Finally, a Football Posting

So I have had a week to digest the debacle that was the Tampa Bay/Washington game last week. I have deflated my eight foot Bucs down lineman and have put away my new Black #24 Cadillac Williams jersey and Lauren, sadly has put the cheerleader outfit in mothballs for the long winter. The game was decided on two controversial plays that were unable to be overturned due to lack of "evidence."
The first of these plays was a fumble by the aforementioned Carnell "Cadillac" Williams that was recovered by the (still politically incorrect nicknamed) Redskins and returned 53 yards for a touchdown. In looking at the play through my completely biased but still 20/20 eyesight, the player who recovered the ball was down by contact as Williams leg was touching him the entire time he was on the ground. In fact, if you look at the replay, you can see Williams leg moving up when the player comes out of the pile because it was still connected to his leg. "The ruling on the field stands. Touchdown Washington." 7 points for the bad guys (hey, that's Lauren's name for them, not mine).
The second, equally stunning play was with three minutes left in the game with the Redskins still up by the BS touchdown that was described in the previous paragraph. Chris Simms throws a perfect strike to Edell Shepherd who catches the ball in the end zone, gets two feet down, lands on his knee (still in the end zone) and the ball drops out. The ruling on the field is that he never controlled the ball in the end zone, so it is an incomplete pass. I have been watching football for most of my life. In that time, I understood a catch to be getting two feet or a knee, elbow, butt, torso in bounds with control of the ball. I also understood that if a player has control of the ball and any miniscule portion of the said football crosses the plane of the end zone, it is a touchdown. Somehow, if a player catches the ball in the end zone, gets two feet in bounds and gets a knee in bounds, he is required to maintain posssession of the ball for another few minutes. "The ruling on the field stands. Incomplete Pass. Tampa Bay has used its last time out." The game was pretty much over right then. Simms had another opportunity on fourth down when Shepherd again was open in the end zone, but overthrew him badly.
So on two plays, our season came to a crashing end. The defense played one of the greatest games that I can remember. We limited Washington to 120 yards of total offense for the game. 120 freaking yards--that's an average day for Clinton Portis, and we hold the entire team to that. Two bad turnovers put 14 points on the board, and otherwise, we dominated the clock, the line of scrimmage and the game, but it was not to be.
I realize that I sound bitter, and deep down I am not. I am disappointed in the way the game went down, because I thought they deserved to win. I don't like games decided by bad calls either way (and I am sure that if I was a Redskin fan, I would have seen things just the opposite way). One of the best features of my Sirius radio in the car is the ability to listen to every home radio broadcast of all 32 teams. When there is a controversial call, I love to switch to the other station and listen to their broadcaster's take. "That was one of the worst calls I have ever seen in the 25 years of broadcasting that you and I have been together Earl. How the hell could they call him down?" "I know what you mean, Chuck. The Lions will be calling the league office on Monday, I guarantee you that. These guys are the worst officiating team I have ever seen. They're going to have a hard time getting out of the stadium tonight." and then you flip to the Vikings broadcast: "This group of officials is not afraid to make the tough calls, Joe." "No they're not. They have a hostile crowd of hooligans here at Ford field, but they got this one right--you see that, right there. He's down, you can see his knee just scrape the ground. At full speed, those refs really are doing an amazing job tonight."
The best part about watching the game on National TV was the pleasure of watching the unbaised play-by-play and color commentary displayed by the boys at ESPN. "I know, guys. Let's put Theismann in to do the game. He only played for the Redskins for 13 years and won a Superbowl with the coach on the sidelines. He will give us nothing but straightforward, fair-handed insight into this game." What a load of crap. I kept waiting for them to pan into the broadcast booth to find him with one of those giant foam #1 fingers and a Redskin emblazoned hard hat with two beers and twisty straws coming down from the sides.
In the big picture, however, I am not really that upset about the season. About the game, yeah, I'm a little fired up, but the season far exceeded my expectations for this team. In September, I was looking at the crop of College Seniors, because frankly I expected Tampa to have one of the top five picks again. Instead, they not only get past the .500 mark, they not only qualify for the playoffs, but they win their division and finish with the team's second best record of all time. I can't be too pissed off about that. You never want the season to end like it did last Saturday, but the fact that we made it that far gives me some solace heading into the offseason.
Now onto some prognosticating:
Since I no longer wager on sports, I am providing this service for your benefit only. Last week, I had absolutely no opinion one way or the other on any of the four games. I guess that isn't true, I had an opinion about who I wanted to win, but I didn't feel strongly about betting any of the four matchups last week. This week, for some reason, I have opinions, so get out the number of your favorite book maker and get ready to place some heavy wagers. Frankly, you'd be foolish not to risk your full retirement/children's college tuition on this insight, but you do what you want.
Washington at Seattle -9 1/2
Wow, 9 1/2 points is a ton. I love Seattle to win this game, but 9 1/2 points. Remember, Seattle has not won a playoff game since 1984--1984 that's 22 years ago. We were still in the first Reagan administration for Christ's sake. And now, suddenly they are 9 1/2 point favorites against the best all time playoff coaching record in Joe Gibbs. The Redskins have reeled off 6 straight wins (more than anybody in the playoff field right now). They managed to win a game last week that they had no business winning, so they are playing on borrowed time (house money if you will). Also remember, Washington beat Seattle earlier in the year, so they know that they can play with them. Here's the problem with picking Washington:

1. They are beat up--Portis can barely hold the ball with his sore shoulder, the secondary is in shambles and Brunell is 103 years old
2. Seattle is very good. Shaun Alexander is the league MVP, Hasselbeck is the starting QB in the Pro Bowl.
3. Seattle is getting no respect and will have something to prove
4. Washington has to travel across the country. Seattle is a long plane ride, and don't discount that
5. Seattle is 8-0 at home this year
6. Vegas ain't dumb

For all of these reasons, lay the points. Seattle very well could win this thing by 24. It will get ugly, and it will probably get ugly in a hurry. Seattle is not Tampa's offense. The shortcomings of Washington's beat up secondary will be glaring today Final Score:

Seattle 31 Washington 9

New England at Denver -3

For years, Denver has owned New England--owned them. The Patriots have won one time (2003) in the last 30 years or something when these two teams have met. Look it up--it is an absolutely ridiculous stat. Some teams just have another team's number, and it doesn't matter who is playing in the uniform, they just kill them. There is a classic clip on NFL Films where Shannon Sharpe (while playing for the Broncos) picks up one of the sideline phones and says "Hello, get me President Clinton. Let him know we need to call out the National Guard because we are killing the Patriots." It happens every time these two teams get together. Denver is at home and is rested, while New England is depleted, beat up and unable to bring anything other than their 10 game playoff winning streak to the table. Can you really bet on a team based solely on their playoff history? The Patriots finished the year 10-6, which is the worst record of any playoff team this year. If they were in any other division, they would be home for the playoffs all together, but the AFC East was so piss poor this year that somebody had to win, why not the Pats?

But here's the thing that I can't get out of my head. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are 10 and freaking 0 in the playoffs. That just doesn't happen by accident. They have gotten here with a patchwork secondary, no offensive line and a battalion of unknown players who most Arena league GMs wouldn't take a flier on. But yet they are here. There is not a better cold weather QB that I have seen in my lifetime, and there may not be a better playoff QB when the final chapter of Brady's career is written. Until somebody beats them, I will not put my money against this team in January. Even though I am not putting any money down this time either, I'll take the three points and I expect the Pats to cover and squeak out a win in Denver tonight. Final Score:

New England 23 Denver 17

Before I go too far out on a limb, and you have spent your mortgage playing these two can't-miss picks, I will hold off on tomorrow's matchups until tomorrow. Now it is time for me to go and look at the juniors who have decalred for the NFL draft. We're only a couple of months away from the combine. God, I love Football.