NFL Playoff Edition: Divisional round

Posted by Nick Verlaney on Jan 14, 2011 in NFL | 5 comments

- Hey everyone, again I want to thank you for all the kind words, comments, and thoughts over this week about the new design of the blog. We redesigned it with YOU in mind, so Im happy to have received as much good feedback as I have about it. Special thanks to Chris Stockton for assisting me, because without him, none of this would be possible from a design standpoint. Here is my last post describing the changes in case you didnt get to see it.

- Before any more coaches are hired/fired, lets take a look at the Red Card Playoff Edition for this weekends Divisional Round (numbers are according to seed in playoffs).

AFC:

• #6 Jets at #1 Patriots. What is there not to love with this rubber match of bitter rivals? Quick answer: nothing. This match up has it all: great offense from the Patriots, trash talk, great defense by the Jets, more trash talk, great coaching, and more trash talk. No two teams handle their business more differently than the Jets and Patriots. The Patriots are quietly confident, led by a cerebral head coach who wont so much as crack a smile. The Jets are loud, obnoxious, and proud of it. Their head coach is from the Joe Namath school of guarantees and trash talk. After the 45-3 butt-whippin’ that the Patriots laid on the Jets in early December, you can bet that the Jets will be more than ready to face the Brady Bunch in round 3. My match-up to watch: the Jets front 7 vs. the Patriots offensive line. If Tom Brady has a clean jersey at the end of the game, you can bet that the Patriots will be headed to the AFC Championship. If not, Rex will have “Happy Feet”. Prediction: Patriots 27-24. Confidence: 7.
• #5 Ravens at #2 Steelers. If you thought Patriots-Jets was a heated rivalry, then you havent seen a Ravens-Steelers game. These are the 2 hardest hitting teams in all of the NFL, and they dont like each other one bit. If you are a football purist, then this is the must-see game of the weekend. Both teams love to run the ball, and play fast, hard hitting defense. Both teams have shown vulnerability in the secondary this season though, so this edition may feature more long pass plays than you would expect. The match-up Im looking for is Joe Flacco’s pocket presence vs. the Steelers blitz. If Flacco can resist the urge to panic in the midst of all the chaos, then he should be able to find open receivers down field which will set up Ray Rice for runs and screens. Prediction: Ravens 21-19. Confidence: 5.

NFC:

• #6 Packers at #1 Falcons. While the AFC match-ups are old rivals, these two teams are quietly positioning themselves for a serious run at the Lombardi Trophy. In their regular season match-up (also played in Atlanta), both teams battled back-and-forth for the entire game, neither one having any significant control, until Matt Bryant sealed the win for Atlanta with a 47 yard field goal with .09 left on the clock. The Packers are coming off a gutty win in Philadelphia, and now head to Atlanta, which is a place with Matt Ryan has only lost twice. The key match-up to watch is going to be the Atlanta offensive line vs. the Packers front 7. If the Falcons have early success running the ball with Michael Turner, that will keep the Packers aggressive pass rush honest, and Matt Ryan off the Georgia Dome turf. Prediction: Packers 20-17. Confidence: 3.
• #4 Seahawks at #2 Bears. Whoa, where did that Seattle team come from? Matt Hasslebeck actually looked like the ’06 version of himself, making the Saints secondary look foolish on almost every pass. Marshawn Lynch came through with what has to be the run of the year in the NFL, earthquaking (my own made up word) his way 67 yards to the end zone. Their defense even did a decent job of shutting down the run game. The Bears have been doing most of the talking this week, though, which is to be expected. They had an impressive regular season, coming out of nowhere to steal the #2 seed in the playoffs. Jay Cutler has been pretty good thus far, and the Bears ‘D’ has returned to the dominant unit it has been in the past. The match-up to watch in this game is whether the Seahawks special teams can hold Devin Hester scoreless. If they can, they will give themselves a chance to get to Cutler just like they did in the regular season, sacking him 6 times. Prediction: Bears 23-21. Confidence: 3.

- Now that the predictions are over, lets take a look at what we know from the NFL through the Wild Card round of the Playoffs:

• From a close source of mine, who happens talk frequently to a couple Jets players, there is a “99 % chance” a lockout is coming after the Super Bowl. He says that the players and owners are so far apart, and arent willing to compromise. He also said the NFLPA will be very tough in these negotiations. Enjoy the playoffs now, because this could be the last of the NFL you see for a little while. RED CARD.
• As a Broncos fan, I could not be more happy to see John Elway back with the organization as VP of Football Operations. He may just be the one guy that can dig Denver out of the hole they are in.
• Say what you want, but I think John Fox was a good hire for Denver. They couldnt afford Cowher or Gruden, and wanted a guy with head coaching experience. The only guy I would have preferred better is Herm Edwards. Im glad they hired a defensive minded coach in Fox though.
• It may have not been pretty at times, but watching Tim Tebow play the last 4 games, I saw a guy who is going to be a winner in this league. Laugh all you want, but that team rallied around him the last 4 games. It may be a couple years before he is an accomplished pocket passer, but until then, he will use every skill he has to win the Broncos as many games as he can.
• Staying in the AFC West, what are the Raiders thinking? They first fire Tom Cable, who was the one coach that had that team going in the right direction, Then they let their best player, Nnamdi Asomugha, go because of stupid contract stipulations. Only the Raiders could take the first positive season they have had in 9 years and throw it away. The Raiders need to throw Al Davis away, as sad as it may seem. RED CARD.
• The Chiefs future is bright. They just need to find a consistent #2 receiver.
• If only Marshawn Lynch ran like that all the time….
• The Saints defense against the Seahawks = all time bad. No wonder that franchise has never won a road playoff game. RED CARD.
• Jim Harbaugh will be a winner in the NFL. It may take a year or 2, but once he gets the proper personnel in place, he will win consistently like his brother with the Ravens.
• Cam Newton in the NFL will either be Randal Cunningham or Vince Young. He will have the same rap that Tebow has, but the guy is a winner. Plus, you can accept money in the NFL.
• Blaine Gabbert in the NFL will be one big bruise. The guy is going to get hit, and hit hard. RED CARD.
• Lawrence Taylor got out of jail time apparently. That seems to be a lifetime headline for LT. RED CARD.

- Its hard to believe, but it has been 1 year since the earthquake in Haiti. While Haiti may never fully recover from the effects of the earthquake that devastated their nation, a group of soccer players is doing their best to keep that fighting spirit with the country. All of these soccer players are amputees, and they play soccer on crutches (at a surprisingly high level). They all were injured in the earthquake, and play against other nations amputee teams. Fans flock to go see them play now, because they stand for what the country is, rebuilding. Sometimes, the human spirit rises above all tragedy, this is one of those times.

- In a great story I have covered all Fall, Eric LeGrand has regained feeling in most of his body after doctors gave him a 0-5% chance of regaining neurological function. If you have 3 minutes please watch this ESPN video about his recovery. If this doesnt give you chills, you dont have a pulse. Believe #52, Believe.

- I would like to quickly touch on the National Championship game as well. I predicted that Oregon would win a close defensive game, so I guess I was half right.

• The game was dominated by sloppy offense and great defense by Auburn. It isnt a shock to anyone that Auburn won, but the fact that Cam Newton didnt play particularly well and they still won was the biggest surprise.
• Wow, was Nick Fairley dominant or what? He should have a long career in the NFL. I dont agree with Kirk Herbstreit that Fairley is as dominant as Ndamukong Suh was last year, but he was definitely the best defensive player of 2010.
• Who would have thought that freshman running back Michael Dyer would be the Auburn player to close the game? Both of his 4th quarter runs will be timeless.
• Oregon’s spread attack was not working all night, as the Ducks had 75 yards rushing, a far cry of their 300+ yard/game average.
• Derron Thomas really struggled with the Auburn pass rush, but found a little rhythm in the 4th quarter.
• Even after struggling, Oregon was 1 defensive stop away from taking the game into overtime. With a hurt Cam Newton, they could have pulled off a win.
• Jeff Maehl is going to be a good pro receiver. The guy runs great routes and is sneaky fast.

- Once the Super Bowl is over, I will go indepth on the Huskers 2010 struggles and how they can get ready for 2011.