Amazing weekend of football. Three road teams and a huge home underdog come out victorious. I always say the the Divisional Round is the best weekend of NFL Football there is so I am very excited for next week, but before we move on to analyzing those match ups let's take a quick look back at what we learned this week.
1) Aaron Rodgers is amazing. And while we're at it, so are Clay Matthews and Tramon Williams. Great team effort by the Packers. Really tough game on the road next week at Atlanta but if they can win that one they will be big favorite against either opponent in the NFC Championship.
2) Baltimore is going to be a tough out. They really looked dominant out there today. Admittedly, I am not the biggest Joe Flacco fan but it is hard to not admire what he was able to do against a good KC defense. The Ravens dominated the Chiefs on both sides of the ball and delivered the only blowout of the weekend. This is a confident team headed into Pittsburgh next week.
3) Seattle isn't a joke. They beat the defending Super Bowl champions at home and Pete Carroll had his team really playing with energy. The haters who gave the Seahawks "literally no chance" to win in the first round have shut up a little bit and they probably still believe Seattle doesn't have a shot to win another game. All I say to the people picking the Bears next week, just remember that Seattle has already won at Soldier Field this season.
4) The Jets can win even without Mark Sanchez playing well. That was nice for Jets fans that they were able to beat the Colts without a strong showing from their QB, but one week from tonight if we are saying again that Mark Sanchez didn't play well, then the Jets playoff life will be over. That team won't go into New England and win unless the play the perfect game which involves Sanchez being sharp. However, if the Jets can run the ball like they did against the Colts and dominate the clock, anything is possible.
5) LT looks fresh again. So Rex Ryan might have known what he was doing when he decreased LaDainian's role during the dog days of the regular season. LT had his most carries since week 10 of the regular season on Sunday and the results were obvious. Tomlinson looked quick and elusive running the ball and if healthy, he will be a big factor in the rest of the playoffs.
6) Michael Vick's progression as a quarterback might have been a bit overstated. If you look at the year Vick had holistically, his numbers were quite good but there was a big problem with his game that the stats don't account for - Vick was inconsistent all season. His season can be characterized by spurts of greatness and stretches of ineffectiveness. Sometime's Vick tried to do too much and wound up making mistakes. Many will disagree with me here because he put up huge fantasy numbers week in and week out and only threw 6 interceptions, but there were a number times this season the Eagle's offense was stagnant for quarters at a time because of Vick's mediocre passing accuracy and that fault falls on the QB.
7) Losing your #1 and #2 running backs the week before a playoff game is crippling. Example for this is the 2010-2011 New Orleans Saints. Brees has been so effective the last two years because of the emergence of Pierre Thomas, Chris Ivory, and the running game in New Orleans. Now this year with only Julius Jones and Reggie Bush as healthy ball carriers in the playoffs, the lack of balance on offense came back to bite the Saints. Yes, they were able to score points without running the football, but they weren't able to dominate time of possession and let the Seahawks offense spend a lot of time on the field.
8) Marshawn Lynch is still beast mode
9) Darrelle Revis is better than you even knew. "Reggie Wayne? Reggie? Where did you go? I thought you were on the Colts? I haven't heard your name at all today, so I guess you got traded or something." The NFL's best defensive player shadowed the man who many consider among the best two or three wide receivers in the NFL on Saturday for the entire game and allowed 1 catch for 1 yard total, and that was on a 3rd down and 15. Revis simply dominated the matchup and made Peyton look elsewhere all day which really hurt the Colts ability to up points. Revis will be a big part of containing Brady next week, as his leadership and impact to the Jets defense is invaluable. Meanwhile, despite the 0 total interceptions all year by Revis because QB's just don't throw at him, the All-Pro corner hasn't lost a step and reaffirmed to the NFL why his preseason holdout was a big deal.
No comments:
Post a Comment