This was supposed to be the year of the Quarterback. Drew Brees and Tom Brady both broke Dan Marino's record for yards in a season, Aaron Rodgers led the Packers to a 14-1 regular season (his coach pussied out and benched him for the final game of the year and, gee, I wonder if that kind of backfired on him since Rodgers looked quite rusty yesterday) and even the other Manning, who seems to think he should be considered among the elite QB's in the NFL, Eli set the all-time record for 4th Quarter Touchdowns in a season this year, eclipsing the old mark of 14 set by his brother Peyton and another Colts legend, Johnny Unitas.
With the offensive players now being given the benefit of the doubt on just about every play, as well as the new focus on not allowing defensive players to lead with their heads, receivers were able to rack up TD's and yards at an all-time record pace. There was such a focus on offense this year that the top 3 offensive teams (The Patriots, Saints and Packers) all had winning records (they went a combined 41-7 this past regular season) also had 3 of the worst defenses in the NFL (Green Bay was ranked 32nd, New England 31st and New Orleans was 24th).
Yet here we are, a week away from the Conference Finals and we have New England (31st ranked Defense, 2nd ranked Offense) against Baltimore (3rd ranked Defense, 15th ranked Offense) and San Francisco (4th ranked Defense, 26th ranked Offense) against the New York, football Giants (27th ranked Defense, 8th ranked Offense). If ever there was a clash of styles, then the lead up to this weekends' games will be the definition of that.
Something tells me that the Giants and Patriots Defenses are both playing much better then their regular season stats would have you believe. How else do you explain the Giants shutting down Rodgers and the 3rd best offensive team in the league so easily on their way to a dominating 37-20 victory last night? What about the Patriots "D" which has been lambasted almost from the start of the season for how many yards they allow and blah, blah, blah and yet they stopped Tebow and the Broncos easily on route to a 45-10 dismantling of a Broncos team that had racked up 29 points against the vaunted Pittsburgh Steelers top ranked Defense just 6 days prior?
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the 2 games coming up Sunday will be Defensive battles the likes we haven't seen since the 1950's when the forward pass was first instituted. All I am saying is that despite the numbers, the Giants and Patriots look to finally have their defenses playing well at the right time. Baltimore and San Fran are both teams that rely on their "D" to overcome the deficiencies they have Offensively, while the Giants and Pats are the exact opposite.Should make for a couple of interesting games Sunday.
On a side note, Tim Tebow and the Broncos are not done yet shocking people. I really think that with a real off-season, instead of a lock-out shortened one, Tebow will be able to really work out the kinks in his mechanics and become more of a true QB without losing his god-given physical abilities....and just for the record, I DID call it when I said they would get creamed by my Patriots.
I don't understand how the Colts could fire 2 good men in GM Bill Polian and his son (who have helped to turn that Colts franchise into a perennial Contender, while the Chargers opted to keep GM A.J. Smith and coach Norv Turner, who have had some of the most talented teams in the league over the last 8 years, and done absolutely nothing with them.If the Colts really plan on choosing Andrew Luck with the #1 choice in this years draft, then part of their firing makes sense because you really don't need a GM and President of Football Ops to make the easiest choice ever at the draft. Why pay someone to make the easy choice when everyone already knows Luck is the top pick?
The Chargers situation is much more perplexing. How can you keep a couple of guys on the job that have just continued to fail to get your team over the hump time and time again? The knock on Norv Turner has always been that he is not a head coach. He is a great offensive co-coordinator but can not get the job done as the head hancho. While A.J. Smith's failings seems to be his inability to hire a coach that can push his talented group of players to that next level. I'm sorry, but the wrong 2 men were fired here.
Another man who should not have been turfed was Hue Jackson in Oakland. The man brought stability to a franchise that lost it's leader mid-season when Al Davis passed away at the age of 82. With the hiring of a new team President, his first order of business was to fire Jackson. Dumb move. It just goes to show that even without Al Davis in the fold, the Raiders remain the most dysfunctional team in the league by a very wide margin.
My Super Bowl prediction out of the final 4 teams remaining is that it will be San Francisco vs. the Patriots with Tom Brady cementing his legacy as the greatest QB of this generation by winning his 4th Super Bowl in 5 opportunities and his 3rd Super Bowl MVP Award will also be a record, 37-14.
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