Conference Championship Recaps

Someone please explain to me how so many coaches get so stupid in the playoffs. Last year we had the immortal Ron Rivera explaining that it never occurred to Chicago’s defensive coaches that Peyton Manning might resort to a series of short passes instead of his usual downfield gunning. Apparently, Rivera continued to believe that in spite of the fact that the Super Bowl was played in a steady downpour which isn’t conducive to deep passing. Oh wait. Rivera also continued to believe that in spite of the fact that Manning ran a short passing game the entire game. Of course, he might have been confused because Chicago’s offense continued to throw deep in spite of the fact the Super Bowl was played in a steady downpour which isn’t conducive to deep passing.

Well, in losing efforts, San Diego and Green Bay decided to prove that there’s no way they were going to change their original assumptions just because they weren’t working. With San Diego, it was their quarterback. I’m not going to mention names, but someone who looks and smells a whole lot like me suggested before the game that the Chargers would be better off if they benched Philip “My Knee Hurts” Rivers because a healthy Volek has to be better than a gimpy Rivers. Nothing Rivers did changed my mind. Some people were telling me they thought Rivers played well. Only four field goals tells me something different. It wasn’t that Rivers didn’t make some good throws. The problem is that he didn’t make any exceptional one (ones that Volek couldn’t have made), and he made some really bad ones. Rivers was obviously favoring the knee which is why he wasn’t stepping through his passes which caused them to be short of the receiver. Now, incompletions are a bad result of that. Even worse were the two interceptions on passes that came up short. There were also incompletions that resulted from his inability to scramble. He couldn’t run away from the rush or even step up much in the pocket, so too often he’s getting rid of the ball before he should, often while the receivers are just beginning their routes. I’ll let you in on a little secret. Receivers struggle to catch passes that hit them in the back.

I understand going for broke in a game like this, but you can’t tell me Billy Volek couldn’t have gotten at least one touchdown in this game. It could have set up well for the Chargers. Even though LaDanian Tomlinson was out, Michael Turner was plowing through people enough to keep the Patriots’ defense honest. Receivers were getting open. The Chargers’ defense was doing a good job. How often are you going to get three interceptions from Tom Brady? Yet, you lose 21-12 because you have to kick field goals all night.

What made the whole Rivers situation even dumber was the reaction of some commentators (and later columnists). Bill Cowher said at the half that the Chargers should pull Rivers because he was becoming a hindrance (I beat him to that suggestion by at least a quarter). To begin with, the columnist called him hypocritical because Cowher had left Ben Roethlisberger in games he was playing poorly. Well, to begin with, maybe that’s why Cowher has a good understanding about the situation. He has experience with it. But it’s comparing apples to oranges. Roethlisberger just wasn’t playing well so a lot of coaches would have let him play through because they knew he could play well. Rivers was hampered by a bad wheel. That ain’t going to heal during halftime. Boomer Esiason and Phil Simms disagreed which further proves just because I like you as a quarterback doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re pretty dumb. Their argument was Rivers is the “heart and soul of the team”, and they saw no reason to bench him. Well, let’s use hindsight and see who was correct (something the idiot columnist didn’t feel like pursuing). The Chargers scored 3 points in the second half. Since they were already down 5 points, 3 points meant nothing. Do Boomer and Phil think Volek couldn’t get 3 points in an entire half? Gee, I wonder if the Chargers would have had negative points in the second half if Rivers wasn’t the heart and soul of the team.

Then there was the Green Bay/New York fiasco that actually resembled the Super Bowl in a lot of ways. Green Bay really didn’t try to establish the run. They ran in obvious run situations to the point it was easy to tell when it was coming. Then in the fourth quarter, the Packers had two 3 and outs when they just needed to work downfield and kick a field goal. Instead, Favre is throwing deep on every play even though there was plenty of time left. I guess I can’t accuse the Packers of being too dumb, because I fully expected this to happen. Favre and Peyton Manning have the same mentality in games like this. They are bound and determined to win it themselves so they start chucking away. Manning did it last week against the Chargers, and two years ago, I thought his downfield chucking had as much to do with Indy’s loss to the Steelers as a missed field goal.

What was really dumb was what the Packers did on defense. New York’s running game was only so-so. Their backs had to work for every yard they got. The Giants’ passing game seemed to be Eli Manning throwing it in Plaxico Burress direction and hoping he would catch it. Which worked because of the defense the Packers were playing. They decided to single cover the receivers which would be okay if they were actually covering well. They weren’t. To begin with, Burress was making some great catches (where was that when he was in Pittsburgh). Steve Smith and Amani Toomer were making some great catches. Contrary to what the paper was saying, Eli was not making great throws (yards after the catch were pretty low). They were also getting open because the cornerbacks (Al Harris on Burress especially) were jamming the receivers at the line of scrimmage, but doing a piss poor job of it. They’d hit the receiver in the first five yards, but with little effect other than knocking themselves off balance and letting the receiver get five yards on them. Stayed in the same defense so receivers were wide open on the field. I was beginning to wonder how many yards Burress needed to get before the Packers gave Harris some help. Apparently 154. Once again, just plain dumb.

So, what does stupidity give me? Instead of watching a palatable matchup of Green Bay and San Diego, I get to watch a game between two teams I don’t like and never really have liked. I’m trying to figure out a way for both of them to lose because common morality says I can’t wish for their planes to crash into each other on the trip to Arizona. My best hope is that Eli Manning gets hurt and Jared Lorenzen leads them to victory. Can you imagine the response if the Patriots’ perfect season was derailed by the Pillsbury Throwboy?