Sunday, January 16, 2005

 

No Surprises

First things first, even though this blog allows me to change the time and date of anything I post, the predictions made in the previous post were actual. I just wish there were some way I could have gotten the proprietor of Dave's Borrowed Camera Company to notorize it for me.

Not that it's any huge surprise. About 6 or 7 weeks into the season everyone pretty much assumed that the Steelers, Patriots and Eagles would all be playing in a Conference Championship game. Pretty much any other team in the NFC had a real shot of getting this far, and the Falcons were among the better teams in their conference. I wouldn't have been surprised if the Eagles hadn't made it this far considering the Terrell Owens injury, but he doesn't play defense and that's how the Eagles got here.

With said Owens injury, the NFC tilt could be quite interesting. The Eagles are still the better team, but losing their best (or is that most?) offensive player, Donovan McNabb excluded, evens the playing field a bit.

No, the game to watch this coming weekend is New England at Pittsuburgh. Pittsburgh's defense was stellar yesterday, allowing only 3 points. A punt return for a touchdown and an interception return for a touchdown gave the Jets a chance to win, that they were unable to take advantage of. And even though rookie QB (how long has he been a rookie QB?) Ben Rothlisberger played like, well, like a rookie, the Pittsburgh ground game was, well, like the Pittsburgh ground game. As a team, the Steelers are good enough to beat anyone.

Yet, superbly coach New England somehow always finds a way. The defensive coaching scheme, aided by a snowy New England evening, was brilliant against the Colts amazing arial attack. The Patriot safeties kept the Indy wideouts in front of them at all times, I never once saw Reggie Wayne or Marvin Harrison with a step on their man, streaking toward the end zone (take note Mike Shanahan). New England's linebackers absolutely dominated, hampering the run, disrupting the pass, and creating turnovers. And the addition of Corey Dillon paid huge dividends today, New England controlled the ball for most of the 4th quarter. The Patriots can run the ball this year, and the addition of Dillon makes this year's team better than the one that won the Super Bowl last year.

But Dillon won't be running against the Colt's iffy defense next week, he'll be knocking heads with the best defense in football. On the other hand, Ben Rothlisberger won't be playing against a team that will allow him to get away with any mistakes. And if Bill Belichick doesn't have something special cooked up for the rookie quarterback, I'll be quite surprised.

Preditctions to come later in the week.......


BOJ

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