NFL Wild Card Weekend

Time has been at a premium, but I couldn't hold back from commenting on the NFL playoffs.

Washington 17 Tampa Bay 10
Redskin fans should thank God that Edell Shepherd dropped that catch with about three minutes left. The Redskins offense was horrible. If the Bucs had tied the game, I'm not sure Washington would have had any chance to score. They might have been better off under the old rule that let the team scored on to either receive a kickoff or kick the ball themselves (the idea was that you kicked off and played for a turnover on your opponents side of the field). It wasn't like Tampa's offense was that great, and Chris Simms is always a screw-up waiting to happen. That dropped pass was the only good one I saw from him. Yes, as many Simms' apologists pointed out, his two crucial interceptions (one lead to a TD, the other ended their last chance) were tipped, but so what? The idea is to get the passes to your receivers without them being tipped. I'm not surprised the Skins went conservative on offense once they got a lead. When has Chris Simms ever showed up for a big game?

Carolina 23 New York Giants 0
Speaking of quarterbacks and big game flops, who else guessed that Eli Manning would follow his brother in that category? 113 yards and three interceptions wasn't too pretty. As a longtime Steelers fan, I'm not surprised by the Plaxico Burress disappearing act. His tendency to quit when things weren't going well is a reason they had no real inclination to pay him the money he wanted. The Giants were downright horrible. Their longest drive of the game was 6 plays for 31 yards, and the Carolina 39 yard line was the farthest they got downfield. Their second half drives ended on punt, interception, interception, interception and fumble. I think the best part was Tiki Barber saying the Giants were outcoached. Normally, I don't like a player who didn't have a good game (like Barber) calling out others, but I can't stand Tom Coughlin so I think it's funny. And he's right. It didn't appear the Giants' staff had any clue what was going on.

New England 28 Jacksonville 3
I like Jack Del Rio. And I like Byron Leftwich. But I think Del Rio made a mistake starting Leftwich. Actually, I don't think that was the mistake, because Leftwich is a better quarterback than Garrard. I think Del Rio should have given Leftwich some serious playing time in their last game of the year, so he wouldn't have been so rusty. Actually, I think it sucks that New England was the host team just because they won their division. Yes, the Jags had a fairly easy schedule, but they won more games than every team in the league except Indy, Seattle and Denver. They won two more games than the Patriots who were playing in the AFC East which was the worst division in the league. Why should the Jags have to play the first game on the road in 20 degree weather? They looked pretty inept on offense, so they probably still would have lost, but their defense was playing well, and who knows? Don't you think there is a big difference between playing a January game in Boston and Jacksonville?

Pittsburgh 31 Cincinnati 17
Would Cincinnati have won if Carson Palmer hadn't been hurt (and no, it was not a dirty hit)? Their chances would have been better, but I wouldn't say they would have necessarily won. While they may have won the last game against the Steelers, it was by eight points. The game before that was in Cincinnati and the Steelers won 27-13. Plus, in their last two home games, the Bengals haven't scored as many as 31 points against weaker teams like the Bills and Browns. Ironically, I think the Bengals' offense doesn't play as well on the turf at Paul Brown Stadium. They're built like a dome team. It's a moot point anyway since injuries are part of the game. The Bengals wouldn't even have won the division if Ben Roethlisberger hadn't been out three games. Besides, the Bengals are lucky to have Jon Kitna who is one of the better backups in the league. They scored more points in the first half with him than they did the entire first meeting of this season. And it appears that something may have happened at halftime with the Bengals' class clown that may have helped their offensive offense of the second half.