...but so far, the NFL Playoffs are going about how I expected. Wow - scratch that. As I wrote that, Miles Austin returned a kick for a touchdown for the Cowboys. Woah. Nevertheless, I still think the Seahawks should be able to pull this one out, as they're only down 17-13 halfway through the third quarter. While neither team seems to be taking advantage of the others' weak defense as of yet, the Seahawks are finally using Shaun Alexander well, including two good runs on 4th-and-1 to keep their last touchdown drive alive. Matt Hasselback looks a lot better than he did in the first half, including a nice step-up-and-throw to Stevens for the score. The Seahawks' front line is doing well enough rushing only three or four, allowing them to drop more people into coverage to help the injured secondary.
Earlier, the Colts torched the Chiefs' defense all game, even if the 23-8 final didn't quite show it. Sure, Peyton Manning threw an uncharacteristic 3 interceptions, but he still managed to complete 30/38 passes, an astounding 78% in a playoff game, while Joseph Addai ran for 122 yards. Meanwhile, their defense was dominant, holding Larry Johnson to just 32 yards on 13 carries and sacking Trent Green and forcing three turnovers when it really mattered. Until the Chiefs' touchdown drive, they hadn't earned a first down the entire game.
So far, the Colts have covered the spread easily. In the playoff pool I'm in, we had to split 10 points among the week's four games (minimum of one for each game), picking against the spread. I put five of those on the Colts, so I'm in great shape already; I have two on the Seahawks, two on the Jets to cover against the Pats (8.5 is just too high for that game), and one on the Eagles (the 7.5 there was a tough spread). Go 'Hawks!
Wow. How about the ending of that 'Boys-'Hawks game?
ReplyDeleteSeriously! Incredible. Two very important points that I can't believe were missed, though:
ReplyDelete1) Romo didn't need the endzone, only the 1, when he botched the snap. He knew it, trying to stretch; you'd think that someone would key Michaels/Madden on that at some point so they'd stop saying "He was stopped short of the goal line!"
2) More importantly, I can't believe the refs didn't put an extra :24 back on the clock after they ruled the play before that down at the 1-1/2. There was 1:43 on the clock when the play ended, even though they only stopped it at 1:19 to review it. The Seahawks of course would use their timeout right after the play ended had it been called correctly; the time should have been reset to 1:43. This would have meant that the Seahawks would have had to either run a real play to get a first down, or the Cowboys would have had a lot more time to score. I don't know what the rules are, but I can't believe that they don't include putting that clock time back.