Weekend Thoughts-Round 1

Weekend Thoughts-Round 1

What happened on Sunday? How did the Colts lose to the Chargers minus LaDainain Tomlinson? And how did the Cowboys manage to bumble their way out of the postseason against a Giants team with a decimated secondary? That and more in our look back at the playoff games this past weekend.

No one gave the Chargers much of a chance against the defending Super Bowl Champions. Can you blame them? The Chargers were coming into the game with their best receiver, tight end Antonio Gates, nursing a bad toe. They were also playing in the RCA Dome and Marvin Harrison would be back in uniform for the Indianapolis Colts. In the end, none of it mattered. The biggest impact Harrison had on the game was his lost fumble in the first quarter. It led to seven points by the Chargers. Vincent Jackson and Chirs Chambers more than picked up the slack for the ailing Gates. Phil Rivers played hobbled and before he left, threw three touchdown passes for the Bolts. Ask anyone if losing a hot quarterback would derail an offense and most will tell you that it would likely be a train wreck. Enter Billy Volek. And most everyone would agree that the Chargers not having L.T. would basically guarantee a loss. Not so. Enter Michael Turner and Darren Sproles. Volek didn't make any fatal errors and Turner and Sproles more than filled in for the best back in the game. The Colts could not find a way to stop Turner, who rushed for 78 yards, and couldn't find a way to corral Sproles, who scored on a 56-yard screen pass. And give the San Diego defense some credit. They didn't let Peyton Manning get into a real comfort zone. If you're a Colt's fan, it was simply what the Colts didn't do that killed your team. They had scored on their opening drive then picked off Rivers and were driving when Harrison fumbled the ball away. Instead of a possible 14-0 Colts lead, a few minutes later, the game was tied. At the end of the first half with a chance to extend their lead, Manning threw a pick deep in San Diego territory. And Sproles and Turner victimized the defense, even without Tomlinson on the field. Manning and Company also had two chances with less than five minutes remaining in the game to put away the Bolts. But they didn't. The Chargers were better on defense when they had to be and came through on offense when they needed to. And despite the odds, they came out on top.

Here is a question to ask someone with a football mind. Team "A" has more first downs, more yards rushing, more yards passing, more conversions on third down, more sacks, and a 13-minute advantage in time of possession. Who won the game? Team "A" or Team "B"? If you said Team "A", you'd be wrong. Team "A' is the Dallas Cowboys and statistically they were far better than the Giants. but they didn't play better. They made too many simple mistakes that cost teams games at virtually every level. The Cowboys kept finding ways to shoot themselves in the foot and the Giants were the benefactors. The one stat that the Cowboys had a distinct advantage in was penalized. Dallas was flagged 11 times for 84 yards. It cost the Cowboys big. After Dallas had taken the lead with under a minute to play in the first half, a 15-yard facemask penalty moved the ball into Dallas territory. Four plays later, the Giants tied the score. Throw some false starts, an intentional grounding and an unnecessary roughness penalty that had to have even the Dallas faithful shaking their heads into the mix and it should be clear why the Giants are travelling to Green Bay this weekend. While there were some, including myself, who thought the Giants had a real chance in this game, many others didn't have much faith in them. The G-men were depleted in the secondary and were playing one of the more high-powered offenses in the NFL with one of the best receivers to every play the game in Terrell Owens. And Dallas hadn't had much difficulty scoring points on the New York defense in the two previous meetings this season. Throw a sometimes mistake prone Eli Manning in and you get the picture. But it is hard for any team to beat a division rival three times in the same season. This time around, Eli didn't make critical errors, the defense played well despite being somewhat decimated and the Giants kept fighting.  On the other side, the Cowboys didn't execute well or play very smart at times. That combination will always doom a team to failure.

We'll touch on the other weekend games tomorrow so stay tuned...

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Fan Comments they lost because they rested all their players for 3 weeks thus killing any momentum they had with impressive wins at the end of the season. they lost because this team thrives as the underdog and proven in past years they simply cant win in the post season with that hexed bye. I hope they remember the feeling and what happened last year and past years if and when it comes to resting players next years end. they also lost when it became apparent that dwight freeney is indeed a big part of this D missing. they lost because they forgot how they got here by throwing to their recievers not running backs they lost because of the stupid play calling...2 bombs on 2nd and 3 and need a TD or lose last series. they lost when marvin harrison fumbled. they score and the game turns into a laugher. it gave SD life and they used it fully. they lost because everybody had this as a win before it was even played....just like how the colts were treated last year. telling a team it has no chance is a powerful tool no matter how big the spread is. Posted at 15/01 03:34 by kinnick1 View All