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BlackChampagne -- no longer new; improvement also in question.: NFL Action



Sunday, December 18, 2005  

NFL Action


Just to keep up with tradition, here's my weekly bitch-fest about the NFL games on Bay Area free TV.

The only early game; SF (2-11) @ Tennessee (9-4). It's a crucial game for SF, since they're fighting hard to lose their way to the top draft pick, and they remain a win ahead of 1-12 Houston. Houston hosts the very beatable Arizona Cardinals, but given these teams, you've got to bet on them both losing twice more before the big week 17 showdown in San Francisco, with the loser almost certain to take the top draft pick, thanks to GB and NYJ winning their third game last weekend.

The only late game should have been even worse, with 4-9 Oakland hosting 4-9 Cleveland. Thanks to the NFL's TV mercy blackout rules though, and Oakland's inability to sell the game out, we're getting 10-3 Cincinnati @ 4-9 Detroit. It's far from a blockbuster match up, but hey, it beats Raiders/Browns. Of course the other late game this Sunday, Dallas@Washington, is one of the best games of the day, but since both teams there are in the NFC, and CBS gets the late game, we have to see an AFC game. It qualifies thanks to Cin, even though the NFC Lions are hosting, I guess.

As usual, there are just 2 games on, despite the fact that one local team is on the road, and the other is blacked out. Why we can't have 2 early games, with a wide selection of AFC matchups available for the CBS station to pick from, is a mystery. Miami@SD was on last weekend at the same time as SF's slaughter up in Seattle. Why isn't the game of the weekend, SD@Indy, on early this time? Fortunately, I realized that last Sunday's 3 games was a once-a-year fluke, and didn't get my hopes up, so I'm not disappointed by the 2 crappy games TV games today.

Plus, there were 3 games on Saturday, and even though I only watched the Tampa@NE one on tape, and didn't bother with the other two, that's a lot more football than I saw last Saturday. None of Saturday's games were that impressive anyway, all the favorites won handily, though NE looked pretty impressive against a theoretically-talented Tampa team. NE's gameplan was simple; stack the line, stuff the run, blitz Chris Simms a lot, and force him to beat them. He's a young, mediocre QB, and of course he couldn't handle the pressure, and of course NE won easily, shutting Tampa out 28-0. Why every team doesn't do this to Tampa is a good question, but I'm not a fan and don't follow their division, so I really have no idea.

In retrospect, I would have liked to seen the NYG/KC game, but I didn't care enough to record the second half after I finished watching the Tampa@NE game on tape, and therefore missed the sight of the KC defense being trampled into the ground by a 30 year old RB. Any idea why they don't replay the day's better NFL games late at night, on the NFL network, or ESPN2, or the major networks? They show college football games again late at night every weekend, and there's no way an NFL repeat wouldn't destroy the ratings of whatever combination of infomercials and reruns they're throwing at the screen at 3am now.

KC's loss pretty well ends their very dim playoff dreams, and as expected, they died thanks to their impossibly-difficult late season schedule. I think they're loss has doomed SD too, since Pittsburgh has the head to head tie-breaker against SD, and I can't imagine SD winning more than 2 of their last 3, and I can't see Pittsburgh losing 2 out of their 3, with only one debatably good team left. And there's no way KC is getting into a 3 team tie, unless both SD and Pitt fall apart. Especially with SD@KC next week, in a game one of them is obviously going to lose. SD was a long shot and a Pittsburgh collapse away before last week; after losing at home to Miami they were doomed.

As previously discussed, Jacksonville has a 1 game lead for the two wildcard spots, and with the easiest last 3 games in the history of professional football, they're in for sure. They'll probably go to NE in the first round though, step in the snow, and draw an immediate Go Direction To Jail card, heading home to the tune of oh... 27-10, perhaps. It looks like you'd rather be the 6th seed now, with both Cin and Denver looking more beatable than NE, at this point. Pity SD couldn't have been that seed, but at this point they need to win out and hope Pittsburgh loses once to either Minn, Det, and Cleveland. That might happen, but SD isn't going to win today, much less all 3 of their games, which means they need Pittsburgh to lose twice, with two tomato cans left. As if.

Pitt's 3 straight losses made things interesting for a couple of weeks, but as I belabored all the way back in November, the AFC playoff spots were essentially wrapped up with barely half the season played. Imagine if Pittsburgh had only lost 1 or 2 of those games during their injured QB slump? They'd now be tied with Jacksonville, and the wildcard and division races would be so over that even the idiots on ESPN couldn't manufacture fake excitement about the AFC playoff run.

Lastly, what's up with Pitts' closing schedule? Three of their final four games and the last two are against teams not even in their conference, much less their division? What happened to key last week matchups to decide division titles? Week 17 features classics like Denver@SD, Miami@NE, Chi@Minn, Carolina@Atl, Wash@Philly... and Detroit@Pitts?
Comments:

I get to watch either the cardinals or San Diego for the early game here in the phoenix area. I wasn't going to watch either until I tuned in at half time to find that San Diego was somehow winning 13-0 over Indy. Who would have thought that? Now I am off to watch them be utterly destroyed in the second half and lose 35-13. Though it would be pretty cool if they managed to win.


 

OMFG. I can't believe they did it. Provided they don't give up two scores in the next minute and 9 seconds.


 

I taped the SF@Jax game, just to have something to watch for an hour when I got up, and damn, what a crappy game. Jax won 10-9, but OMG are they gone in the first round of the playoffs. SF has an astonishingly-bad offene, and they still could have won, largely thanks to Jax's terrible play calling. Jax hardly ever blitzed, despite Alex Smith's incredible happy feet and complete lack of "pocket presence" and if he had any passing accuracy or decent receivers, SF would have managed 13 or 17 points. On offense, Jax had a huge push from the O-line almost every play, but they hardly ever rushed it, inexplicably playing a shotgun, run and shoot type set with a QB who isn't awful, but who is very slow on his reads and clearly prefers to run rather than pass. Total misfit between QB and play calling.

Still, while SF lost, they at least tried hard. I just saw most of the 2nd half of Cin@Det and the effort (or lack thereof) being put forth by Detroit, especially on defense, was embarassing. Better yet, at least half the crowd was in orange, with Cin fans and Det fans protesting the firing of their coach while their incompetent GM remains on the job.


 

Sometimes you have to breakdown to see a game you really want to. Or your wife suggests it, since you are bummed that you can't see SD play in the biggest game of the year. So we went to a Bar/Restaurant and watched SD/INDY on the big screen. And I could not of been happier. I was right, I told numerous people that SD would beat INDY in week 15, because they had to make up for last year. Flux, you missed an amazing game, especially since the Chargers choked in the 3rd with the typical head over heals feeling, then Marty snapped them back into it in the 4th. Awesome D performance, and great job on the use of others in on offense.


 

New prediction. Jax is 10-4, SD and pitt are 9-5. Pitt wins a tie breaker with SD, but loses a 3 way tie breaker since their conference record sucks. Pitts going to win out, though they might be tested in cleveland next week. Last week hosting detroit is a freebie.

SD has to win in KC and then hosting Denver, and i think they will. KCs got to be a bit disconsolate after their last 2 losses ended their playoff hopes.

I've been assuming all along that Jax would waltz in, but they looked so bad today that i'm now wondering. Yeah, they play at 2-win houston and then host 4-win tennessee, but I'm going to predict they blow one of those games, the AFC winds up with 3 teams at 11-5, and SD and Jax get in on the conference record tie breaker. Which would mean first week of the playoffs is SD@NE and Jax@Denver. given that SD slaughtered NE earlier this season, and NE is now healthier and eager for revenge, that would be a fun game. Even if it's -7 and there are 3 feet of snow on the sidelines. Better yet, the winner gets Indy in round 2.


 

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