NFL Divisional Round Recap

To the small amount of people who actually do read this blog I apologize for the lack of updates over the last couple weeks. I've been busy but from now on I am really going to try to at least put something up once a day. Even if it's just a small paragraph with my thoughts on a game or anything. Anyway I hyped up the divisional round as the greatest weekend of the year in the NFL and it was pretty much a letdown no matter how you look at it. 3 of the 4 games were never close which was a complete disappointment. I went 2-2 in my picks last week which is terrible. Let's take a look at the games.

Cardinals at Saints

The Cardinals jumped on New Orleans early like they had scoring a touchdown on their first play of the game on a long run by Tim Hightower. However they couldn't keep it close after that. The Saints jumped all over Arizona whose offense couldn't keep the pedal down for two straight games and walked away with an embarrassing 45-14 loss. The real story in this game was the lack of defense by the Cardinals. They allowed 45 points in consecutive playoff games setting an NFL record for points allowed in the process. Drew Brees threw for a modest 247 yards but could have thrown for 400 if he really had to. The Saints offense was clicking all day and Reggie Bush had the game of his career. They showed the world why they were the number one seed in the NFC after their had been some doubts as to how they would perform. With the NFC Championship game in their own backyard the Saints will be tough to beat.

Colts at Ravens

Maybe one of the most boring games in the history of the playoffs. The Colts didn't look spectacular but they did more than enough to beat a Ravens team who left everything they had in New England. The Colts pretty much dominated the game after the first quarter which ended nodded up at 3. Then they outscored the Ravens 14-0 in the 2nd pretty much putting the game away. Now I had an issue with what the announcers were saying after this game. As the final seconds were winding down and the teams were walking out for their post game handshakes it was mentioned that the Colts had buried all of the controversy over resting players with this win and that it shouldn't be mentioned again. That they've proven their decision was right. Wait a second, a division round win over the Baltimore Ravens is enough to prove that they were right? I thought winning the Super Bowl was the ultimate goal here, not beating a Ravens team that probably didn't belong in the playoffs to begin with. It was a game they needed to win sure, but not nearly enough yet to bury the questions.

Cowboys at Vikings

The story of this game was the Vikings defensive front completely dominating the Cowboys offensive line. From the very beginning Tony Romo had no time to throw and it completely threw off this Cowboys offense. In a very surprising result the hottest team in the NFL was dominated in every aspect of the game en route to a 34-3 dismantling at the hands of the Vikings. All the credit goes to Minnesota in this one, Brett Favre played a great game finding Sidney Rice for 3 touchdowns and the defense held Dallas to 3 points. And I don't want to hear anybody talking about the late touchdown pass that Favre threw being too much. This is the NFL, there is no running up the score. If the Keith Brooking and the Cowboys D had that big of a problem with Minnesota throwing a late TD pass on 4th down then they should have stopped it. Everyone is getting paid here. Do your job instead of getting mad at the other guys for doing theirs. The Vikings looked almost unbeatable in this game, next week will be a very interesting matchup.

Jets at Chargers

I hate to say I told you so but I pretty much pulled a Miss Cleo on this game. I knew the Jets were going to win. I just loved the match-ups in this game. The Jets D vs the Chargers O. The Jets running attack against the Chargers run defense. It all pointed to this game being a lot closer than people made it out to be and I felt the Jets could pull it out in the end. In the first half, while they were just trying to find their identity in the game, the Jets did what they had to do and kept it within reach going into halftime at 7-0. In the second half the Jets had a 4th down in Chargers territory and many thought Rex Ryan should have gone for it, he instead kicked a field goal which I felt was the right decision. They needed to get over that hump and put points up on the board which allowed them to take the lead with their next touchdown which came off of an INT by Philip Rivers. After they extended the lead to 17-7 with a long run by Shonn Green the Jets held on down the stretch to punch their ticket to Indianapolis.