On the Rebound

   

All is right with the NFL. Well, nearly everything, anyways. The teams that were better all season long acquitted themselves, handily dispatching the would-be Davids to their Goliath. The lone exception was San Diego, a team that for reasons elucidated last week probably had the worst match-up of any top seed.

Perhaps most importantly, the playoffs were once again entertaining, not so much because the games were closer than last week’s blowouts (they weren’t), but because the level of both competition and aggression felt decidedly upgraded from the first round. Going into the weekend, I was hoping that the listless play of the prior weekend would be a distant memory, and for the most part the action delivered.

-Cardinals vs. Saints

Clearly the most ridiculous game of the weekend. My heart sunk into my stomach when Arizona led off the game with the 70-yard touchdown run. Visions of Arizona making a second consecutive run to the Super Bowl flashed through my head, a seeming certainty given the miracle that saved them the week before and the explosive start to this one.

Then New Orleans moved the ball methodically and regained their considerable home-field advantage while evening the score. New Orleans would score touchdowns on their next two drives while stifling the Arizona offense. Arizona had another touchdown drive in them to narrow the gap to 7, but the next two New Orleans drives were for touchdowns, and once again the defense was excellent.

The game never again felt close, but the explosiveness and precision of the Saints made the blowout highly entertaining. Reggie Bush had a career day, running with the combination of power and speed he has never shown since college. Brees’ casual excellence and unbelievable accuracy left the Arizona defense with no answers, and unlike the week prior, Kurt Warner wasn’t near enough to perfection to bail them out.

The Saints played like we knew they could, and their knack for explosive plays in addition to balanced and precise offense makes them the scariest team in the NFL. Barring a meltdown, they ought to win every game they play, particularly when the crowd is on their side.

-Ravens vs. Colts

If you are a fan of tactically excellent football, this was a clinic of epic proportions by the Colts. The Ravens were considerably more fortunate than people realized last week, and the Colts were not going to make the same mistakes the Patriots made. They protected the ball and played to maintain good field position. Eventually they led a methodic drive for a touchdown, followed by another, and the score was 3-17 with little hope for the Ravens. The one turnover they did commit was quickly rectified by an impressive play by Pierre Garcon to steal the ball back.

The Ravens, conversely, were exposed as being a talented but ultimately one-dimensional team. Their inability to pass consistently was incredibly apparent, and yet they allowed themselves to become a passing team in the second half. They managed to average 4.6 yards per carry, but they only rushed 19 times, as opposed to 35 passes. This was a reaction to being down by 7 and then 14, and to some extent it was a reasonable choice. It’s difficult to string a long drive together with a majority of plays being runs. Still, it was clearly the team’s strength, and it isn’t as though 30 minutes is such a short amount of time to score that running the ball is a poor decision. Their defense did as well as could be expected, and while Flacco may have been hurt, that is little consolation for a defensive unit that is long in the tooth and unlikely to be together much longer.

The Colts did what they have done all season: be good enough to win. Their point differential isn’t terribly impressive, and they don’t overwhelm opponents with any aspect of their game, but that’s the nature of being just good enough, and it’s a skill they seem to have mastered. 15-0 when actually trying to win is a record that’s hard to dispute.

-Cowboys vs. Vikings

As I said last week, the Cowboys were the hottest team in football, and were vulnerable only to their own inconsistency. Seemingly everyone loved them, forgetting that they were the subject of intense scrutiny a mere month before. The Vikings, conversely, were the only excellent team whose struggles seemed like they might be indicative of a larger problem, primarily because of their copious injuries.

As it turns out, I was largely correct, as with the exception of Flozell Adams injury, the team had little excuse for their performance. The Vikings defensive line was amazing, but the rest of their team performed at a fairly average level. The Vikings were only 4-13 on third down, they didn’t run the ball well, and the vast majority of their passing yards came on a few big plays. If the Cowboys had not turned the ball over three times, they may have been able to keep the game close, at the very least.

Of course, those turnovers were no accident. The Vikings’ defensive line is terrifying, probably the best unit of players left on any team in the playoffs. They forced three fumbles and hurried Romo into poor passes the entire game.

Similarly, you can’t take anything away from the Vikings because they made big plays. While they are unlikely to match the consistency of the Saints or Colts, points all count the same. I doubt their ability to get plays on offense when they have to, but their defense makes sure they don’t need many. Sometimes that’s good enough.

-Jets vs. Chargers

I said I didn’t want to live in a world where the Jets beat the Chargers, and I meant it. It stinks. I hate it when the team that has underachieved all season gets into the playoffs on a fluke because they played two teams with nothing to gain. The Chargers were the better team all season, winning 11 straight to finish the year. Their match-up with the Colts would have been infinitely more interesting that the Jets’, and the game would have been a great deal more competitive.

That said, the Jets were not worse than the Chargers by nearly the margin that I believed. They had the best defense in the NFL, one of the best rushing attacks, and a nearly identical point differential (which, admittedly, was buoyed a bit by their final two wins against teams that had given up). They presented a difficult match-up for the Chargers, and the result was not entirely surprising.

Despite all of this, there is no conclusion to draw other than the Chargers choked away a prime opportunity. One random interception, another that was entirely Rivers’ fault, two missed field goals, and an offensive game plan that was far too reliant on Tomlinson. The loss was inexcusable, and it is yet another squandered year for a franchise that hasn’t been able to put a competent playoff run together. Their window doesn’t seem to have closed definitively, but you have to wonder if it’s going to happen for them if it hasn’t yet.

This weekends match-ups:

-Jets vs. Colts

I have a lot of trouble believing that the Jets can win this game. In spite of the win over the Chargers, there are a number of parallels to what the Ravens did to the Patriots, and we saw how that worked out when the Ravens played the Colts. The Colts haven’t lost a game they tried to win all season, and they are the masters of doing just enough to win. Mark Sanchez has quietly done very little in the Jets’ wins, and he will almost certainly have to make plays to beat the Colts. The Colts generate long scoring drives when they need them and don’t beat themselves with bad penalties or turnovers, and they are simply a much more talented and experienced team.

Despite these overwhelming disadvantages, the Jets have the ability to create turnovers and run the ball effectively. Peyton Manning has thrown interceptions more frequently than normal of late, and sometimes teams can ride a wave of momentum to victory. Given the Jets’ performance of late, it’s not hard to imagine them winning a game they have no business pulling out.

But I doubt it.

-Vikings vs. Saints

The game of the season for a litany of reasons. A pair of quarterbacks cast off by their previous teams (in Favre’s case, two teams) in favor of quarterbacks who were supposed to be the future, proving that the future is now in the NFL. Two franchises with no super bowls, the Saints having never been to one while the Vikings lost four in the seventies. A team that rushes the quarterback with impunity (the Vikings) against the quarterback with the fastest release in football (Brees). Reggie Bush versus Percy Harvin, Sidney Rice versus Marcus Colston…the list is endless. Most interesting in the fact that these were the best two teams in the NFC for the entirety of the regular season, and their meeting seems to have been a foregone conclusion for about as long.

I looked hard for an interesting take on why the Saints would win this game, but I don’t know that there is one. They have tremendous home field advantage and an excellent coach going against the much-maligned Brad Childress. They don’t really have a weakness beyond an occasionally suspect defense, and their offense is the best combination of consistency and explosiveness in the league. The Vikings were good last week, but they looked vulnerable at times, and the Saints won’t make the mistakes the Cowboys did. Seems like an open and shut case.

Unless you really believe in Brett Favre. I’d rather not.

Image via The Sports Union

You can email Chris with questions or comments at TheSportsKiosK@gmail.com