Sunday, January 6, 2008

Playoff Football

This is a post about NFL playoff football...not some sort of whiny post about how the BCS system is screwed up and that there should be a college football playoff. I don't even think I agree with that anyway. Plus that's all anyone ever talks about...stop whining.

Where was I?

Oh yeah...tonight's NFL games were pretty fun to watch, the Steelers vs. Jaguars was much better though. I just didn't care who won the Redskins vs. Seahawks. The funny thing is that I don't think either winning team has a chance to win next week.

The Seahawks have to travel to Green Bay and play against God's team...starring God's Quarterback. (note: I refer to Favre that way because...from what I understand...Favre is 2nd, only to Jesus, of God's favorite people.) The HOX don't have much of a running game and Hasselbeck's hand is a bit gimpy...plus he was terrible today...against a bad defense. The PACK have a good defense. Plus they have Favre and his perpetual 5 o'clock shadow. So dreamy!

The Jaguars have to play either Indy or New England. I will venture to say that they have no chance against either (barring injury of course!). They won't be able to keep up with Indy on the turf...and the Patriots will force Garrard to throw the ball (and look how that worked out tonight!)

I was just excited to see the Steelers lose. Although, they got almost got the win because Marvin Lewis apparently took over Jack Del Rio's body for the end of game mismanagement. Here's what happened...

2:40 remaining (1 TO left) - Garrard makes a bad throw that the receiver has to dive for and obviously traps the ball. There is time to look at the replays before deciding to challenge or not. Replay's show that the ball blatantly hitting the ground...NBC even zooms in really close to show the contact. Del Rio challenges anyway. The ref takes about 4 seconds to look at the video and announces they play stands as called. With amazing restraint he does not openly mock Del Rio for that boneheaded decision. Jags lose their only remaining time out.

2:30 remaining - Jags make a nice 7 yard gain. There are about 20 seconds remaining before the 2-minute warning. Del Rio does not have his players ready with a play so they waste 20 SECONDS putzing around and effectively lose a play that they could have run. At this point I am ranting at the TV and Mikah is wondering if she made a smart decision to marry me.

2:00 remaining - Jags line up in the shotgun, effectively limiting themselves to a passing play. (NOTE: they were limited because Pittsburgh was going to blitz heavily. Dick LeBeau always blitzes heavily in that spot.) Troy Polumolueasdnkesas blitzes hard off the edge and a couple other guys get a nice rush on...forcing a poor throw.

1:55 remaining - 4th down. The season rests on this play. They line up in the shotgun again and run a QB draw. I only partially like this decision. It worked out really well of course, but I am not a big fan of allowing the defense to potentially get pressure and force your QB to gain 8 yards instead of only 3. I think they should have run the ball on 3rd and 4th. I also don't like the decision for Pittsburgh not to blitz there...although I understand the thought process. The backers were just going to jump the short routes over the middle...but the draw was perfectly executed by everyone, so it worked.

I just don't see how a Jack Del Rio coached team can stay with a Dungy/Belichick coached team in the playoffs. Those dudes don't make terrible mistakes like Del Rio did/does.

We shall see.

Go Bucks!



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Labels: Indianapolis Colts, Jack Del Rio, New England Patriots, NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers

Posted by Adam Wilson :: 12:49 AM :: 1 comments

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