What to Make of This Weekend

I've been saying all along that this has been one of the strangest NFL seasons I can remember, so I suppose the results from this weekend's games should not come as a huge surprise. When the best teams in the league are a Giants team that seemed to be riding its momentum from their 2008 postseason run (until their star wide receiver shot himself in the leg...) and a Titans team that abandoned its opening day starting QB after less than one game for a 36-year-old journeyman, I guess you can probably say things didn't exactly go as expected.

From week 1, we knew this was going to be an odd year. Other than the Titans benching an injured Vince Young for the well-aged Kerry Collins (Young's injury was minor, but the benching turned out to be permanent), we saw the prohibitive favorite New England Patriots lose the reigning league MVP, Tom Brady, for the year week 1, thrusting a player (Matt Cassel) into the starting lineup that famously hadn't started a game since high school. We also saw a hurricane again derail a team's season (although a brutal opening schedule for the Texans was already a probably going to keep them from succeeding) and a superstar quarterback, Peyton Manning, struggle with injury, seemingly for the first time in his illustrious career.

As the season progressed, the good separated from the bad, but those on both ends came as huge surprises. The previously 1-15 Dolphins showed stunning signs of life, the Giants looked like a dominant force that was on a mission to repeat, the Titans were the final unbeaten team through 10 games, the Falcons were reborn with a new star QB (Matt Ryan) and a budding star RB (Michael Turner), and the entirety of teams in Western divisions looked like j.v. teams. On the other side, the much-hyped Jaguars never found any traction and eventually gave up on the season by week 10. The Detroit Lions finally rid themselves of GM Matt Millen, but celebrated by not winning a game all year. The also-hyped Browns suffered injuries and a major quarterback controversy before settling on Ken Dorsey to lead their failed season.

Why am I rehashing all of these old stories? Again, this is to give you the proper background for one of the most stunning postseason weekends in sports history.

On Saturday, the early game was one of two very popular upset picks: the Ravens over the Titans. I did not (and still don't, really) think the Ravens had the talent to compete with the Titans, and it showed on the field on Saturday. Unfortunately for Tennessee, talent alone does not win football games. The Ravens gameplan was very clear: control the ball, take very few chances and wait for the Titans to make mistakes. And they did. While the Ravens were very cautious offensively, picking their spots to take chances down the field, the Titans were aggressive and moved the ball very well. But the Ravens defense was its normal advantageous self, and each time the Titans made an error, the Ravens were there to pounce. I still feel the Titans are the better team, and it even showed, but luck was clearly on Baltimore's side (don't get me started on the blown delay of game call) and Baltimore took full advantage for the upset.

Little did we know, this was just the appetizer, and the best upset dish was to be served Saturday night. As I wrote on Friday, many Divisional round games have given us some great finishes, and often these games have come in the late-Saturday time slot. The Cardinals-Panthers game will not go down as a classic for one reason: only one team participated. Much of the criticism on Panthers coach John Fox in the aftermath of the stunning 33-13 blowout loss is on his defense's inability to adjust to the Cardinals offensive gameplan; that is, get the ball to Larry Freaking Fitzgerald. As if anyone thought the Cards would do otherwise. Yet L-Fitz was routinely single covered or running free in a zone while the Panthers secondary watched him go wherever he wanted.

Clearly, Carolina's inability to stop the Cards' greatest weapon doomed them, but let's not let the Panthers offensive gameplan off the hook. As much as we'd like to pile on poor Jake Delhomme for his career-worst performance, don't let the coaches get away easy. After the opening drive, the Panthers inexplicably abandoned the run and went into pass-wacky, air-it-out mode. Delhomme was constantly throwing deep (to Muhsin Muhammad, of all people) while the league's #3 ranked rush offense went under-utilized. Even knowing that they were behind by two scores fairly early, there's still no excuse for this. Not only did the Panthers abandon the run, but they also failed to use their RBs Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams in the passing game. Nor did they find a way to get arguably their best playmaker, WR Steve Smith, the ball in space with a chance to beat defenders 1-on-1.

Now, while it's easy to pick on the Panthers, credit certainly must be given to the Cardinals as well. Kurt Warner is playing at an elite QB level, largely because his offensive line is keeping him upright. There is no doubt that this has been the key to Warner's success in his career: keep him clean, and he'll win you games. If he gets knocked around, very bad things happen. (NOTE TO PHILADELPHIA: Get pressure on Kurt Warner!) As for the Cardinals defense, whoever found the on-switch for that unit deserves a big raise. They are playing with as much intensity and confidence as you'll ever see a defense have. They really remind me of the Colts defense the year they won the Super Bowl; it's been that kind of miraculous transformation from the regular season to the playoffs, although there's no single ingredient that has changed for Arizona like there was with Indy (Bob Sanders was hurt until the playoffs).

Sunday's games were a little less surprising, maybe because we were all so stunned still from the night before. The early game was probably the most-predicted upset (of the five Fox pre-game talking-heads, all except Michael Strahan (duh) picked the Eagles to win, although most of their reasons were weak at best) of the weekend. Philadelphia, legend has it, reminds everyone of last year's Giants. Fine, but they're facing this year's Giants, aka the NFC's best team, so is this some Bizarro football game, or what? Well, turns out Eli Manning really, really, REALLY, misses Plaxico Burress after all. The Eagles won the game by minimizing the damage the Giants could do on the ground and making Eli beat them, which he simply couldn't with that receiving corps.

On a side topic, what is it with Peyton Manning and Eli Manning's fluttery passes? For two players that can throw deep just fine, and can muster "zip" on their passes from time-to-time, they both throw some of the ugliest ducks you'll ever see. Don't get me wrong, they're both tremendously accurate with those ducks, but when they face bad weather (see: Peyton in New England in January, Eli at home any time after December 1st), those flutter-balls miss way too often. Can anyone explain the logic behind this?

Anyway, the Eagles played a very solid game. McNabb showed ample arm strength and escapability to survive the tough playing conditions and Andy Reid wasn't put into a situation where he had to make any real difficult decisions. The Eagles were clearly very well prepared for the game, and they had a great game plan: move McNabb around to free up short passes and occasionally throw deep. The running game was not used much, but it wasn't needed much as the Giants simply couldn't get to McNabb with their pass rush, no matter how obvious the passing situation was. You give the Giants a healthy Justin Tuck and Plaxico Burress, not to mention Osi Umenyiora, and this could be a much different game.

Finally, the universe returned to normal for the Sunday afternoon game between the Steelers and Chargers. As incredible (read: lucky) as the Chargers postseason run had been, they were clearly a flawed team throughout the season and it was just a matter of time before a team was able to exploit those flaws in a playoff game. Even if the Steelers hadn't done it, I don't doubt the Ravens would have themselves. Here's the flaw: their defense is only mediocre without Shawne Merriman and they can't stop the run. The plan of attack, as the Steelers showed, was to run, run, run and then throw deep when the safeties inevitably came up to help stop the run. Game, set, match. The Steelers were able to completely neutralize San Diego's running game, really eliminating Darren Sproles and Michael Bennett from the game entirely until Sproles's late, meaningless TD (on a catch, no less).

In the end, it was a crazy weekend of football, with the home teams going just 1-3, and with the three losing home teams combining for just 34 points. So the next question is: Is a first round bye really beneficial for the teams that get them? But that's a topic for another day.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the blog, please post below or I can be reached at chrisf884@gmail.com. Thanks for reading.