The NFL is Poop - Wild Card Playoffs

Seattle Seahawks 35 Washington Redskins 14
This was the closest 35-14 game in playoff history. The fact is, the Redskins should have won. But once again Joe Gibbs cost his team a chance with his 1980s playcalling. I know Al Saunders does the playcalling but the buck stops with the head coach.
The first time Gibbs went conservative was when he played for a field goal after the Redskins had just recovered the kickoff after taking a 14-13 lead. Gibbs was content to take a 17-13 lead so he took no shots at the end zone from the 14 yard line. When it resulted in a missed field goal the whole game turned around.
By the way, the Redskins have been haunted by horrible field goal kickers ever since Chip Lohmiller left.
The Redskins got another chance after Matt Hasselbeck threw his second interception to Laron Landry.
Only this one pinned the Redskins at the 9 yard line, and a penalty moved them back to the 5.
And this is what they did, first down run to Sellers 2 yards. Second down, draw to Portis, 2 yards. There were still 9 minutes left and the Redskins were counting on their defense to stop the Seahawks without a first down.
Obviously it didn't happen. The Seahawks took over at the 42 and scored a touchdown. Then on the first play Todd Collins threw his first interception of the year and thanks to Santana Moss who quit on the play, Marcus Trufant returned it for a touchdown. 2 plays, 2 touchdowns. Game over.
Not everything was Gibbs's fault. The team basically played 3 horrible quarters on offense, and the defense was employing a bend but don't break strategy. 5 good minutes shouldn't be enough to win a playoff game, but it almost was, until Gibbs played not to lose.
And one more thing, the emotion from Sean Taylor's death had nothing to do with this game. They were not worn out in the first three quarters, they were not energized in the beginning of the 4th and they didn't collapse because they were emotionally spent. It had zero impact on the game.





Jacksonville Jaguars 31 Pittsburgh Steelers 29
Mike Tomlin cost his team the game in a similar fashion, and he's much younger than Gibbs. First off as usual Tomlin fucked up the 2-point conversion. I don't disagree with going for it down 5 with 10 minutes to go, but when there was a penalty backing them up to the 12, the odds of a successful conversion drop from 40% to probably around 10%. Terrible decision. Even more galling was his putting his whole season in the hands of his defense to give up at the most 1 first down at the end of the game.
With 3:43 left at their own 22 the Steelers tried 3 running plays, including a quarterback draw on 3rd and 6, to get the Jaguars to use their timeouts. They needed a first down, one first down can win the game in that spot. Plus, there was no way the Jags weren't going to be able to score with 2:50 left.
The Jags got the ball at midfield and Pittsburgh's defense almost saved Tomlin. They forced the Jags into a 4th and 2, but David Garrard got free and won the game with his legs.
If you aren't a Steelers fan who now hates your incompetent new coach you probably enjoyed this game very much. Definitely the most fun, back and forth affair of the weekend, and the only game won by fewer than 10 points.




New York Giants 24 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14
For the first quarter the Giants had negative total yards. The Bucs defense was flying around killing them, but Manning turned the game around by leading a good drive in the second quarter. He took advantage of the Bucs' aggressiveness by pump-faking and was accurate throwing the ball. A real coming out party for Manning. But really the Bucs offense just wasn't all that good.



San Diego Chargers 17 Tennessee Titans 6
This game was closer than it should have been because once again the Chargers didn't play with that do or die attitude that the best teams have. The Titans completely took Tomlinson out of the game early and I think they could have broken the Chargers spirit if they could have done anything on offense. Philip Rivers gets a lot of criticism but he threw a lot of sharp deep passes. Both Chris Chambers and Vincent Jackson had more than 100 yards receiving, and that was without Gates drawing the safeties. I was impressed with Rivers, and with the Shawn(e)s on their defense but the Chargers are going to need a lot better effort if they are going to beat the Colts.



Games of Next Week
Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers
This game will come down to whichever quarterback makes fewer mistakes. Favre definitely has the potential to make more plays but if he gets loose and slings it around the Seahawks secondary will make him pay.

Jacksonville Jaguars at New England Patriots
I am not giving the Jags much of a chance to win this game, they just haven't impressed me. I think their defensive strength (size up front) will be neutralized by the Patriots speed. If Jacksonville can run effectively and dominate time of possession they have a chance, but I just don't see the Patriots losing, they make all the plays when they need to.

San Diego Chargers at Indianapolis Colts
The Chargers are a frequent disappointment but I still believe they have the talent to knock off the Colts. If we get an accurate, smart Peyton Manning hitting Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark and Anthony Gonzalez (and Marvin Harrison, if healthy), the Chargers are going to have trouble keeping up. If the Chargers D can pressure Manning and take Addai out of the game, maybe they have a chance, but don't expect 6 more interceptions.

New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys
The myth that it's hard to beat a team three times in one season is at work here. Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, teams have played three games in the same season 53 times, but only 17 of those included teams that won both regular-season matchups, according to STATS Inc. In 11 of those 17 games, the team that won the first two games also won the third, the last time by St. Louis over Seattle in 2004. The reason being if you won the first two times you're probably better, and if you're better you're probably going to win the third time also. But these teams are headed in different directions right now and if Manning plays with confidence this could be a good one.