Diamond In the Rough

Okay, full disclosure.  It wasn't a very good football weekend for me.  Granted, the Packers did win - in spectacular fashion mind you - and I'm grateful for that.  But, in this house, the Playoffs are more than a single game.  And the results of the other three left a bad taste in my mouth.


Dear Baltimore Ravens; thank you so very, very much for granting us the possibility of a seventh, Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl victory.  Thank you for reminding us, yet again, that you guys haven't had a dependable offense since... well... ever.  I understand that the sixth-seeded Jets upset the first-seeded Patriots and the sixth-seeded Packers crushed the first-seeded Falcons, and the 7-9 Seahawks defeated the 11-5 New Orleans Saints last week, but seriously, if there was a bigger playoff meltdown this season, I didn't see it.  Baltimore went into halftime up 21-7.  Against a Ray Lewis defense a 14-point lead should have been insurmountable.  But before you rip into said old, tired defense, consider this.  Ray Rice has made a living hanging on to the football.  This year alone, 404 touches without a fumble.  Saturday night he softly coughs up the ball on a dump-off at the Baltimore 23 yard-line just after the start of the third quarter.  Give Ben Roethlisberger a chance just three yards outside the red zone and he's going to hurt you with it.  Then Joe Flacco floats a pass into a two deep safety zone, over the head of Todd Heap and into the hands of Ryan Clark, which he then returned to the 25.  Three plays later the Steelers were in the endzone again.  Then Flacco fumbled the snap, leading to another Pittsburgh recovery and field goal to take the lead.  Then it got really bad.  In all his years in Arizona, Anquan Boldin was known as the guy who made ridiculous catches in traffic.  The guy has had his jaw broken going up to make a catch and still hung onto the football for crying out loud!  Yet Saturday night, in a position to retake the lead, Flacco hit a diving Boldin in the chest with a pass he could have caught in his sleep for a touchdown - and he dropped it.  Finally, on 4th & 18 with 30 seconds remaining in the game, Flacco hits T.J. Houshmanzadeh in the hands on the Pittsburgh 35 to extend the drive and give the Ravens a chance to tie the game - and he dropped it.  The guy who spent the past eight weeks complaining about how he wasn't getting the ball enough, dropped said ball when it mattered the most.  Pittsburgh didn't win that game.  Baltimore gave it away.  On a silver platter.  Trimmed in gold leaf.


Then there was Seattle.  I know, I know, they weren't supposed to be there anyway, and I'm not surprised that they lost.  What surprised me was the manner in which they did so.  Last weekend the Seahawks defeated the defending champion New Orleans Saints in spectacular fashion, capped of by the most impressive offensive touchdown run anyone has made since the retirement of Barry Sanders.  Marshawn Lynch pinballed his way for 67 yards, breaking eight (or nine) tackles (depending on what one counts as a tackle), and throwing aside Saints Super Bowl hero Tracy Porter like a loaf of moldy bread on his way to the endzone.  The crowd went so berserk that the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network registered an earthquake beneath Qwest Field.  Over-the-hill and balding Matt Hasselbeck threw for over 300 yards and four touchdowns on his way to victory.  Fast forward eight days, and those same receivers that caught four touchdowns couldn't catch a cold against the Bears.  It was as if every single Seahawk wearing an eligible number had also laced up a pair of boxing gloves.  Offense, defense, didn't matter.  Nobody wanted the ball.  I stopped counting Seattle's dropped passes after they hit double digits.  I stopped watching after they punted away their first nine possessions.  Oh, and how in the world do you not cover Greg Olsen deep down the middle of the field?  Lawyer Milloy has played in this league for the last 35 hundred years, he should know better than to get beaten by a 250-pound tight end on a go-route up the seam!


Like a lot of people, I'm a little tired of the New York Jets.  (Let's be honest, if this team played in Minnesota nobody would ever talk about them.)  More specifically, Rex Ryan.  Some people like that he steps up to the microphone every single week and says something ridiculous.  I happen to believe that people who routinely say ridiculous things probably happen to think ridiculous things as well.  But, for the second week in a row, Ryan's players have played big enough to back up his big mouth.  For the second week in a row, the Jets defense made a Super Bowl MVP quarterback look like a freshman started at Notre Dame.  And let's give credit where credit is due.  There has never been a better NFL cornerback than Darrelle Revis.  Never.  That includes the Hall-of-Fame-bound Deion Sanders.  Deion Branch might as well have been wearing a green and white inflatable bubble around him Sunday night.  Over the last two weeks, two Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks with four Super Bowl victories between them have thrown a grand total of two passes to receivers covered by Revis.  Two.  Out of 75 attempts.  One for one yard and the other incomplete.  Wow.  I guess when you have eight linebackers/defensive backs that only have to cover half the football field, it's going to be next to impossible to move the ball.  Tom Brady and Peyton Manning found that out the hard way.


I was more than a little surprised at how unprepared New England seemed for New York's coverage scheme.  They had the Indianapolis tape.  What exactly had they been watching for two weeks?


Finally, what to say about Green Bay?  Honestly, prior to Saturday night's performance, I expected a tight, defensive struggle, and wouldn't have been surprised had Atlanta come out on top.  And once the Packers went down 14-7 on the Eric Weems kick return I figured I was in for a long night.  But something happened between my first and second slices of pizza.  Green Bay hit on drives on 92 and 80-yards for touchdowns, then stunned Matt Ryan with a pick-six as time expired in the half.  Thirty minutes, two touchdowns and two field goals later it was all over.  In case that doesn't impress you, the Packers could have left their punter back in Wisconsin.  They didn't need him.  Not once.


I know I've said this before, but I think it's worth repeating.  I'm not sure the first round bye actually helps teams in the playoffs.  Last season being the exception that proves the rule (both number one seeds met in the Super Bowl), good teams more often than not seem to suffer from the loss of momentum caused by the week off.  I know coaches believe it gives players time to rest and recover, and additional time to study their opponents, but two weeks of preparation didn't help the Patriots or the Steelers, and it certainly didn't help the Falcons.  It seems as thought, at least going into the playoffs, getting on a roll matters more than getting healthy.


As for predictions for next week, I have none.  Every attempt I've made at calling a playoff game this season has ended poorly.  I will say that with Seattle and Baltimore out I have only one chip left on the table.  So its Green Bay or bust from this point on.  Stock up on snacks for Sunday.