After I posted an article about how bland the Divisional Round of the Playoffs usually are and writing a lengthy article about maybe one or two games you should be watching, the Divisional Round of the playoffs went and shut me up good. We’ll get to Saturday’s games at some point today, but for now, its the Atlanta Falcons hosting the San Francisco 49ers after they squeaked by the Seattle Seahawks yesterday 30-28. Nick Eaton of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer writes that the future is bright for Seattle despite the loss thanks to the play and (the hopeful) continued progression of rookie QB Russell Wilson. Meanwhile, Nick Schultz of the Atlanta Journal Constitution writes that the Falcons decided to take every single fan on a rollercoaster ride of emotions on Sunday without any pause to give fans rest, but they finally did it.
In Beantown, Tom Brady and the Patriots once again dominated the Houston Texans and won 41-28 thanks to some unlikely heroes for the Pats, namely Shane Vereen. Opportunity knocked and Shane Vereen, aka next man up, answered the call for the Pats writes Michael Whitmer of Boston.com. Tania Ganguli of the Houston Chronicle writes that the Texans will have a ton of what ifs as they dissect this season. In other news, JJ Watt said its customary, home or away, for him to spit on the field and wipe the spit with his feet. It just so happened that his spit landed on the Pats logo which caused a pregame stir. Jackie Mac of ESPNBoston wrote that perhaps that Monday Night win wasn’t a fluke, and the Pats are just that much better than the Texans. There was bad news for Pats fans, they will be without superstar TE Rob Gronkowski for the remainder of the playoffs thanks to him reinjuring his forearm and this time breaking it. Now comes the fairy tale that is the Ray Lewis thank you tour coming into town.
I’m not going to really delve that deep into the Pats/Texans game because I, and from the looks of it, most NFL fans knew what the result was going to be. When the Texans Daneal Manning ran the opening kickoff deep into Patriots territory, I thought for a brief moment that maybe this day would be different, but that was quickly erased from my mind when the Patriots held the Texans to 3 points. You can’t settle for three points playing against Tom Brady when you get that deep. You have to convert and you have to score and the Texans just couldn’t do it and that told you all you needed to know. When the Pats went up 7-3 and then 10-3, it felt like 35-3 and you just never got the sense that Matt Schaub was going to lead the Texans back. The Texans just don’t have that many offensive weapons. Yes, their defense was missing a few key pieces but this league is about match ups and the Patriots are just a terrible match up for the Texans. Their defense got enough initial pressure but it was based on blitzing and against Tom Brady you can’t send an extra defender on the blitz because he’s the best QB at reading coverage and finding the one on one or one on none match ups and exploiting them. The stats tell you the story. He gets better when the blitz and pressure are put on him. You have to get pressure from the front four and the Pats offensive line has been doing a brilliant job of getting that pressure on.
The Ravens will be more of a challenge thanks to the talents of Haloti Ngata and Terrell Suggs and Ray Lewis being there at LB. But according to ESPN Stats and info, Tom Brady has the quickest release in all of the NFL at 3 seconds. The key for the Ravens will be to get pressure from the front four and hope that coverage holds up long enough to keep them honest. The Pats being without Rob Gronkowski will help the Ravens but as the Texans found out, the Pats have more secret weapons stashed away for them to use and they know how to use it.
I’m torn in the other game about what to say. On the one hand, yes Seattle has nothing to be ashamed of. They played their butts off, and they almost won the game. But how can you ignore all the mistakes they made in the first half? That first half put them in such a terrible spot going into the second half that if they had just played a bit better, they would’ve won. Had they taken the three points in the first quarter, they would’ve won. Had Wilson just thrown the ball away and left a few seconds on the clock and kicked another FG, they would’ve won the game. Thats six points they gave up due to stupid playcalling (by rule you always take the points on the road no matter what) and by terrible clock management (had no timeouts to get the FG team out and Wilson took the sack). That second half was enough to convince me that Seattle is the better team of the two, but the first half shows how much work they have to do. Down 14-0 against the Redskins and 20-0 and then 27-7 against the Falcons put the Seahawks in a bind but they showed mental toughness and resiliency, two huge attributes to have during this time of year, that show that next year they won’t come as a surprise to anyone and there are lessons to grasp at here.
If I’m the Niners, I watched that second half and started licking my chops. The intermediate areas were open all day for Wilson and he wisely took what the defense gave him. There’s no doubt that they are wiping the sweat off their brow because going against the Seahawks may have been a tougher task but they will gladly take the away game against the Falcons over a home game against their division rivals. The Seahawks know the Niners and would’ve easily been a tougher match up but the way Colin Kaepernick played Saturday, it may not have mattered who played against the Niners on Sunday.
Yes Matt Ryan exercised demons on Sunday, but not before making Falcons fans sweat. There was a sequence in that game where you saw all the confidence flushed from his face and him saying over and over again in his head “this is not happening. Not again.” I felt bad, but then he came with :31 seconds left and threw two beautiful passes to set up Matt Bryant’s game winning field goal. I hope all the head coaches who think icing the kicker is a solid strategy watched Sunday as Matt Bryant shanked the first attempt. I’ve never been a fan of the icing the kicker strategy as it is used in the NFL because making a kicker think about it is fine, but you call the timeout well before he gets to attempt a practice field goal. You’re giving the guy a mulligan. If you want him to think about the field goal then as soon as it seems like the team is lining up for a FG attempt you call the timeout. Let him sit and stew about it and give him one shot at trying to make it. That’s the best strategy and I hope that we end this silly strategy of icing the kicker as he’s taking his first shot at it. But making the guy kick a pseudo practice FG is stupid and basically negates anything you were trying to accomplish in the first place. Either you give the guy confidence that he will hit it, or you give the guy a better understanding of what not to do when attempting it for real.
The Knicks ended their three game slide by defeating the New Orleans Hornets 100-87 Sunday thanks to 27 points from Carmelo Anthony. Next up is a trip to London to take on a good young Pistons team. That may be what the doctor ordered according to Jared Swerling of ESPNNY.com. Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News writes that the Knicks feasted on a young Anthony Davis who didn’t do anything spectacular on Sunday. Postgame was fun thanks to Amare’s revelation that he’s been on a vegan diet for the last three months and Carmelo Anthony was fasting for fifteen days. Nate Taylor of the New York Times writes that the Knicks were calling this a must win game for the and for several stretches, they played like it.
So Carmelo has been fasting for fifteen days huh? Is it coincidental that he and the Knicks would get off to such slow starts or are there other reasons? Who knows, but atleast we have another theory now to go with because I was lost. Yes, the Knicks were playing some of the better defensive teams in the NBA in Chicago and Indiana and Boston this week, bu still, their offense seemed to play every bit the age Knicks fans were afraid they would wind up playing. I said a few days ago that the Knicks are somewhere between the 18-5 team that shot out of the gate to begin the season and the team that struggled these last three games. They weren’t as bad as they showed in Indiana, but they may not be as good as they showed in their early season win streak. Look, the Knicks have a ton of talent and with Iman Shumpert’s return (he’s set to make his season debut against the Pistons on Thursday), I’m sure the Knicks will look better. But then again, the Knicks are also hoping to get Rasheed Wallace back and Marcus Camby back and Raymond Felton back, so the never ending line of excuses for why the Knicks are playing so poorly won’t end with a Melo fast. They aren’t at full strength. I’m not going to judge the Knicks until they are whole, but at what point will they be whole again? With this team, and its age, they are a fragile bunch. Camby seems to get injured a ton and there’s no real timetable for Wallace’s return unless a day to day gives fans an exact timing on the healing process. They are an old team with tons of veteran guidance but if they don’t have them playing what’s the use?
I’m looking forward to this road trip especially playing against the Pistons who are figuring things out as of late. Their record doesn’t reflect the young talent they have that’s starting to flourish. Greg Monroe is a very good center. Andre Drummond is a rebounding machine and has tons of untapped potential as a finisher in this league. Brandon Knight can turn into a very good point guard though I think his ceiling is limited. The Pistons won’t be a lay up win for the Knicks and so they will have to take this next game seriously and win. Getting Shumpert back will be helpful but the Knicks constantly having to work guys back into the rotation is tough to gain any kind of consistent play. The Knicks will play better once they have everyone healthy and whole and will be able to wear teams out without wearing their own team out. Jason Kidd has played 30 minutes or more in 10 of their last 14 games. That kind of heavy workload consistently does not bode well for the elder statesman. Here’s hoping that Felton gets back sooner and Shump can hold down the fort as he’s recovering as well.
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