1. TEBOW!!!!! How can you not love this guy? It seems like every week just when we’re ready to count him out, Tebow does something amazing. This week it was something no one thought he could do – look like an elite NFL quarterback. My biggest question, however, is this – What was Pittsburgh thinking in overtime?! One of the qualities every championship level team has to have is the ability to adapt to what their opponent is doing. Now, I like Mike Tomlin and Dick Lebeau a lot, but they dropped the ball yesterday. From the start, Denver’s plan was obvious; spread-option run the ball, and use play-action to attack the defense down the field. The short-to-intermediate passing game (where Tebow really struggles because he’s about as accurate as a blind sniper) was nonexistent. Watch the last play of overtime here, and click pause at the 0:04 second mark. Notice how the defense has no one deeper than 5 yards off the ball. In a league where a corner can’t even look at a wide receiver without drawing a flag, how are you supposed to stop the skinny post without safety help? Now, you could claim that Pittsburgh had no way of knowing Denver would run the skinny post, but in order to claim that you would have to not been watching the game. Denver ran some version of that play a half-dozen times! If you freeze that clip again at the 0:08 mark when Thomas catches the ball, he’s already behind the entire defense, and he’s only 20 yards down-field.
Considering the new overtime rules (if a team kicks a field goal on the opening possession the opposing team is allotted one opportunity with the ball) you should always have safety help over the top to protect against a big play. On that possession the only thing that can end the game is a TD. Why risk giving up an 80 yard bomb? I understand that there was run-action on the play, but has Denver’s rushing attack become so unstoppable that you need all 11 guys within the line of scrimmage to stop it? Also, consider this – What happens if Denver does run the ball and McGahee breaks one tackle and gets to the nonexistent third level? We’ve heard of teams playing prevent defense at the end of games at getting burned, but this time we saw the opposite – a defensive scheme that was too aggressive and in the end, cost Pittsburgh the game.
2. At what point are people going to point out that Matt Ryan doesn’t win big games? Yesterday, the Atlanta Falcons were embarrassed for the 2nd straight year in the playoffs. Last season, after finishing with the number 1 seed in the regular season, Atlanta lost at home to Green Bay (the eventual champs) 48-21. The Falcons decided to take that game to heart and improve their offense in the offseason (they traded multiple picks to move up in the draft and take Alabama stud Julio Jones). The Falcons had clearly decided that to take the next step they would need to develop their passing game to be able to score with the likes of Green Bay. Fast-forward a year to yesterday. That prolific offense that Atlanta supposedly created scored a grand total of zero offensive points against the Giants (a team who Vegas made only a 3-point favorite, which essentially means equal – you get 3 points for being the home team typically).
Now, after watching yesterday’s game, I think it’s pretty clear that the Giants were the better team, are definitely one of the top eight teams in the league, and deserve to make the next round, but like the Pittsburgh game, what was Atlanta thinking?! Four times yesterday, yes FOUR, Atlanta had a 3rd or 4th and one or less on the cusp of the redzone. The plays in those situations were as follows – Michael Turner run (stuffed) full back run (stuffed), quarterback sneak (stuffed), quarterback sneak (stuffed). Rewind to what we earlier talked about – the lesson Atlanta took from the Green Bay playoff game last year was to win now you have to be able to score points. Does anyone here think that Green Bay put up 48 points running those plays? The ONLY part of the Giants’ defense that is elite (or really, even above average) is that defensive line. Why in the Hell would the Falcons think in a critical moment, they would be able to push Osi, Tuck, JPP and others off the line? Then, to make it worse, why would they think they could do it the fourth opportunity after getting stuffed the first three? HELLO, MIKE SMITH?? YOU THERE?? Do you have dinner plans next weekend that you just can’t cancel? Why not ONCE try throwing to Julio Jones (you remember, that guy you traded 15 draft picks, your kidney, and your collector’s set of MASH DVD’s to draft). I’m not sure if Mike Smith or Matty Checkdown (hey, Matt, you know what happens when you throw 2 yard outs to Roddy White on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd down? You punt) are going to get any heat for this loss because in Atlanta it seems Mike Vick set the bar so low electrocuting dogs that no one else can do wrong, but there needs to be some serious one-on-one time with a mirror for both of them.
3. I’m really excited for the Saints to lose. For me, they have gone from the lovable team that represented an unnecessarily beaten city to the 2007 New England Patriots, trying to score as many points as possible. On Saturday night, already leading by two scores with under 5 minutes to play, they Saints were still throwing the ball, trying their best to score one last “eff-you” touchdown. My question is who exactly are they saying “eff-you” to? The public, in general, loves the Saints. At least in 2007 the Patriots were trying to prove to everyone that they didn’t need to cheat to win (spy gate had just happened). It isn’t like the Saints can’t run the ball. Pierre Thomas was breaking more tackles then Lindsey Lohan running out of a club when the police show up and Darren Sproles has been a monster all year round. I have to admit, there was a tiny part of me that wanted to see Ndamukong (you better believe I had to look that up) Suh sprain Brees’ shoulder there so I could yell “Hey, assholes, that why you don’t do that,” but alas, it didn’t happen. At some point Brees, who does throw his share of picks, is going to throw a pick-6 that flips a game. I’ll be right here smirking.
And that brings me to Drew Brees. I’ll admit, I used to be all in on him, but the Brees love has gone way too far. Yes, he broke Dan Marino’s passing record, but considering Rodgers, Manning, Stafford, and Brady were all within 500 yards of the record and it doesn’t seem as big a deal. The “Brees is MVP” stuff is absurd. While he did throw the most yards consider the following factors (I will compare him to Rodgers, Brady, and Manning who I think were all just as, if not more, deserving; FIRST. Brees played 11 games indoors this year, which is more than the other three combined – Rodgers (3), Eli (3), Brady (0). Indoors means 72 degrees and zero wind. I’ll go ahead and let you think about how often those are the conditions in Green Bay, Massachusetts, and New Jersey in November and December. SECOND. Brees threw for 46 TDs and 14 picks, Brady threw for 39 TDs and 12 picks, and Rodgers threw for 45 TDs and 6 (yeah seriously, 6) picks (and sat out the last game. Feels like he might have thrown a TD or two against that Lions secondary, right?) How many of Brees’ TDs (and yards) were from piling on versus crappy opponents? New Orleans won games this year by 28, 29, 22, 25, and 55 points (damn, Colts). It’s not out of the question to say that Brees picked up maybe 6-8 unnecessary touchdowns and probably 600-1000 garbage yards. In those situations Green Bay, New York, and even New England are trying to run the ball and get outta’ town. THIRD. Rodgers had zero games all year with multiple picks, Brees had 5 games with multiple picks (and 2 of those games he probably cost them a chance to win).
Look, I’m not saying Brees isn’t great, he obviously is. What I’m saying is Rodgers is the MVP, Brees did not have any better of a season than Brady, and Eli isn’t that far behind. **Also, here’s a personal message to Drew, I love how much charity work you do. Seems like you are a great guy and keep it up, but we don’t need to know every time you throw 50 cents into the Salvation Army bucket via your Twitter account. Calm down Drew.
4. I don’t have very many thoughts about the Bengals v. Texans game. It all basically played out how we thought it would. The two young QBs made some plays and made some mistakes, In the end, the Texans ran the ball really well and played lockdown defense, which is basically what they did all year.
My one thought is this – I’m not sure the Texans can’t win next week at Baltimore too. The Texans have two elite facets to their team (run-game and defense) and have a quarterback that is at least competent. Is that not the same way you feel about the Ravens? Honestly, I might take the Texans defense and run game over Baltimore’s. Is Joe Flacco really any better than T.J. Yates? If I’m a Raven’s fan, I’m at least nervous for this week.
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