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Pennington was just f***in brutal. Baltimore is really, really dangerous though, I think they'll beat Tenn next week.

 

BTW, a completely random point but how good have the punters been so far in these games? Ridiculous.

Edited by Rowand44
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QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 4, 2009 -> 03:06 PM)
Pennington was just f***in brutal. Baltimore is really, really dangerous though, I think they'll beat Tenn next week.

 

BTW, a completely random point but how good have the punters been so far in these games? Ridiculous.

 

If you dont turn the ball over 5 times, you win that game..

 

Baltimores offense didn't do jack s***, it was just an ugly game from the fins

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QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 4, 2009 -> 01:51 PM)
Both of those points are almost completely irrelevant. If you want a home playoff game you should need to win more than 8-9 games, and you don't deserve an advantage over anyone. (If the wild card also only won that many then it's an anomalously s***ty year for the conference).

 

Why? Is it the Chargers fault the AFC West wasn't very good this year?

 

Indianapolis didn't win their division, San Diego did.. I see no problem with Indy having to go on the road, and if they really were 4 games better than the Chargers, they would have won anyways but they didn't..

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 4, 2009 -> 03:49 PM)
Well, given that the bolts are 1 of 4 teams in the afc west, it's at least 25% their fault.

 

No it isn't, the Chargers shoulda been 10-6 at worst.. they got jobbed in that first Denver game and then Carolina pulled one out of their ass to beat em..

 

Regardless, yes that whole division was pretty weak when the season was over.. but they are still AFC West Champions, they shouldn't have to go on the road (Against a Wild Card)..

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Cassel to be franchised. The New England Patriots have decided to ensure that quarterback Matt Cassel won't be an unrestricted free agent, as scheduled in March.

 

Sources told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen that the Patriots will use a franchise tag on Cassel that will give the team two options: Trade him if all goes well with Tom Brady's rehabilitation from a knee injury or keep him because all is not well with Brady.

 

The Patriots' intention to franchise Cassel was first reported by the National Football Post.

 

That would mean the Patriots would have about $29 million in salary cap space tied up in two quarterbacks, with Brady earning almost $15 million and Cassel guaranteed over $14 million.

 

However, the cap jumps to $123 million per team, which gives the Patriots $94 million to manage the rest of their roster.

 

"That's a smart move. You don't want to go into a season with uncertainty at that position," Patriots safety Rodney Harrison told ESPN's Rachel Nichols. "We figure Brady is going to be all right, but it always helps to have two great QBs."

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3809444

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I really hope the NFL officials get better next year. They have been awful all year long and have seen some garbage in the past 2 days.

 

What another atrocious call against Philly. Calling that a sack and loss of 8 when he clearly got the ball away.

Edited by Brian
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I enjoyed this article:

 

Another 12-victory season. ... and nothing.

 

Another Peyton Manning MVP season. ... and nothing.

 

Another Tony Dungy playoff appearance, his record 10th straight. ... and nothing.

 

Another glorious chance to advance to a Super Bowl, their second in three years, with the New England Patriots out of the way and the AFC unfettered by the existence of a dominant team. ... and nothing.

 

Let's just say it how it is: The Colts are the ultimate paper tigers. And if you don't like the Atlanta Braves comparison — multiple postseason appearances, one championship — feel free to come up with your own. But how can a franchise be so routinely dominant year after year, and yet be found so routinely lacking when the brightest lights are shining?

 

Saturday night's 23-17 overtime loss to the short-handed San Diego Chargers was all too typical of the Colts' recent postseason history.

 

It happens year after year after frustrating and infuriating year. And it's always something. The weather in New England. The officiating in New England. The long layoff before Pittsburgh. The Dwight Freeney injury against San Diego.

 

It's always something.

 

And yet teams like last year's Giants march on despite losing Jeremy Shockey, or the Chargers win this game without their top running back.

 

If it happens once, it's an anomaly. But this happens time and time again. It's a trend, and it's something Jim Irsay and Bill Polian have got to address. The nagging problem this year was that running game, the one Polian kept insisting was just fine, despite ample statistical evidence to the contrary.

 

It wasn't fine.

 

It was never fine.

 

And now the Colts are going on vacation way before a team with this talent, this pedigree, ought to be hitting the links.

 

These were not just the 8-8 San Diego Chargers. These were the 8-8 Chargers without a reasonable facsimile of LaDainian Tomlinson, who didn't even play in the second half because of a serious groin injury. These were the 8-8 Chargers with Antonio Gates struggling with a high ankle sprain. And yet, there was Gates, maybe the toughest guy on the field, riding Antoine Bethea downfield for a monster first down on San Diego's game-winning drive in overtime.

 

Last year, the Chargers beat the Colts with backup quarterback Billy Volek, or as we came to call him, Billy Freaking Volek. This year, the Chargers beat the Colts with Mike Scifres, a punter, and a magical elf named Darren Sproles, who merely filled in for Tomlinson and produced 328 all-purpose yards.

 

And, oh yes, there was the San Diego defense, which held the Colts' underperforming offense in check, as is often the case in the playoffs. For all of Manning's greatness, for all the weapons the Colts have on that side of the football, the fact is, Manning is sub-.500 in the playoffs, along with his head coach. The running game was a cipher. Marvin Harrison was invisible, as he usually is during the playoffs. Still think Harrison is coming back next season?

 

Predictably, the Colts defense will get pounded this morning and for the rest of the week, and those three defensive penalties on the game-winning drive don't speak well of their discipline down the stretch, but they did force two San Diego turnovers in the end zone on potential game-tying or go-ahead drives.

 

They played well enough to win.

 

Bottom line is, when the Colts needed a third-and-short conversion, they couldn't get it. You can't win in the playoffs if you can't run the football.

 

It's pretty elemental stuff. The Colts couldn't run it. Couldn't run it all season, couldn't run it all night, couldn't run it when one conversion on third-and-2 with 2:30 left in regulation and San Diego out of timeouts could have put this game away.

 

One and done.

 

Or, should we say, one and Dungy.

 

If (when) Tony Dungy decides to retire sometime next week, will there be a great hue and cry for him to come back and give it another shot? As much as this town loves and reveres him and appreciates him for everything he's done on and off the field, isn't it time for a new face, a new voice, something different?

 

At this point, it's going to be tough selling fans on Jim Caldwell who, at least from a distance, promises to bring more of the same.

 

Overtime?

 

Of course it went overtime.

 

Because they're the Colts and the Chargers. Because they don't know how to play football games that don't end on the final drive, the final play, the final gasp. Because they've developed as good of a rivalry as you will ever see between two teams who aren't in the same division.

 

It took more than 60 minutes to decide, but the deserving team won.

 

There's no nice way of saying what has to be said:

 

Paper tigers.

 

Folding again.

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QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Jan 4, 2009 -> 04:26 PM)
Cassel to be franchised. The New England Patriots have decided to ensure that quarterback Matt Cassel won't be an unrestricted free agent, as scheduled in March.

 

Sources told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen that the Patriots will use a franchise tag on Cassel that will give the team two options: Trade him if all goes well with Tom Brady's rehabilitation from a knee injury or keep him because all is not well with Brady.

 

The Patriots' intention to franchise Cassel was first reported by the National Football Post.

 

That would mean the Patriots would have about $29 million in salary cap space tied up in two quarterbacks, with Brady earning almost $15 million and Cassel guaranteed over $14 million.

 

However, the cap jumps to $123 million per team, which gives the Patriots $94 million to manage the rest of their roster.

 

"That's a smart move. You don't want to go into a season with uncertainty at that position," Patriots safety Rodney Harrison told ESPN's Rachel Nichols. "We figure Brady is going to be all right, but it always helps to have two great QBs."

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3809444

 

I wonder who's going to bite when the Patriots try to trade Cassel. He can't replicate his results on any team that isn't NE, Dallas, Arizona or some other team with a great receiving corps, but what team in the league will just look at the numbers and say, Hey! Let's get him!

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QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jan 4, 2009 -> 06:10 PM)
Who cares what some USA Today writer said....a lot of Colts fans are still happy with what they accomplished and still really love the organization that's been assembled.

Honestly, how could you not? The success of that franchise is tremendous. If the team never won a super bowl, I would understand some of the ripping but they've won theirs. Pretty garbage article imo.

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QUOTE (Gregory Pratt @ Jan 4, 2009 -> 06:32 PM)
It's an Indianapolis Star writer, I believe.

 

Apparently he's like Indy's version of Mariotti.

 

Anyone that can't appreciate what the Colts have done...Super Bowls be damned...well I just don't know what they are thinking....

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QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 4, 2009 -> 12:32 PM)
Squeaking out a division win with a lot of help in the second worst division in football should not have earned the Chargers a home game in that circumstance, but that's another story.

 

Well this I completely agree with. As long as there are 4 divisions though, odds are at least one home team (if not more, such as was the case this year) on wild card weekend will have an inferior record to their visiting opponent. I think that rule should be changed, because you shouldn't be given a home game just because you won a bad division, but we'll see if that happens.

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QUOTE (Gregory Pratt @ Jan 4, 2009 -> 06:02 PM)
I enjoyed this article:

 

It is ironic that you despise the Colts yet enjoy the everlasting success of the Braves when the franchises really are similar within their sports. Classy franchise from the players to the front office, fantastic general managing and coaching, fantastic leader(s).

 

Nothing more than that though.

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QUOTE (Shadows @ Jan 4, 2009 -> 04:37 PM)
Why? Is it the Chargers fault the AFC West wasn't very good this year?

 

Indianapolis didn't win their division, San Diego did.. I see no problem with Indy having to go on the road, and if they really were 4 games better than the Chargers, they would have won anyways but they didn't..

I don't care how good the division was, and it is their fault they won 8 games (I'll give you the Denver game, anything else is just excuses). Just like an earlier poster said, the way the NBA does it is the most fair. Winning the division shouldn't be a lock to anything.

 

edit: AZ also should've had to go to ATL, I don't care that it was their first home playoff win in forever.

Edited by lostfan
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I don't really see how you can argue that James Harrison didn't deserve it.

 

101 tackles, 16 sacks, 7 forced fumbles, 1 INT, and the guy even missed a game.

 

Ed Reed had a good season, but Troy Polomalu had even better year as a safety.

 

Harrison: 101 tackles, 16 sacks, 7 forced fumbles, 1 INT

Polomalu: 73 tackles, 7 INT's, 17 passes defenced

Reed: 41 tackles, 9 INT's, 16 passes defenced

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QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jan 6, 2009 -> 07:36 AM)
I thought Jared Allen should have been runner up. Besides Peterson, he was Minnesota's MVP this year.

 

Anyways, I got:

Giants over Eagles

Panthers over Cardinals

Titans over Ravens (UPSET?)

Steelers over Chargers

 

 

That game is going to end 3-2

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QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jan 6, 2009 -> 08:36 AM)
I thought Jared Allen should have been runner up. Besides Peterson, he was Minnesota's MVP this year.

 

Anyways, I got:

Giants over Eagles

Panthers over Cardinals

Titans over Ravens (UPSET?)

Steelers over Chargers

 

So, you're taking every bye team? Living on the edge.

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