Sarcastiholic

2010 NFL Season - Divisional Round - Ravens at Colts

The second game of the weekend features the rushing game of the Baltimore Ravens versus the passing game of the Indianapolis Colts.

The Ravens enter the game with the 5th ranked rushing attack in the NFL. Based upon the lack of a passing game that they have demonstrated over the last part of the season, the Ravens are going to need every bit of it. Luckily for the Ravens, the Colts are going in the offseason with the 24th ranked rushing defense. Seems like a match made in heaven for the Baltimore Ravens.

But teams have tried to control the clock against the Colts by featuring a steady run game and keeping Peyton Manning off the field. So far, it really hasn’t worked. Give Manning any window to score and he seems to do it. The Colts have come back from behind to win seven games this season.

The Ravens can’t afford to rely on controlling the clock with the run game. They are going to have to score in their passing game, and for that they will need an injured Joe Flacco to throw the ball more than the 10 attempts he had in the game against New England. A solid running attack should help to keep the pass rush in check and force the Colts to play their safeties up which should allow for Joe Flacco to have some success.

They are going to need a complete game on offense if they are going to have a chance against the Colts. The passing game might just be the key to a win unless the Ravens’ secondary can come up with some big plays. But even turnovers might not be enough as the Colts don’t make the habit of allowing points off of turnovers. They may give you the ball, but they usually don’t give you six when it happens and that was the key to the Ravens’ win in Foxboro last weekend.

Turnovers and field position allowed them to gain a big lead early in the game. But the Ravens’ were only able to score 9 points after the scoring bonanza of the first quarter. That kind of repeat performance probably won’t get it done against the Colts’ offense this week. But an open passing game would.

The Colts have really not played a full game in about a month. Peyton Manning’s playoff record coming off a bye week is 0 – 3. That doesn’t give me much confidence in the Colts’ ability to muster a complete game in this round of the playoffs.

The Ravens have been in playoff mode for the last month. They’re hungry. The Colts have been lax.

All of the regular season statistics point to the Colts as the clear winners of this game.

So, naturally, I’m taking the Ravens as the upset.

2010 NFL Season - Division Round - Cardinals at Saints

No team has ever won a Super Bowl after losing their last three game of the regular season. But that’s just what the New Orleans Saints are going to try and do.

First off, they will have to beat the Arizona Cardinals who just piled on 51 points against one of the league’s best defenses last weekend. In order to do so, the Saints are going to have get back to their average of 31 points per game instead of the meager 15 points per game that they averaged over their final three games. The Saints offense needs to get rolling early and Darren Sharper has to come up with some big plays.

No, strike that…

Darren Sharper is going to have to come up with some HUGE plays to limit what the Cardinals are capable of doing if they are firing the ball like they did last week. Kurt Warner put together the highest rated passing performance in the modern era of the NFL against the second ranked defense.

There is no reason to think that he will not be able to repeat that performance this weekend against a soft New Orleans’ defense which ranked 25th overall and 26th against the pass. The Saints’ pass rush performed slightly better in the overall standings with a rank of 13th in the NFL but they will have to get consistent pressure on Warner in order to give their secondary any chance at limiting the Cardinals’ offensive production.

On the opposite side of the ball, the Arizona Cardinals have the 6th ranked pass rush and will definitely be doing everything they can to pressure Drew Brees into making bad decisions. The plus side for the Saints is the simple fact that Brees does not tend to make a lot of bad decisions having finished the regular season with only 11 interceptions, a 70.6 completion percentage, and a 109.6 percent passer rating.

Unbelievable. I have no idea why this guy didn’t get more votes for MVP.

Peyton Manning finished with 16 interceptions, a 68.8 completion percentage, and a 99.9 percent passer rating.

Unbelievable. I won’t even get into the Chris Henry argument…

Anyway, despite the overall unbelievable play of the New Orleans’ offense during most of the season, I can’t get past the fact that they were totally flat for the last month of the season. I just do not see how they can pull off a win against this Cardinal team, right now.

Cardinals win.

2010 NFL Wildcard Pick Results

Most of these games were rematches from Week 17, and the results were pretty much the same – the teams that played in Week 17 came out to play in the playoffs.

Teams that took the week off, played like it.

And I picked like it… 1 of 4 on Wild Card Weekend. That was pretty bad. I’m guessing that a psychic hotline would have come up with a better list of winners than I did.

“Of course I’m taking the Jets! What’re you, a friggin’ idiot? Now about your love-line…”

Jets at Bengals:
The New York Jets came out running the ball and their defense did the rest as they blanketed the Bengals’ passing game keeping them to only 146 yards on 36 attempts. Chad Ochocinco got the luxury treatment on Reevis Island and had only 2 catches for 28 yards (both of which were in the 4th quarter). About the only player that showed up on the Bengals’ side was Cedric Benson who rushed 169 yards on 21 attempts. Unfortunately for the Bengals it was not enough to push them into next week.

Eagles at Cowboys:
The Dallas Cowboys’ defense ripped into the Eagles’ offensive line for a second straight week and their secondary continued to play with abilities that they had not shown all year. Michael Vick made the only big play on offense for the Eagles with a 76 yard TD to Jeremy Maclin. The Eagles threw the ball with McNabb gaining 230 yards on 36 attempts but everyone knew they could throw the ball. The lack of a running game really hurt them while Dallas was able to gain almost two hundred yards on the ground helping them to hold onto the ball for a 20 minute differential in time of possession. The Eagles only rushed for 43 yards (not counting some scrambles by McNabb).

Ravens at Patriots:
Baltimore showed up at Foxboro to play. New England did not. New England won the coin toss, and it was the only thing that went right for them all day. Actually, considering that the Patriots deferred the ball to the Ravens and Ray Rice scored an 83 yard TD on the first play from scrimmage, maybe it can’t be considered a positive at all. On the Patriots’ first offensive possession, Terrell Suggs stripped the ball from Tom Brady and the Ravens ended up scoring another TD on their ensuing possession. Down 24 – 0 at the end of the 1st quarter, the Patriots’ defense was able to hold the Ravens to only 9 points for the remaining 3 quarters but they could never gain control of the game from the Ravens’ defense and rushing attack. Tom Brady was only to muster 154 yards on 42 attempts and the ground game was only able to contribute 64 yards to the game. 3 turnovers by Brady, short fields, and a lack of halftime adjustments gave the Patriots’ their worst playoff performance since the Bears routed them in the Super Bowl twenty-five years ago.

Packers at Cardinals:
The final game of the weekend pitted the Green Bay Packers against the Arizona Cardinals in what turned out to be the shoot out everyone had been waiting for all weekend. While there were never any lead changes in the game, the Packers were able to close the gap after being down 17 – 0 at the beginning of the second quarter and push the game into overtime. Both quarterbacks combined for 9 touchdowns and over 800 yards. Warner had five touchdowns and only 4 missed passes. Obviously, defense wasn’t much of a factor in the game, until the final play in overtime, when Karlos Dansby stripped the ball from Aaron Rodgers and ran it in for the game winning touchdown. A lot of sportwriters are saying that this game sealed Warner’s enshrinement in Canton. I can’t argue against it.

There were a lot of teams that fell flat in the first round of the playoffs but I have to believe that the Divisional games will feature some better matchups. I don’t want to have to shoot my television again because that’s becoming a really expensive habit.

2010 NFL Season - Wild Card - Packers at Cardinals

The final game of the Wild Card Weekend is another Week 17 rematch as the Green Bay Packers travel back to Arizona to face Kurt Warner and the Cardinals.

I’m pretty sure that Warner plays in this game even though it appears that Anquan Boldin probably will not. Good thing they still have Larry Fitzgerald and Steve Breaston. The passing game also uses Tim Hightower who caught 63 passes this year. What they don’t have is a solid tight end.

That’s one of the big differences in this game. The Green Bay Packers have Jermichael Finley. Otherwise, the teams match up pretty well against each other since Boldin will not be in.

One of the other big differences in this game is playoff experience. The Cardinals went through this last year. The Packers have not.

I believe that the playoff experience that the Cardinals have will make the real difference in this game. The Cardinals came out of nowhere last year to make it within a minute of winning the Super Bowl. They will not be a surprise to anyone in the playoffs this year, but they are definitely a not a team that some other competitors (ahem, Vikings. I’m talking to you) will not want to play next week.

If the Cardinals defense can turn it up a notch like they did last year in their playoff run, they will be very hard to beat. Especially at home. The pass rush will be key, and the Packers give up a lot of sacks.

Of course, it would help if the Cardinals fans actually showed up to the game. There was a report earlier in the week that this game could be blacked out. It won’t. Apparently, there were enough Packers fans that bought tickets in order to keep that from happening because the Cardinals fans aren’t.

Really? A playoff game being blacked out? Has that ever happened?

In some regards, I’m glad the Cardinals didn’t win the Super Bowl last year. If the fans there are that frickin’ fickle and devoid of passion, then they don’t deserve to have a Super Bowl win.

Despite all of that…

Cardinals win. Warner praises the almighty. We get more glamour footage of his wife post-makeover which makes her look less like a 70 year old woman and more like what you would expect an NFL quarterback’s wife to look like.

Giselle, anyone?

2010 NFL Season - Wild Card - Ravens at Patriots

Game three of Wild Card Weekend is also a rematch, but at least it’s not a rematch of two teams that met in Week 17 of the regular season.

At last… A new, spicy meatball.

The Baltimore Ravens travel to the bitter fields of Foxboro to face Tom Brady and the Wes Welker-less New England Patriots. Every wonk on the tube, newspapers, and the internet repeatedly spout that the Patriots cannot win without him.

If Wes Welker is such an important player to the New England Patriots (and I know he is) how come he is never mentioned in the same sentence as MVP? He is the leading receiver (1st in catches, 2nd in yards) in the NFL this season. So what’s the deal? How come quarterbacks are the only ones that get votes for MVP?

I guess they’re important. Good thing the Patriots still have Tom Brady. The Baltimore Ravens have Joe Flacco.

Flacco is a good quarterback and has shown the ability to be a competitive quarterback in the NFL for a long time. Good for him. Good for the Ravens. But he is no Tom Brady.

The Patriots still have Randy Moss, whom I expect the Ravens will try and double cover the majority of the game. That leaves the tight ends, and Julian Edelman. Edelman is as close to a Welker clone as you can get without breaking a multitude of international laws.

I wonder if Bill Belichick ever looked into that.

The Ravens will double cover Randy Moss. That is going to leave some openings for these other receivers who will make plays especially since I think the Patriots are going to try and hammer the running game at the Ravens. If the Patriots can get Laurence Maroney and Sammy Morris going it is going to free up Edelman and Moss in the passing game.

Oh… You can’t forget that the Ravens will also have to deal with Kevin Faulk. That is going to be a lot of ground that the Ravens’ linebackers are going to have to cover.

The Ravens have a great running game with Ray Rice and Willis McGahee but really don’t have any receivers that can cause fits for the Patriots’ secondary. (It should be noted that Ray Rice leads the team in receptions this year).

The Patriots can stack the box and force Joe Flacco to beat them. I don’t see how it happens.

I’m not saying it is going to be an easy game for the Patriots. I am saying that they will win though.