Wild Card Weekend

[Buchanty]

I was trying to work out why I was so downhearted after the wild card weekend, other than not seeing the Patriots in action. I guess the main reason is that the weekend began with a pretty good game in Seattle and progressively went down hill with each game, with the Chargers winning a stinker.

I hope that next week's games are better, but to be honest the NFC teams look as if they could progress next week, and Jacksonville may give the Pats a decent game, but the AFC teams did not look playoff ready. The least said about the Dungy-invited Titans the better.

Things that impressed me on a less than stellar quartet of games:

Seahawks defense: actually both teams in this one played well on the D, but Patrick Kerney was the difference maker on the line and Truffaunt in the secondary. I hope Kerney gets DPoY rather than Sanders who seems to be a shoe-in, though I can't fully understand why.

Seahawks wideouts: pretty decent showing, and will be even better if Branch makes it back for the game against GB. Hasselbeck wasn't at his best but got the yards when he needed them.

Jacksonville resiliency: their running game was shut down and Garrard proved his fallibility, but the final drive was an act of will and determination, they needed it because their D escaped a bullet with the Steelers QB draw play on 3 and 6 that meant a FG would win the game (Tomlin what were you thinking?).

Giants Passing Offense: I never thought I would say this but Eli Manning had a very good game and "gasp" in the playoffs. I thought the whole team was pumped and ready to play unlike the Bucs. They definitely benefited from playing 60 minutes against the Pats last week. An amusing thought is that the Giants are a team that we beat on the road and they beat the only division leader that Ind beat in the regular season (at the RCA dome by the way)...oh and the Bucs lost the wild card at their home (so who had the weaker schedule again?)

Chargers: this was really hard to come up with something that impressed me, and much has I hate to congratulate Mr Classy himself, Tomlinson had the cool play of the day after being stopped on a terrific jump play and while still standing calmly placing the ball over the line.

Nine interceptions on Saturday compared to four on Sunday, prior to the weekend I would have bet the opposite.

Well here's to some better games next week!

 

[strongside]

I was trying to work out why I was so downhearted after the wild card weekend, other than not seeing the Patriots in action. I guess the main reason is that the weekend began with a pretty good game in Seattle and progressively went down hill with each game, with the Chargers winning a stinker.

I hope that next week's games are better, but to be honest the NFC teams look as if they could progress next week, and Jacksonville may give the Pats a decent game, but the AFC teams did not look playoff ready. The least said about the Dungy-invited Titans the better.

Things that impressed me on a less than stellar quartet of games:

Seahawks defense: actually both teams in this one played well on the D, but Patrick Kerney was the difference maker on the line and Truffaunt in the secondary. I hope Kerney gets DPoY rather than Sanders who seems to be a shoe-in, though I can't fully understand why.

Seahawks wideouts: pretty decent showing, and will be even better if Branch makes it back for the game against GB. Hasselbeck wasn't at his best but got the yards when he needed them.

Jacksonville resiliency: their running game was shut down and Garrard proved his fallibility, but the final drive was an act of will and determination, they needed it because their D escaped a bullet with the Steelers QB draw play on 3 and 6 that meant a FG would win the game (Tomlin what were you thinking?).

Giants Passing Offense: I never thought I would say this but Eli Manning had a very good game and "gasp" in the playoffs. I thought the whole team was pumped and ready to play unlike the Bucs. They definitely benefited from playing 60 minutes against the Pats last week. An amusing thought is that the Giants are a team that we beat on the road and they beat the only division leader that Ind beat in the regular season (at the RCA dome by the way)...oh and the Bucs lost the wild card at their home (so who had the weaker schedule again?)

Chargers: this was really hard to come up with something that impressed me, and much has I hate to congratulate Mr Classy himself, Tomlinson had the cool play of the day after being stopped on a terrific jump play and while still standing calmly placing the ball over the line.

Nine interceptions on Saturday compared to four on Sunday, prior to the weekend I would have bet the opposite.

Well here's to some better games next week!

Two things that I took out of the games were:

Ok, I get that Seattle has this 12th man flag gimmick and its as loud as hell, but I can't believe that for a playoff game they had Jamie Moyer raise the flag and the place was going nuts. That would be like Bruse Hust sending the Gillette crowd into a tizzy

second, Del Rio's leather jacket makes him look like the Fonze