.
I'm looking at it this way - if they win, I'll get to watch them in the NFC Championship and possibly the Super Bowl, whereas if they lose, then actually watching the game would just make me depressed for a whole week (it still may anyway; that's not been tested). But yeah, I'd rather be watching the game and much rather be at Rob's place. Oh well.
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