Moday Morning Cornerback

I can’t remember if it was a Dickens novel or an episode of Family Ties that began, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
Either way, that famous opening line in no way encapsulates the final Sunday of the NFL season, since it was pretty much just the worst of times.
A top-heavy league meant that seven teams’ playoff dates were set and, as a result, they had nothing to play for, which made for some interesting betting lines (Eagles +9 at home against the Bengals) and some much less interesting games (even Jim Sorgi’s parents probably flipped from the Colts-Broncos game to the Real World/Road Rules Challenge marathon yesterday).
True, there was some excitement as NFC and AFC teams jockeyed for the last Wild Card spots, but watching the Saints, Vikings, Rams and Panthers duke it out for two playoff berths was like watching the presidents of the chess and math clubs play one-on-one hoops.
Two 8-8 teams made the playoffs in the NFC? I’m surprised the Milwaukee Bucks didn’t sneak in as the seventh seed.
Anyway, some thoughts on the final Sunday of the NFL’s regular season.

- On the final weekend of every NFL season, football commentators, analysts, reporters and Michael Irvin debate whether a coach should start his key players if their teams’ playoff spot is locked up.
Yesterday, of the team’s with nothing to play for, the Eagles, Falcons, Packers, Steelers, Colts and Chargers rested a majority of their starters while only the Patriots did not.
Listening to the Pats’ post-game interviews, one would have thought their game against the 49ers actually meant something and that meaningless streaks (New England became only the third team in NFL history to have back-to-back 14 win seasons) will matter in the playoffs.
Under no circumstances should Tom Brady, Corey Dillon or Troy Brown have been allowed to set foot on the field yesterday in Foxboro. If any of the three had been injured, the blame would have lay squarely on supposed genius Bill Belichick.
But hey, at least the coach had a good reason for gambling with his players health before the playoffs… he said wanted to have “momentum” going into the postseason. Apparently, beating a 2-14 team 21-7 with your star QB fumbling once and throwing an interception passes for a momentum-builder in 2005.
Somebody needs to explain the whole concept of momentum to me. I don’t understand how playing 45 cautious minutes of football on January 2nd prepares you for playing 60 minutes of intense football on January 16th?
If player’s get “rusty” by not playing for three weeks, as commentators suggest, then, under that theory shouldn’t team’s play all their starters for each preseason game? That way, each player would be firing on all cylinders when the season began.
And what about teams that earn a bye? Isn’t their momentum ruined by sitting out the Wild Card week? Wouldn't these team run a full scrimmage in pads next weekend to avoid "getting rusty"?
The Patriots have won two of the past three Super Bowls, with much of the same roster. Of all the teams in the NFL playoffs New England was probably the one team that could have most afforded to take a week off.
Instead, Belichick stupidly risked his playoff chances in order to sustain non-existent momentum for a game 14 days from now.

- One team that really couldn’t afford to rest its players was the Philadelphia Eagles. Since losing Terrell Owens two weeks ago, Donovan McNabb has thrown only sixteen passes, two of which went for interceptions.
In the past two games, when the Eagles could have been testing out their no-Owens game-plan, McNabb only took about a dozen snaps, while watching Koy Detmer and Jeff Blake run the show.
Maybe Andy Reid is keeping his cards close to his vest, but a Divisional Playoff game is not exactly the best time to find out what your offense can do without its most potent weapon.

- In the next few years, don’t be surprised to see more and more teams clinching playoff berths early and resting players in the later weeks.
With only four teams per division it is easier for a team to break away from the pack (like the Eagles, Colts, Chargers and Steelers this year). At least we were spared watching the Broncos-Colts debacle on Monday night.
Speaking of that game, some claim it was unfair that the Broncos slipped into the playoffs because they were playing the Colts second-stringers.
While that certainly makes for less exciting games late in the season, every team starts the year at 0-0 and has the same opportunity to be in a position to rest players in week 17.

- There’s really not a “must-see” Wild Card game on the schedule this year like in seasons past, but that still doesn’t excuse the NFL for slotting the Jets at Chargers as the prime-time match-up on Saturday night.
I guess it could have been worse, they could have slated the Rams-Seahawks for that time instead.
Come to think of it, maybe New York/San Diego isn’t too bad after all.
Few people outside the west coast have probably seen the Chargers play all season, and even folks in San Diego only had eight opportunities to watch since all the team’s home games were blacked-out on local television.
Hopefully ABC will put a microphone on Chad Pennington so viewers can hear that hick talk about what a privilege it is to be watching the finest athletes in the world.
I used to like Pennington, but after I heard his little press conference a few week’s back he’s joined Larry Brown, Britney Spears and Suzy Kolber as people I’d rather see, not hear. Wait, Kolber is on my “rather not see or hear” list. I apologize for the error.

- The Vikings ran 62 plays from scrimmage yesterday. Of those 62 plays, I’d say that Randy Moss exerted effort on maybe 15 of them (and if anything, that’s on the high side).
On the other plays Moss either stood at the line of scrimmage making a half-hearted effort to block somebody or jogged his routes so slow that Bill Clinton would have looked like Carl Lewis next to him.
Then, to cap it off, Moss sulked off the field as his team was getting ready to attempt an onside kick with two seconds left.
And people wonder why the Vikings lost four out of their last five.
The fact that this team backed into the playoffs after laying an egg against the Redskins shows just how pathetic the NFC was this season.

- On the Giants game-winning drive against the Cowboys Tiki Barber caught a screen pass and scampered 23 yards, rushed for ten on the next play, made a key block on a short Eli Manning dump pass, and then had runs for two, eight and three, the last of which resulted in the go-ahead touchdown.
Yet, even after that stellar effort, all Paul McGuire and Joe Thiesmann could talk about was how Eli Manning marched the Giants down the field for the win.
Eli was good in the game. It was probably the best he’s looked all season, but regardless, the final drive was 100% Tiki.
That’s just another of the thousands of reasons why ESPN’s football coverage, from their morning show to their game broadcast, have slipped dramatically in recent years.
At least Primetime is still going strong.

Superlatives
Game of the Day: St. Louis 32 – New York Jets 29 (OT)
With 3:00 left in the 4th quarter of this game, both teams knew where they stood in the playoff race.
The Bills loss to Pittsburgh meant that the Jets were safely in the playoffs and their seeding was secure, win or lose.
As for the Rams, when the PA announcer at the Edward Jones Dome announced the score of the Redskins-Vikings match-up, they knew they controlled their playoff hopes.
Mike Martz and various players claimed they didn’t know they were in a “win and you’re in” situation until they got to the locker room, but Martz is about as trustworthy as Kim Jong-Il’s golf scores.
Everybody knew the situation, which is what made the game so interesting.
The Jets, to their credit, never stopped playing hard. Faced with a 4th and goal in the closing seconds of regulation, Herm Edwards could have gone for a touchdown instead of kicking the field goal to ensure overtime. After all, his team was in; did he really want to risk injury for overtime?
Edwards decided to kick, was successful and almost earned a victory in OT, when Doug Brien lined up for a 53-yarder.
Had the Jets needed a win (or tie) Edwards might have opted for a pooch punt to pin the Rams deep in their own territory. Instead, the Jets missed the FG and the Rams marched down the field on the subsequent possession to win.

Worst Game of the Day: Cincinnati 38 – Philadelphia 10
The Eagles reserves probably wouldn’t have been able to beat Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl. Speaking of bad games, Pitt had a rough two-day stretch in athletics.
First, they helped give further evidence to show that the BCS is a joke after they got pasted by Utah, then their overrated basketball team (ranked #7 in the AP poll, but unranked in the preseason CSB rankings) lost at home to Bucknell. Ouch.

Player of the Day: Jamal Lewis – 167 rush yards, 1 TD
The game ended up being meaningless, but Lewis and the Ravens had no way of knowing that when they took the field.
Jamal’s performance should give him so fond memories to look back upon when he’s fending off advances in the shower room during his prison term this spring.
By the way, Nick Saban might be a good coach in the NFL (although with the recent track records of college coaching studs in the NFL, the odds are stacked against him), but the Dolphins are making a mistake in not bringing back Jim Bates next season.

Picks
Went 11-5 on the day to finish up the year with a 159-97 (62%) record. By comparison, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen had 158 correct picks on the year, which was more than Merril Hoge (157), Eric Allen (155) and Mark Schlereth (150), but behind Ron Jaworski (162), Mike Golic (163) and Sean Salisbury (164).
By the way, Sean Salisbury picking more correct games than Ron Jaworski is like one of the girls from Laguna Beach getting a higher SAT score than Doogie Howser.

Playoff Power Rankings: Top Two
1) Indianapolis Colts - They’re the team to beat in the AFC, even if they have to go to Foxboro and Pittsburgh.
2) Pittsburgh Steelers - They might be the worst 15-1 team in history, but that’s like being the poorest billionaire in the world.

Who I Like on Monday Night And I Certainly Don’t Mean Marcus Vick
Auburn still thinks they got the shaft by being missing out on the Orange Bowl and having to settle for a Sugar Bowl match-up against a two-loss team. (Only the brain trust at the BCS could have screwed-up a possible Utah-Auburn game. Instead, nobody watched Utah destroy Pitt and tonight's Sugar Bowl game will probably get lower ratings than a rerun of CSI: Miami.
Cal thought they got hosed by the BCS too but then promptly lost to Texas Tech, while the team that got Cal’s spot in the Rose Bowl won one of the better bowl games in recent memory.
I’ll bet that the Tigers won’t give up like Cal did and will win a close one against the “ACC Champs” Virginia Tech.
By the way, Virginia Tech winning the ACC is like the Jaguars winning the NFC East.