Home teams take Saturday playoff games

by | Jan 3, 2009 | NFL Random Thoughts

Well, like I always say … or maybe should start saying, never bet against the home team in the playoffs.

San Diego dominated Indianapolis in the second Wild Card game Saturday evening. Though the overtime 23-17 score might not show it, if it weren’t for a fumble inside the five yard line and a defensive breakdown allowing Reggie Wayne to catch a 72 yard touchdown pass from Peyton Manning, the Chargers would have won hands down – as both John Madden and Matt Millen said on the NBC Post game coverage.

In the early game I underestimated the degree to which Kurt Warner’s veteran presence could impact the game. He outplayed rookie Matt Ryan in the Cardinals’ win over Atlanta. Interesting to see was the re-emergence of Edgerrin James, who was benched at mid-season and didn’t get more than a handful of carries until last week.

His 73 yards rushing gave Arizona a rare dual threat offense and he helped open up the passing game. I think James’ presence was the difference in the game.

At any rate, Saturday provided two exciting and interesting playoff games. If the Sunday games are as entertaining the NFL should be more than happy with its weekend.

Fixing Detroit: Lions must start in the trenches

by | Dec 30, 2008 | NFL News, NFL Random Thoughts

While the Detroit Lions will never completely live down the infamy of a 0-16 season the team must put the just-completed season behind them if they are going to begin turning five decades of putridity around.

Promoting Tom Lewand to president and Martin Meyhew to general manager aren’t the moves I would have made to start the process, but it’s the players, not the front office types that are going to be most key in any turnaround.

I’m no general manager and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. But I do have some thoughts on what the team needs to do to start what will be a multi-year process.

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Monday presents few major surprises

by | Dec 29, 2008 | NFL Random Thoughts

The NFL regular season ended Sunday and on Monday the carnage began.

Romeo Crennel, Cleveland; Eric Mangini, New York Jets; and Rod Marinelli, Detroit are all looking for new jobs with rumors swirling of possible changes in Oakland, Dallas and several other markets.

None of the firings announced Monday were shocking, though Mangini’s axing did come on the heels of a 9-7 season.

Perhaps the most bizarre of the situations was in Cleveland, where owner Randy Lerner announced that Crennel could possibly stay on the coaching staff in another capacity, according to the team’s Web site.

That’d be … awkward.

Many more changes are likely to occur in the near future. Makes me wonder what happened to continuity – look at Pittsburgh, where they change coaches about every other decade. Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher both lasted just short of forever and Mike Tomlin appears entrenched into the future as well.

That organization has five Super Bowl championships and another appearance in the big game. Perhaps that model is something to learn from.

Tiki grabs credit for Jacobs’ success?

by | Dec 21, 2008 | NFL Random Thoughts

Tiki Barber interviewed his heir as running back for the New York Giants tonight for Sunday Night Football on NBC. During the short piece it sounded as though he wanted to take credit for the success enjoyed thus far by Brandon Jacobs.

He laughingly accused the big Southern Illinois back of stealing a bunch of his touchdowns, to which Jacobs said “I had a lot of fun doing that.”

The interview appeared to be going along good-naturedly, as Tiki razzed Jacobs about winning the Super Bowl without him. Jacobs told Barber he wished his mentor had been there and when Tiki asked for his ring, Jacobs retorted: “I’ll let you borrow it sometime.”

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Bush ends another disappointing season

by | Dec 17, 2008 | NFL Random Thoughts

It was 1985 when Roger Craig ran for 1050 yards and caught another 92 passes for 1016 yards to become the first and still only running back to ever hit four figures in both categories during the same season.

The media-anointed superstar who was supposed to make that a regular feat when he was drafted second overall by New Orleans in 2006 went on injured reserve today after hurting his knee, finishing his third consecutive disappointing season early.

Sure, the expectations heaped upon Reggie Bush after he starred at USC were probably unfair. He never carried the load in college by himself and sometimes it does take running backs – as with all young players – some time to reach their potential.

But in his first three seasons Bush has given no indication that he is ever going to prove the Houston Texans wrong for passing on him with the first overall pick in the draft that season. In fact, his three-year totals barely exceed the stats put up by Roger Craig during that one fantastic season in the mid-1980s.

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