Wild Finish to Otherwise Unsurprising Wild Card Weekend
Leave it to Tim Tebow to cap off an otherwise unsurprising, uneventful, uninspiring Wild Card Weekend. Here are a few thoughts on the games from the weekend past:
Texans 31, Bengals 10
Congrats to the Houston Texans for winning their first ever playoff game in franchise history. It was a hotly contested game in the first half but after a game-changing Pick-6 from JJ Watt gave the Texans a lead they would never relinquish. Stud running back Arian Foster led the way with 153 yards and 2 TD’s while rookie quarterback TJ Yates did enough to keep the Texans in the game. See what a real offensive system looks like? Third string QB? No problem. Take notes, Mike Martz, wherever you are.
Saints 45, Lions 28
I couldn’t be happier to see the Detroit Lions return to their familiar and comfortable seats to watch the rest of the NFL playoffs. I just don’t like that team. They had an arrogance and sense of entitlement that made them unlikable.
Give credit to Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson; they led the Lions and represented admirably, but make way for Drew Brees and the Saints. Breesus and the Saints pulled away from the Lions in the second half, showing what big boy offenses do. With a 10 point lead late in the fourth quarter, while Lovie Smith and the Bears would have been trying to run out the clock, Brees was still slinging it down the field for another touchdown, the perfect kill shot.
Giants 24, Falcons 2
Raise your hand if you think that a healthy Bears team could have represented themselves better than the pathetic effort by the Falcons. 2 lousy points on an Eli Manning intentional grounding call in the end zone? Where was Matty Ice? Maybe the unseasonably warm winter has killed his groove? Those NFC Wild Card teams are pretty pathetic, eh?
Don’t look now, but Eli Manning is looking like the best of the Manning brothers. Do you think he can take his act to Green Bay and upset the Packers?
Broncos 29, Steelers 23 (OT)
Leave it to Tim Tebow to pull off another big upset and get the Broncos past the heavily favored Steelers. More surprising, that he pulled it off through the air, tossing for 316 yards and 2 passing TD, including a walk-off 80 yarder to Demarius Thomas to blow out the new OT rules right out the window. The only people that could have been excited by this win outside of Denver and the CBS network had to be Tom Brady and the Patriots. They feasted on the Broncos earlier this season in Denver, so a re-match in New England should be easy pickings for a trip to the AFC Championship.