Sunday, January 8, 2012

And Then There Were Eight

The first weekend of NFL playoffs is in the books now, and it was a fascinating set of games.

First, how about those Texans?  What an improbable group, and you have to admire how they have managed to keep winning in spite of injuries that would have made lesser men give up.  It speaks to the character of the team and the quality of the coaching that the Texans have gotten to this point in spite of a plague of quarterback injuries. 

As the commentators picked up on just after halftime, there was a bit of Badger revenge in the Texan-Bengal match-up.  A year ago, Andy Dalton’s TCU team upset J.J. Watts’ Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl.  But Dalton and the Bengals never really recovered from Watts’ pick-six and sack at the end of the first half. 

Then there was the Lions’ visit to New Orleans.  What can you say?  I was pulling for the Lions, but not because I like them: I was just less afraid of seeing them again than of hosting the red-hot Saints on January 22nd.  That said, the better team won, and as my personal rankings below indicate, I’m not sorry to see the Lions go home.

Sunday’s two games, meanwhile, were night-and-day different.  The first game was a rout, while the second game was an overtime thriller.

Atlanta was embarrassed in New York.  I suppose that is a little better than being embarrassed at home, which is how they were knocked out of the playoffs last year.  But rarely have we seen such offensive ineptitude by a playoff team.  Remember that Peter King picked the Falcons to go to Indy and win it all.  But boy did they stink it up today: shut out on offense, and regularly shut down on 3rd- and 4th-and-short.  Ugly.  It’s going to be a long offseason in Atlanta, where folks expected a good team to take it up to the next level. 

And then there was the late game:  Pittsburgh in Denver.  In the first quarter, Denver looked impotent, and it seemed that if the Steelers just cleaned up their own sloppiness, they’d run away with the game.  But then, in the second quarter, Denver came to life.  It was a remarkable performance, which will only add to the Tebow legend.  How many guys throw for over 300 yards with only 10 completions?

In the second half, though, it looked like the old, grizzled, playoff-tested team was going to show the poise and talent to come back and win it on the road.  Denver couldn’t do much on offense, while the Steelers had that look of inevitability.

If the Broncos had lost, I would have been pretty bitter about that inadvertent whistle on the backward pass that was ruled as an incompletion.  Denver would have had the ball in the red zone, they would have gotten at least some points, and they would have had, I think, an insurmountable momentum and lead.  Instead, the Steelers kept the ball, drove down the field, and regained momentum on their own side for the rest of the second half. 

Then came overtime.  Hating the prospect of a big Pittsburgh comeback, I was yelling at the TV.  “Throw the ball,” I called out, “they’re not expecting it!”  And, sure enough, on a great play action pass, the Broncos scored on the first play, winning after just 11 seconds of overtime play.  Amazing.

In the end, I went two-for-two this weekend.  Both my AFC picks won, while both my NFC picks lost.  We can’t have that continue into next weekend!  On the other hand, all four home teams won this weekend, and we’d certainly be happy to see that trend continue for the rest of the playoffs.

I have copied below my own personal-preference rankings of the 6 AFC playoff teams, the 6 NFC playoff teams, and all 12 NFL playoff teams.  All in all, it was a good weekend for me, as the two teams I hated most have both been knocked out.  And so my worst-case Super Bowl scenario is extinct, and I can bid farewell to Ndamukong Suh, Matthew Stafford, “Big Ben,” James Harrision, and Troy Polamalu.  Good riddance.  I may not be happy about who takes home the Lombardi Trophy come February, but at least I know now that I won’t be mortified.

 

AFC

  1. Houston Texans
  2. Denver Broncos
  3. Cincinnati Bengals
  4. Baltimore Ravens
  5. New England Patriots
  6. Pittsburgh Steelers

NFC

  1. Green Bay Packers
  2. Atlanta Falcons
  3. New York Giants
  4. New Orleans Saints
  5. San Francisco 49ers
  6. Detroit Lions

NFL

  1. Green Bay Packers
  2. Houston Texans
  3. Atlanta Falcons
  4. Denver Broncos
  5. Cincinnati Bengals
  6. New York Giants
  7. New Orleans Saints
  8. Baltimore Ravens
  9. New England Patriots
  10. San Francisco 49ers
  11. Detroit Lions
  12. Pittsburgh Steelers

 

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