Ravens and Cardinals Move into Final Four

The Ravens and Cardinals moved into their Conference Championship games yesterday. I watched most of the Ravens game and they were completely outplayed. The scary Ravens defense was pushed around by the Titans offense line, but the Titans 3 turnovers, 2 in the red zone, were the difference. Another game changing event was the injury of Chris Johnson. The star  back did not play in the second half because of an ankle injury. This exposed the Titans biggest weakness, lack of an offensive playmaker. This should be their number 1 priority in the offseason. 

The Cardinals shocked everyone by crushing the Panthers 33-13 in Carolina. The Cardinal defense stepped up and had 6 takeaways. Jake Delhomme was awful throwing 5 picks to a slightly above average secondary. All the pundits thought Arizona didn't have a chance and it seems the Cardinals used that as very effective bulletin board material. 

The interesting aspect of the NFC playoffs is today's game Eagles v. Giants. If the Giants win, Arizona has to come East for the second week in a row and play in the unpredictable winds in the Meadowlands. The Giants would be the clear favorite. However, if the Eagles win, Arizona gets a home game against an Eagle team that will probably be beaten up considering the physical play expected in today's 1 pm game. Needless to say, the entire state of  Arizona has just become members of the D. McNabb fanclub. Expect a tough game, but the G-men are rested and playing at home. New York 20 Philly 13.

Sox Sign Smoltz

Say it three times fast. Another low-risk/high-reward signing for the Red Sox as they are calling them. Future HOFer John Smoltz joins the pitching staff as Rocco Baldelli signs on to replace Coco Crisp as the fourth outfielder. Badelli's condition probably won't be an issue since he won't have to play everyday and seems to have found a way to manage his fatigue. But while he is in the line up he will bust his hump for you, and I like that.

As for the Smoltz signing, stock piling pitchers is not a bad idea. Especially since the Sox are recruiting folks who should be average at the very worst. The Sox still have plenty of run scoring ability so after you get past Beckett, Dice-K, and Lester they should be able to platoon pitch well enough to win a bunch of those games.

Odds and Ends

It has been awhile since we have mentioned any baseball news on the site and I think enough things have happened that we should catch up a bit.

First thing first, Mark Teixeira was a officially made a Yankee on Tuesday. The Yankees had to revamp their pitching but Teixeira fills a gap that has been vacant since the days of Tino Martinez. His glove is probably more important for the Yankees than his bat ever could be.

The Yankees former first baseman, Jason Giambi also has a job again. The Giambino will be traveling back to his original franchise the Oakland A's. I give all my best to Giambi. Though he was a steriod user, he is one of the few who actually manned up and admitted that what he did was wrong.

Speaking off former Yankees, Carl Pavano actually convinced another major league team to give him a contract. What possessed Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro to sign that train wreck of humanity I don't know.

What I do know is that I can't stand the fact that every time his bio is given they say he is from New Britain, Conn. Since all three authors on this blog are originally from New Britain, I would like to set the record straight: the man was only born in New Britain and did not have the privilege of actually living in Hard Hittin' New Britain. He grew up a couple of towns over Southington, Conn. We of New Britain lament his association with the city and would like you to look at our more upstanding athletes like Tebucky Jones of the New England Patriots, Ricky Bottalico of the Philadelphia Phillies or even Walter Camp the inventor of modern day football.

Another piece of news belongs to the Minnesota Twins. Their owner Carl Pohlad passed away on Monday at the age of 93. Pohlad saw the Twins win two championships in his day, the first in 1987 and the second in 1991. Most recently his ownership came under fire for what many deemed as a lack of desire to spend parts of his own billionaire fortune to retain some of baseball's best players. It's easy to bash Pohlad for being cheap, but the twins were mostly successful under his ownership and those two championships are a lot more than a lot of teams have seen in the past 25 years.

One other thing I would like to say is kudos to Boston College. If you don't pay attention to college football I can't blame you, I don't pay it much mind either. But I will say that over the years I have been disgusted with easy and frequency collegiate coaches have bailed out of million dollar contracts to go coach at another school or even professionally. I'm all for people getting paid, hell I am a Yankee fan after all, but the schools that sign these large contracts withe the coaches have to fulfill their end of the bargain if they fire the coach so why shouldn't the coaches be held to the same standard?

When BC fired head coach Jeff Jagodzinski for interviewing with the Jets after they explicitly warned him not too, they sent a clear and resounding message that I hope the rest of college sports heard.

Also Adam "Pacman" Jones was released by the Cowboys today. One word for that: Awesome.

NFL Divisional Playoffs

I gave you all my thoughts on Giants vs. Eagles and Titans vs. Ravens in my last post. Now for the other two games, which I think are a lot easier to predict. First of all they feature my two Super Bowl teams that I picked at the start of the playoffs. Secondly these second seeds have much more favorable match ups as the Steelers and Panthers face a couple of fraud divisional winners in the Chargers and Cardinals respectively.

Both the Chargers and Cardinals have explosive capabities on offense. San Diego has been rejuvinated by Darren Sproles and the Cardinals passing game has its swagger back. (If I can digress for one minute, it appears that LT is nearing the end of the line. He is banged up and probably won't play Sunday, but beyond that his burst seems gone. I love LT as a player and person. He will probably end up in the HOF, but RB's sure to get old in a hurry once their time is up, don't they?) However, the playoffs are mostly about defense and the Steelers and Panthers have that in spades. They will find a way to make a stop, force a turnover, or get a sack at the right time to win these games.

The Steelers and Chargers played that Ed Hocchuli game early in the season and Pittsburgh won by a point. This will be a much talked about aspect of this weekend's game. Will it have any bearing on this playoff rematch? No, no, and no, so stop talking about it. The Chargers probably have as good a chance to pull an upset as anyone, but I just can't see it happening. I can see Phillip Rivers losing his mind after getting sacked for the fourth time though.

There is no way Arizona will be able to stop Carolina's running attack. If they hold Carolina under 140 yards, I will eat my hat. I know they corralled Michael Turner, but I can't envision them doing that two weeks in a row. Their body of work shows Arizona to be a poor defensive team. They allow 110 yard rushing per game, 16th in the NFL, and 426 points, 5th worst in the league and the worst of any team in the playoffs. One good game does not a season make.

Eagles, Ravens Vindicate Dan

Well, I was 50% on Wild Card Weekend thanks to wins by Baltimore and Philly. The Eagles had a clear advantage in QB play, which I thought would be the difference and it was. Minnesota's D helped them hang around, but once they got down two scores, it took AP out of the game plan, and the Vikings were toast.

Miami's offense was just not able to challenge the Raven's defense at all. Joe Flacco, while he sprayed the football all over the field, didn't make the big mistakes and Chad Pennington did. Chad has a number of good qualities; intelligence, accuracy, leadership. But sometimes you just need a big gun. Chad doesn't have one. There was one deep ball he threw where he had a receiver open despite double coverage. Had he been able to get the ball out in front and toward the sideline, he may have completed it. Instead it was short and to the inside, easy pickings.

The results of the weekend festivities have created some unfavorable match ups for the top seeds in each conference (on account of the stupid seeding process placing division winners in a higher position than wild cards regardless of record). The Giants have to play division foe, Philadelphia, for the third time. The aggregate score from the two regular season meetings; Eagles 51, Giants 50. (Thanks Peter King.) They're probably the last team the Giants want to face.

Baltimore goes to Tennessee in the Ug Bowl. The first team to attempt a pass loses. It will result in an interception or a sack and fumble. Final score 3-0. Both teams rely on defense and getting lucky. The key to beating teams like these is to be patient and play mistake free. Even though I don't think much of Kerry Collins, I have to give the Titans the advantage at QB. Joe Flacco looked like Mitch Williams yesterday the way he was flinging it around.

Cardinals, Chargers make a fool of Dan

So far it's an inauspicious start for me and my playoff predictions.  I really thought that the Falcons would be able to run all over the Cardinals.  Instead Arizona held Michael Turner to 42 yards on 18 carries.  Their defense, whom I had bad-mouthed, even added a touchdown on top of it when they blew up a hand off in the third quarter and Antrelle Rolle returned the fumble all the way.  The Cardinals never relinquished the lead after that.

The MVP for the Chargers was arguably their punter, Mike Scifres, who consistently pinned the Colts in their own end.  The most impressive punt was the one that he boomed in the fourth with the Chargers down three that hit at the one and careened directly toward the sideline.  This put the Colts' backs against the wall for their last meaningful possession of the game and set up the Chargers with great field position to eventually get the tying field goal.  Then it was the Colts defense that killed them in overtime with penalties, allowing San Diego to drive deep in Indy territory.  Darren Sproles then atoned for an earlier red zone fumble with the winning TD run.  You can't say enough about what he meant in the absence of LT.  San Diego continues to have Indy's number as they have won four out the past five meetings. 

NFL Playoff Predictions

Just to show that I have the cajones, I'm going to predict the entire NFL playoffs as if I were filling out an NCAA tournament bracket. I'm just going to lay it all out there and see what the reaction is. First the AFC. As I've said all year, I just can't see the Titans making it to the Super Bowl. If Roethlisberger takes care of the ball, there is no team that will best the Steeler defense. Beware the red hot Colts, however.

Wild Card Round:
Colts 26, Chargers 17; Ravens 13, Dolphins 7
Divisional Round:
Steelers 24, Colts 17; Titans 14, Ravens 3
AFC Championship:
Steelers 31, Titans 17

Now the NFC. If the Eagles and Falcons win on Wild Card Weekend, it will create some unfavorable match ups for the top seeds. No one wants to see a divisional rival for the third time in the playoffs, especially the top seeds who gain virtually no advatange from homefield or the intimidation. That being said, I think the Giants and Panthers will find ways to win close games.

Wild Card Round:
Falcons 34, Cardinals 7; Eagles 17, Vikings 7
Divisional Round:
Giants 30, Eagles 24; Panthers 27, Falcons 21
NFC Championship:
Panthers 34, Giants 31

The Super Bowl will feature two teams that appeared in the big game on separate occasions a few years ago. Their experiences and the coaching will make it a hard fought well played game. Unfortunately, for Jake Delhomme and John Fox they will have their second Super Bowl loss in six seasons. The teams match up pretty evenly, but the Steelers have a clear advatage at the most important position, QB. Steelers 24, Panthers 10