Post by spiderfan on Jan 16, 2024 11:47:19 GMT -8
Playoffs Sports Coast to Coast! Spiderfan here, your official NFL analyst here coming to you with the Wild Card Edition (I refuse to call it Super Wild Card that name should have been done away with after year 1 of the expanded playoff tree) of Red Hot Gridiron. We have a bunch to get into, so without further ado, let us begin!
Young Teams Win
Much is made of playoff experience when teams play in, well, the playoffs. This is usually brought up as advantage for one team against another. And if both teams have little playoff experience, "veteran" experience is brought up not just in a playoff context but in a "big game" context when it relates to regular season games. Both the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys have veteran players with varying levels of experience on both sides of the ball. Their opponents in the Houston Texans and the Green Bay Packers respectively did not. The Cowboys and Browns were both favored in part, if not large part, because of it.
The Texans best players all young players who either rookies or have not played in the playoffs, and the Packers are one of the youngest teams in the league, led by a QB in Jordan Love who while not technically a rookie, is a first year starter. None of that mattered in the slightest.
The Browns-Texans game was competitive for about a half, until the floodgates opened for the Texans and by the end of the game, they won 45-14. A Browns offense that had been stellar under Joe Flacco, was shut down, and ended up giving the Texans free points in not one but two pick sixes. Those pick sixes however, were not the difference, as the Texans offense led by rookie QB CJ Stroud cut up the Browns defense Fruit Ninja style, which is saying something considering that outside of red zone defense, the Browns defense was dominant statistically led by one of the contenders for DPOY Myles Garrett.
Speaking of dominant defenses led by a star DE, the Cowboys defense made the Browns defense look competent by comparison. Unlike the Browns, the Cowboys were never competitive against the Packers. If the Packers had wanted to they could have scored over 50 and if they wanted to the Packers defense could have held the Cowboys to WAY under the 32 points they ended up putting up (more on that later).
Now whether or not the Texans and Packers performances were one offs or if they continue to make noise in the playoffs has yet to be seen. But even if they end up being one off performances, they are still impressive, and will certainly be remembered and for good reason, as upsets should be, especially ones that could set the stage for young teams developing into consistent contenders down the road.
The Curse Takes A Hit
From time to time I bring up The Curse of Bobby Layne when discussing the Detroit Lions. I've gone over it in depth before, so I wont rehash it again. As the title of the segment suggests, the curse took a hit on Sunday. Not only did the Detroit Lions win, they defeated the Los Angeles Rams, quarterbacked by Matthew Stafford, who was the one who was originally the person who was supposed to break the curse. Going into the game, it looked like he was going to go from the person who was supposed to break it, to the person who was going to help perpetuate it. The Lions defense kept that from happening.
In what was a mostly offense game, the Lions defense kept holding the Rams to field goals instead of touchdowns, and late in the 4th quarter kept the Rams from scoring at all. Obviously, credit also has to go the Lions offense, led by Jared Goff, who played great and validated the Lions trading for him.
Because of the Lions victory, they'll get another home playoff game, and it certainly feels now more than ever that the sky is the limit for the Lions. Things arguably haven't been that way for the Lions since the days of Bobby Layne.
The Future of the Dallas Cowboys
Years ago during the later stages of the Jason Garret era, I referred to the Dallas Cowboys as the Dallas Ostriches because of their tendency to stick their head in the sand when it came to the lackluster state of their organization. The end of the Garret era and the entrance into the Mike McCarthy era brought them out the sand some, although their continued insistence on Kellen Moore being the offensive coordinator and Dak Prescott being the quarterback didn't help things. Then Kellen Moore was finally pushed out, another move in the right direction as McCarthy's offense made Dak's stats better. Jimmy Johnson even got into the Ring of Honor, finally bringing peace and closure to the drama surrounding Johnson's tenure as coach of the Cowboys. And the punchline to all of that is the Cowboys got blown out by the Packers. The final score and stats are misleading because the Cowboys put up a bunch of points and yards in what ended up being a long period of garbage time. Dak once again proved that he sucks in the postseason and the rest of the team turned out to be a bunch of paper tigers, especially on defense.
So, now the speculation begins about Mike McCarthy's job status. He has a better winning percentage than Jason Garrett did and has only one less playoff win, which if McCarthy was given the amount of years that Garrett was, I have no doubt that he would match or exceed. Unlike Garrett who was part of the Cowboys organizations at different points for years and so was given brownie points, McCarthy was not. Unlike Dak Prescott, who has been bequeathed the QB of the Cowboys and was given a morbidly obese contract because the Cowboys didn't think they could find anyone better, Mike McCarthy has the pressure on him because of the ongoing belief that someone could do a better job than him.
And so McCarthy is likely to end up the fall guy. I personally think that McCarthy should be given a chance to be the coach without Dak, but in all likelihood he won't be given that chance. So who replaces McCarthy? Well, Bill Belichick seems to be the favorite (assuming he doesn't take the Falcons job) and he would certainly bring about a culture change to the organization. Now, could the Cowboys actually handle such a culture change? I'm inclined to think not and if Belichick is hired, I'm curious to see which players either end up on the chopping block or leave because they want nothing to do with "The Patriot Way" a way that without Tom Brady has no success.
The Rise of the Bills and the Fall of the Eagles
The most bizarre thing happened during the end of the regular season and now into the postseason. The Eagles at one time were 10-1 and despite being slightly down statistically from their Super Bowl runner up season last year, were certainly a team to be looked at as a possible Super Bowl contestant once again. As it ended up turning out they finished 1-6 down the stretch with their only win barely coming against the Tinys, would probably would have won the game had they had Tyrod Taylor playing the whole game. Whether this is because of Jalen Hurts not being 100 percent being of nagging injuries or because of the youth of the defense or because of two new coordinators or looking too far ahead and not focusing on what was in front of them, I have no idea. What I do know is that the Buccaneers dominated, which is not something I would have expected to see even a few weeks ago. It is still a little surprising, but it is a fitting end to what was a horrible end of the season for the Eagles.
In the AFC, the Buffalo Bills were barley 6-6 and looked like a team that was nowhere near up to par with their previous teams during the Josh Allen era. They ended up firing OC John Dorsey, which at the time didn't seem to make sense, although now it has turned out to be the turning point of their season. The Bills have gone 7-1 since Joe Brady became interim offensive coordinator, and they look like a much better team. Now whether this is because they were back against the wall and decided to take the adversity head on or because of the change in Xs and Os or all of the above, again I'm not certain. What is certain is that the Bills are back to being the Super Bowl contenders that they have been in the past, which has the potential to shake up the postseason big time. They still do have the play the Chiefs and if they beat the Chiefs, likely the Ravens, so they still have their work cut out for them. Beating an overachieving Steelers team is, admittedly, the least impressive of the playoff wins this past week.
And with all of that said that is all for this week's Red Hot Gridiron. As always I hope ya enjoyed and I hope to see ya again next week. Remember, football is the greatest game in the world. This is spiderfan out.
