Divisional Round Overreactions

It’s the playoffs. We had four great games over the weekend, so let’s get right to it.

Raven vs. Pats (Pats win 35-31)

Do you think John Harbaugh has figured out who the eligible receivers are yet? I know he believes that “No one has ever seen anything like that before,” you know except the 2014 Detroit Lions and Alabama Crimson Tide. I understand Little John was just butt hurt that his team had just lost a game in which they had two, count them, two 14 point leads, but come on man that’s just embarrassing. The Ravens came to play on Saturday evening and really should have won; Flacco was good up until the fourth quarter (well the very end of the third) and the offensive line absolutely dominated the Pats’ front seven all day. As for the Pats, can we please stop overrating this defense? Yes Revis is nasty, as is Jamie Collins, but outside of those two this defense is just more of the same. The gameplan going into the game was not even horrible, I’m not sure I can think of an adjective to adequately describe how f’ing bad it was. “Hey, let’s open the game by not covering the Ravens’ best receiver.” “Good idea Bill, and after that I think it would be wise for us to completely ignore every guy that comes out of the backfield to catch a pass.” The Pats deserved to lose that game, and if not for Tom Brady being really freaking good; and Harbaugh and the Ravens’ Defense being really freaking dumb, they would not have. Positives for the Pats? Julian Edelman can still throw a mean deep ball, Danny Amendola remembered how to play football and Bill Belicheck is still playing chess while other coaches are looking for the net on their game of Mouse Trap. This will be the 9^th time that Brady/ Belichick have reached the conference championship game. A feat that no one else has come even close to (additionally, this will be the first time any team has played in four straight conf. champ games since the Bills of the early ‘90s…).

Panthers vs. Seahawks (Hawks win 31-17)

So this pretty much went as everyone expected. The Panthers made a furious bid to finish the season above .500, but anyone with a pair of eyes knows that they didn’t stand a chance up in Seattle. The Seahawks toyed with Cam and company for a little while before stepping on their throats in the fourth quarter and advancing to the NFC Championship game. Highlights? Cam Chancellor is a beast and if his back to back clean leaps over the Carolina FG unit are not enough for you, I present his game clinching 85 yd pick six. Additionally, as much as I hate Sneaky Pete and the rest of his 5^th round scrubs that won a SB right after leading the league in PED suspensions, I do like Russell Wilson. Little Russ just makes things happen and anyone who doesn’t respect that must be a Peyton manning fan. The Seahawks defense seems to be playing at the top of their game again, so we can pretty much say, “See you in Arizona.”

Cowboys vs. Packers (Pack wins 26-21)

Karma’s a bitch huh? After being awarded a victory on Wild Card Weekend via what can no doubt be called shady refereeing, the Cowboys lost after a dumb rule was properly applied. Yes, I believe Dez was reaching for the endzone, but he still didn’t complete the catch. Watching in real time with my wife (who is Aaron Rodgers’ #1 fan), she asked me, “How the heck did he do that?” My reply was simple, “He’s a beast, but if the Cowboys don’t hurry up and snap the ball that’s getting overturned.” And so it did. This was the most boring of all of the games this weekend, but that said it was still pretty fun to watch. The Packers earned the right to go and get destroyed by Seattle again, unless of course the aforementioned Mr. Rodgers has evicted them from the penthouse in-between his ears.

Colts vs. Broncos (Colts win 24-13)

Now here’s where things got tricky. Up until the final game of the weekend, each of the home teams held serve; but here comes Peyton Manning to the rescue. I hope everyone watched this game live, because it was likely the last time you will ever get to see Mr. Manning suit up for an NFL team. Peyton increased his record as the NFL’s most losing playoff QB (his record currently sits at 11-13) and is the architect of a stunning 9 one and done trips to the playoffs. Peyton was awful on Sunday evening- completing zero passes that traveled more than 5 yards in the air. It’s all good though, all of the articles that have come out in the days since are all about how “Being terrible in the playoffs shouldn’t tarnish Peyton’s legacy.” So every other player in history has his entire body of work judged, but not Manning, we can only talk about the good stuff he did? Screw that, anyone who takes that viewpoint is nothing but a spineless, ball washer that should have their press pass revoked. (Send this to Archie, I’ll tell him to go f*ck himself right to his face) Let’s talk about the Colts real quick. Andrew Luck was good and average in this game and a performance like that next week in New England is sure to land him another 20+ point loss to the Pats. (Yeah, the Donkeys lost the game, the Colts didn’t win it.)

 

There you have it, this week we find out who goes the Super Bowl. My pick is Pats vs Seahawks.