Divisional Playoff Recap

I've come to the conclusion why Bill Belichick has been so successful in the playoffs. The AFC is full of coaches who somehow haven't figured playing not to lose isn't going to get you a win in the playoffs. The only reason Tony Dungy is in the AFC Championship game is because Bill Belichick and Eric Mangini are the only non-retards coaching AFC team in the playoffs this year, and Dungy got to face two of them.

Colts over Ravens
I freely admit my mistake on this one. I neglected the Brian Billick factor. He's a coach who was hired as an "offensive genius", but has always won at Baltimore with defense compensating for piss poor offenses. I should have known I was in trouble when they said Billick thought he could game plan against the Colts' defense. Any time Billick "coaches", they lose. The year he won the 2000 Super Bowl, it was with Trent Dilfer who he apparently couldn't coach because he never wanted to play him. He dumped him after the season for the incomparable Elvis Grbac and has won exactly one playoff game since. Game plan should have been to let the offense run like normal (protect the ball and be efficient) and assume that Peyton Manning will screw up. Well, Manning screwed up his second game in a row as the Colts scored zero touchdowns, and he finished with a 39.6 passer rating and two interceptions (should have been five). Yet, it didn't matter because with two weeks to work with moderately efficient quarterback Steve McNair, Billick turned him into crapjob Kyle Boller. His favorite play became don't move, focus on one receiver and throw the ball behind him.

Saints over Eagles
Can't call this one a mistake. It was a three point game which could have gone either way. While Deuce McAllister had a huge game, I'm sure if I go look at the recaps, Reggie Bush will have a better writeup without having the better game. Philadelphia coach came in with a good game plan, but I think he made a mistake near the end. The Eagles were facing 4th and 10 from their 44 with less than 2 minutes left. The plan was to go for it, but they had a false start to make it 4th and 15, so they punted. I say go for it. If you make it, your in their territory. Now, the Eagles had three timeouts left, but if New Orleans gets a first down, they can run out the clock. Based on McAllister's running all day, that seemed a good possibility (and what happened). Even if you hold them and they punt, you've lost time and are back where you started. Actually, at the 39, if you turned the ball over on downs, then stop them, more than likely their punt goes into the endzone, so all you are saving is 19 yards. The only other item of note from this game is that some chick was wearing a shirt with a dirty expression on it which I found on another website (which cleaned it up slightly and conveniently didn't copyright it). Apparently, said shirt made it into the Fox broadcast.

Bears over Seahawks
It was certainly nice to see Shaun Alexander playing well. Of course, based on his track record, he was probably thinking about that extra game check. Good news for Chicago was "Bad Rex" didn't show up. He did lose a fumble that was costly, but his interception was a bobble by the receiver and Chicago got it right back. He also had a great pass for a 68 yard touchdown, but drifted off in the second half. At least until overtime when he threw a 30 yard strike to get them near field goal range. Bad news for Chicago is there defense continued a trend of not playing too well. They've won games when Rex Grossman self destructed, but there's got to be a concern that they needed an overtime field goal to win a game where Grossman played well. Actually, he played better than Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. Of course, Steve McNair was the only quarterback to play worse than Manning.

Patriots over Chargers
What friggin' joke. Marty Schottenheimer should have been fired the moment he walked off the field. The Chargers had the Patriots on the ropes and went to Martyball instead of going for the jugular. Guess what happens when you let your opponent hang around? Their good plays become magnified, and so does your own stupidity. The Chargers already had a lot to overcome. Eric Parker's complete inability to hang onto a ball. Dropped passes galore. The third quarter had the obligatory bad call that New England seems to get in their favor every year. After a great defensive play, one of the Chargers got into the face of a Patriot, gets a two handed shove and somehow the Charger was called for unnecessary roughness. Now, Troy "Too Many Concussions" Aikman said he was trying to head butt the Patriot, but "trying" is the operative word because I didn't see any contact nor would it even matter. As long as the Patriot retaliates, he is flagged also. Therefore it should have been offsetting penalties. Not that I expected Aikman or Joe Schmuck to mention that because they are among the cadre of announcers who would pay money to crawl into Bill Belichick's jock. Still, even with those problems, the Chargers should have been in good shape. They weren't. Marty just needed time to get into playoff mode which came in the second half. Going to Martyball would have been bad enough, but I think a chimp could have done better clock management. It was bad luck when Marlon McCree fumbled after a fourth quarter interception (hey, a UK player fumbling a possible game clinching interception, how often does that happen) to give New England a first down, but it was coaching incompetence to waste a timeout on a challenge when it was obvious it was a fumble. On their next series, they had to burn another one when they couldn't get the play in. It's late in a close game, maybe those timeouts would be useful. Like when you're trying to drive for a tying field goal with 70 seconds left and you end up attempting one from 54 yards because time is almost out. Yeah, what could two more plays have done for them? Other than maybe get closer.