NFL Wildcard Week

-My prediction of another weekend of uncompetitive football almost came true. With less than five minutes gone in the second half of the last game of the weekend, Larry Fitzgerald scored on a 33-yard touchdown pass to put the Cardinals up 31-10 over the Packers.

With the Bengals, Eagles and Patriots having already limped out of the playoffs after producing poor performances, it looked like the entire weekend was about to whizz by without a single good game.

Thankfully, Aaron Rodgers and the Packer offense were scintillating after that Fitzgerald TD, scoring 35 points and forcing the game into overtime. Their second half display breathed some life into what had been a very dull weekend.

The Bengals couldn’t produce the passing game they desperately needed in order to mount a successful comeback against the Jets. The Eagles had no answer to Tony Romo and the Cowboys offense and the Patriots shot themselves in the foot with early turnovers.

All three teams were booed by their fans at some point during their games (both the Patriots and Bengals were at home), and can you blame them? After the emotional rollercoaster that is a season in the NFL, the very least the fans deserve is a competitive playoff display to prove to them the journey was worth it.

Philadelphia, New England and Cincinnati all laid a massive egg in that respect this weekend.

-Did the NFL very quietly and discreetly introduce a new model of football for the playoffs sometime last week? Because no one could seem to hold onto the ball.

There were 14 fumbles in the four wildcard games. I’m certainly no math quiz but I think that works out to more than three a game. That seems high, given that we were supposed to be watching eight of the best teams in football.

Not to mention all the dropped passes on display: the Jets Braylon Edwards’s drop in the endzone Saturday in particular springs to mind, but a number of Green Bay receivers were also guilty on Sunday.

-A quick thought on what is rapidly becoming a highly controversial no-call. The blogosphere is blowing up today with talk of the no-call for Michael Adams grabbing Aaron Rodgers’ facemask as he forced the fumble in what turned out to be the decisive play of the Green Bay-Arizona overtime.

It’s certainly an interesting case because the facemask contact definitely occurred after Adams’ arm had stripped the ball and forced the fumble. The contact was also incidental in the sense that it didn’t cause the fumble or have an effect on the play.

However critics of the no-call argue that defenders cannot touch a quarterback’s facemask in any situation without some yellow laundry being tossed.

As Peter King pointed out, once the fumble has occurred, the officials’ eyes are supposed to be focused on the ball rather than the quarterback and his facemask. Furthermore, in the chaos that usually transpires when the ball is fumbled, it is pretty common for penalties, that in normal play would be called, to be ignored.

It will be interesting to see if this play, because it occurred in such a crucial situation in such a crucial playoff game and the hit was put on a quarterback not a role player, will force the NFL to yet another rule reconsideration.

-Five superstars of the weekend:

1) Kurt Warner, Cardinals: Best performance by a passer this weekend. Simple as that. He failed to connect on only 4 of the 33 passes he threw, and torched the Green Bay secondary (particularly in the middle of the field) for 379 yards and 5 TDs. Is Warner about to deliver another very special January?

2) Anthony Spencer and DeMarcus Ware, Cowboys: The premier pass rushing combo in the NFL right now. Bar none. They combined for three sacks and countless other pressures. Brett Favre won’t be looking forward to seeing them next week.

3) Julian Edelman, Patriots: There was so much pressure on Edelman coming into this game to step up and be a Wes Welker clone. He did a pretty darn good job, catching two touchdown passes, and showing a fantastic ability to keep moving after the first hit. He also had a wonderful punt return of 28 hard yards.

4) Greg Jennings, Packers: Jennings was freakishly good against the Cards. No need to read about it, just watch.

5) Cedric Benson, Bengals: For much of the game he was the Bengals only source of offense. Dragged Cincinnati back into the contest with a 47 yards TD run in the fourth quarter. He’s big, strong, and has a nasty change of direction.

Honorable mention: Shonn Greene and Mark Sanchez (Jets), Felix Jones (Cowboys), Vince Wilfork (Patriots), Dwan Edwards and Ray Rice (Ravens), and Steve Breaston (Cardinals).


-Five duds of the weekend:

1) Shayne Graham, Bengals: As a kicker, it’s pretty hard to make it to number 1 in the dud list, so that gives you an idea of the kind of day Graham had against the Jets. He missed two crucial field goals, from only 28 and 35 yards, in the second half. The former Pro Bowler couldn’t handle the pressure of the big stage.

2) Chad Ochocinco, Bengals: Ochocinco doesn’t really ‘do’ common sense, so there’s not much point in explaining to him the stupidity of giving the best cover corner in the league extra ammunition to shut you down by calling him out in the national media. Darrelle Revis certainly didn’t look like he needed a brown paper bag to cover you, Chad…either time.

3) Donovan McNabb, Eagles: McNabb opened up an offseason of speculation about his job in Philly after two bad performances against Dallas. He held the ball too long, took four sacks, and failed to get the offense moving.

4) Carson Palmer, Bengals: Palmer needed to have a big game for Bengals in their first playoff appearance since 2005. He ended up showing less poise than the rookie across from him Mark Sanchez. He looked jittery on his early throws, throwing the ball too high and not following through properly.

5) Nick Collins, Patriots: Before the game, whispers emerged from the Cardinals camp that they believed they could attack the Packers in the middle of the field with their passing game. What an understatement that turned out to be! Steve Breaston, Larry Fitzgerald, and Early Doucet practically set up camp between the Green Bay hash marks. Collins, the primary safety, has to be the fall guy for this. That was his turf to cover.

Honorable mention: Tom Brady and Randy Moss (Patriots), Bryant McFadden, Antrel Rolle and Neil Rackers (Cardinals), Sheldon Brown (Eagles).