Let us all think back to last season, the Dolphins won one game, yeah single, singular, uno, one game. Bill Parcells looks like a gift from the football gods right about now. One year later they go from 1-15 to 11-5 and the AFC East Champions, that is what is beautiful about the NFL. So all you Ram, Niner, Jag, Raider, Brown, Bengal, Chief, Lion, well maybe not Lion fans, there is hope for a quick turnaround keep that in mind. It was not easy it came down to the wire not only in the AFC East but in several divisions on the final week of the season. The Giants, Titans, Steelers, Cardinals, and Colts were the only teams despite what happened in their week 17 game could not change their seat in the playoffs. Some of these teams rested their star players which looked like the smart move after what we saw happen to Ben Roethlisberger in the 2nd quarter of the Steelers game against the uncompetitive Browns, Mike Tomlin what were you thinking. Hopefully Big Ben recovers from the concussion over the bye week. Let's get started with the AFC East:
New England vs. Buffalo: This game was comical, wind gusts at 60mph, field goals aimed 15yds to miss left and still missing by 20yds to the right. There was only 206yds passing combined by both teams, on paper it looked like a high school game. New England won 13-0 which kept their playoff hopes alive but they had to wait to see what happened in the afternoon games to see their fate.
Fantasy Minute: RBs only players worth mentioning. Morris (85yds). Jordan (64yds 1td) got the majority of New England's goal line carries the last few weeks. Jackson (136yds) solid day in Marshawn Lynch's absence, nice pick up if you swooped him up for your fantasy championship.
Miami vs. NYJ: It was so fitting that Chad Pennington had to go back to the team that ran him out of town a month before the season began and win in order to vault his new team into the playoffs. The stage was set Chad vs. Favre, Dolphins win and they are in, Jets win get some help they are in. Favre was a turnover machine in this one, at costly times too, every time it seemed the Jets were getting a little bit of momentum Favre threw another interception. Pennington was efficient as he was all season and outplayed the future hall-of-famer. Because the Dolphins won and clinched the AFC East division the Pats had to hope the Jaguars would pull the upset over the Ravens in order to get in as a wild card.
Fantasy Minute: Pennington ridiculously efficient completed 70% (200yds 2tds 0ints). Ginn Jr. (71yds 1td) spotty flashes of a bright future this season. Fasano (39yds 1td). Favre (233yds 1td 3ints, yeah 3ints) not the Brett Favre I'm sure he wants to be remembered by.
Baltimore vs. Jacksonville: This was simple for the Ravens, win and lock up the final playoff spot, or lose and the Patriots would get it. Unfortunately for the Patriots the Ravens took care of business they handled the Jags in all phases of the game, winning 27-7.
Fantasy Minute: Flacco came up big in this one (297yds but 0tds). McClain carried the load for the Ravens today (70yds 2tds). Clayton showed that the Ravens can now stretch the field (128yds on 4 rec, 32.0yd avg).
With all the divisions and wild cards in the AFC decided by 7:30pm eastern time, besides the AFC West everyones eyes were on the Chargers vs. Broncos in Sunday's night game. This one had the making of a shootout all over it, 2 high-powered offenses that can score a lot of points and 2 defenses that have not stopped too many people this year. We all remember the Hochuli call in Week 2 that gave the Broncos the 39-38 victory. 4 weeks ago the Chargers were 4-8 and looked as if they would just be playing for pride the rest of the season but as they got hot the Broncos fizzled and at SD 7-8 and Denver 8-7 this final game would decide the winner of the AFC West.
SD vs. Denver: The real Chargers showed up Sunday night. LT 3tds, defense forcing turnovers, good mix of run and pass, it looked like it took 16 weeks for Norv to finally put the pieces together for a winning recipe. SD decisively beat Denver 52-21 and this sets the stage for what should be a great game next week. Indy vs. SD, Indys won 9 straight the Chargers 4, should be fun, I'm thinking the Colts will take it in a close one, 31-28.
Fantasy Minute: Rivers solid (207yds 2tds). Sproles ridiculous (117yds 1td 17yds rec 1td). LT (96yds 3tds) now thats the LT fantasy owners loved, too bad it is week 17 and most leagues are over. Cutler most of his damage, minuscule as it was, was done in mop up time (316yds 1td 2ints). Bell (86yds 2tds) solid in a losing effort.
That does it for the AFC 1)Titans 2)Steelers 3)Dolphins 4)Chargers 5)Colts 6)Ravens and the Pats go 11-5 and miss the playoffs that's a tough one to swallow. Both road teams will be favorites: I expect Indy to beat SD and Baltimore to win a grind it out game in Miami.
Now on to the NFC. The Giants had the #1 locked up, the Cardinals had the #4 locked up, the Panthers and Falcons would be 2 or the 5 depending on how they faired in week 17, the 3 would go to either the Bears or the Vikings and the 6 to either the Bears, Vikings, Cowboys, Bucs, or Eagles. Gotta love the NFL right. There was about a 5 minute period during the ending of the early games where I was literally changing the channel non-stop to catch the outcome of these games. In a sentence here is what happened: The Bears chumped it up against the Texans, the Vikings kicked a last second field goal to beat the Giants, the Panthers kicked a last second field goal to beat the Saints, and the Bucs let the Raiders handle them on their home turf. This made the Cowboy vs. Eagles game a control your own destiny game for both teams.
Philadelphia vs. Dallas: I could not have been more happy with what happened in this game. The Eagles destroyed, obliterated, annihilated, there are so many adjectives to use, the Eagles flat out beat the Cowboys. This is exactly what Jerry Jones deserves. He pieced together this fantasy team with 13 pro-bowlers, a team that every NFL analyst in America thought they were the clear cut favorite to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl, and look what happens to the Cowboys on the last week of the season in a game that they controlled their own destiny in, nothing tricky, you win you are in, they get spanked and lose 44 to 6. I really don't think this one was very hard to predict either, just look at the experience of the 2 teams, McNabb vs. Romo, McNabb consecutive NFC Championships and he has gone to a Super Bowl, Romo has not proven that he can win in December or win in the playoffs, remember the botched snap against Seattle 2 years ago, or the loss to the Giants last year, Romo has yet to prove that he belongs in the playoffs. I feel bad because I like the guy, I like Tony Romo, he has great talent, he is in a terrible environment. I feel Jerry Jones is most responsible for the disappointing season the Cowboys just posted. Hey Jerry don't bring in someone like Pacman Jones, I know you love all the attention on the Cowboys, but you've got to realize negative attention is not good attention. And Jerry, don't give up a 1st, 3rd, and 6th round pick for a WR like Roy Williams, who is, if you don't remember a number 2 WR on the worst team in football. And then you pay him like an all-pro and he has had what? 20 catches in 10 games. This was a major panic move, Romo got hurt that was the problem. Bringing in Roy Williams was not going to help Brad Johnson or Brooks Bollinger, all it did was hurt the Cowboys chances in the draft because they gave up so many picks for him and spend a lot of money on a player who is quite frankly not worth it. Building a quality team starts at the top and Jerry, I'm sorry man but, you are the first to blame for all of this.
Now that we are done with the Dallas Cowboy saga, sweet its the playoffs we don't have to talk about them for another year. Atlanta will travel to Arizona and Philadelphia will travel to Minnesota. Both home teams should be underdogs and I expect Philly to handle business in Minnesota relatively easy and I expect the Falcons to win a close one in Arizona, sorry Warner you are my boy but I like Atlanta in this matchup because of that kid Ryan and with Turner running the way he is.
Sorry I did not go into fantasy too much this week I felt it was unnecessary because most leagues should have been over with by week 16's end. Stay tuned for my 2009 top fantasy projections at each position. Here's the Mikey Waa Fantasy Awards for 2008. There is 2 awards for each position one for hands down who was the best to have, and one for who was the best to have that you did not have to draft too high for.
Top QB: Drew Brees
Top QB Value: Kurt Warner (old man still got skillz)
Top RB: Adrian Peterson and Michael Turner
Top RB Value: Deangelo Williams (came out of left field)
Top WR: Andre Johnson
Top WR Value: Roddy White
Top TE: Tony Gonzalez
Top TE Value: Owen Daniels
Top Rookies: Chris Johnson and Matt Forte
Top Defenses: Baltimore and Pittsburgh
Other Awards
MVP: Peyton Manning
Rookie of the Year: Matt Ryan
Offensive Player of the Year: Adrian Peterson
Defensive Player of the Year: Ed Reed (sorry Porter and Polamalu)
Surprise Player of the Year: Matt Cassel
Coach of the Year: Mike Smith and Tony Sparano
Chumps of the Year: Dallas Cowboys collectively, Eric Mangini-us, Braylon Edwards, Chad Johnson
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment