Weekend Recap --- Sunday, Bloody Sunday

What a day of football. All was normal in the world on Saturday. The favorites were dominant and advanced easily. Then, Sunday happened. A double digit underdog, without it's key players, upsets the AFC 2 seed. A touchdown underdog with a QB nobody likes manages to go into Dallas and walk out victoriously. As easy as it is to pencil in the favorites for the conference championship games, days like Sunday are why they have to play the game first.

On to the games.

Seattle: 20 Green Bay: 42

Wow. That was some serious snow. What a dominant performance by Green Bay. I questioned Ryan Grant in my first post on the game and boy, did he respond- 207 rushing yards and 3 TDs. I obviously felt pretty good about my Seattle pick in the first quarter, but it was apparent by half-time that Favre and the Packers wouldn't be stopped. Favre escaping the sack and throwing an underhanded toss to his receiver for a first down (on third down, no less) was vintage Brett Favre. Seattle had a chance to keep it close, but the snow was hampering their pass game, epitomized by Pollard letting a TD pass when he was wide open go right through his hands. The weather is always an important factor in December and January football, and I didn't pay enough attention to it in this game.

Jacksonville: 20 New England: 31

Great offensive game. Unfortunately for Jacksonville, their defense didn't show up whatsoever, and no team is going to beat the Patriots is a purely offensive contest. Both teams ran the ball well, and that kept the game moving at a quick pace and left those with Jacksonville and the points little to worry about. The Patriots look unstoppable on offense, and the match-up with San Diego next week will probably provide another entertaining game.

San Diego: 28 Indianapolis: 24

Wow. What an upset. If someone would have told me Peyton would throw for 400+ yards and LT would be injured in the second quarter, and asked me to predict the score, I probably would have said Colts 42, Chargers 10. The Chargers D gave up a ton of yards but made plays when they needed to, and benefited from the Colts dropping balls or deflecting them into interceptions, fumbles, and the subsequent points the Colts let slip away. Still, during the game, I sort of had the feeling the Colts would eventually pull away, but they never did. They committed too many mistakes, and San Diego capitalized. And where in the world did Billy Volek come from? He didn't look good in relief duty earlier this year, but he was amazing on Sunday.

The Chargers earned this win just as much as the Colts gave it away. However, that pass defense needs to play quite a bit better next week if they even want to try to keep up with the Patriots.


NY Giants: 21 Dallas: 17

Apparently the Giants pass rush really is new and improved. They certainly got to Romo well enough (2 sacks, 10+ hits). That, combined with some key Dallas drops, was the difference in the game. Marion Barber ran well, but Romo only completed 50% of his passes. I didn't see this game in its entirety, but from what I saw, NY contained Dallas and Eli Manning managed the game, turn-over free. The offense was also the beneficiary of several Dallas penalties, which sustained touchdown drives. Overall, it was just a really disappointing performance by the Dallas offensive line and wide receivers. Romo will shoulder some of the blame, but it didn't really look like there was much else he could do.



Well, my picks didn't do well this weekend. I'd like to thank Wes Welker for dropping a pass which held the Pats to a field goal and kept me from going 0-4. These upsets will create lopsided lines next week. The Pats are at -14 right now and The Pack is at -7. I'm headed off to New York this Thursday, so I'll probably try to post on the games on Wednesday. Hope you enjoyed your weekend of football; even when the picks don't work out, at least it's still fun to watch this time of year.