Well after a crazy wild card weekend, where I went 2-2 we will look at the next week as the divisions are up for grabs. I want to look at the wild card games and discuss why my two picks of Atlanta and Indianapolis were wrong.
Now besides the fact that they lost the games, certain things happened in each of these games that caused these surprising loses. Both of these teams going into the weekend were the Las Vegas favorites. Atlanta had certain things going for them, a top three running back in Michael Turner was ready to carry the load, but somehow the Cardinals were able to keep him at bay and hold him to just 42 yards on 18 carries with one score. Matt Ryan, the rookie of the year was tossed into the fire and saw how different the playoffs were. His first pass in the playoffs was intercepted and it all went downhill from there. Ryan threw two interceptions and 199 yards, as his rookie stature came out. On the other side the Cardinals played better than I thought they would. The catch by Larry Fitzgerald was phenomenal. Fitz caught a 42 yard touchdown pass jumping over two defenders and flopping to the ground with the ball. But what happened with Arizona? The disgruntled Edge, threw up 73 yards along with Tim Hightower who contributed with 23 yards and a score. The defense for the Cardinals played great, three sacks, two interceptions and a forced fumble. Kurt Warner played like a veteran, two touchdowns only one interception and over 270 yards through the air. So now the Cardinals move on and play the Carolina Panthers.
The shocking loss to the San Diego Chargers by MVP Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts was ridiculous. Darren Sproles had himself a field day racking up 328 all purpose yards tied for third all time in a playoff game. Ladainan Tomlinson scored a touchdown in the first quarter but then passed the ball off Sproles who carried the load the rest of the way. Tomlinson's injury seems to be much more serious than it originally was made out to be. Phillip Rivers had a bad game, no touchdowns, one interception and 217 yards threw the air. It was all Sproles all the time. For the Colts Manning did what he could 310 yards and a touchdown and no turnovers but the running game was not there and in the end it just was not enough. Norv Turner and his Chargers now face the Pittsburgh Steelers.
No comments:
Post a Comment