NFL Wild Card Round: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Wild Card week is now in the books, and it was a mixed bag. Two teams hit the Good while their oppoenent mailed in an Ugly. The results were predictable based on those grades. A third play pretty well while its opponent was Bad and on the verge of Ugly. The result there was also predictable based on the grades. Finally, entering the last game looking for anything positive in the way of competitiveness, a Good was produced without an opponent stinking up the joint. The result there was anything but predictable, particularly how the outcome was sealed.

So, four luck contestants move on to the Divisional Round.

Thanks for reading this season, Team Ugly.

The Good
Arizona – Kurt Warner put on a clinic: 29 of 33 for 379 yards and 5 TDs, for a rating of 154.1. This was an offensive explosion resulting in the highest combined score in playoff history. Although the Cardinal defense had trouble stopping the Packer offense most of the game, they came up with a strip of the ball in OT that won the game.

Baltimore – The beastly Baltimore defense reared its head again. The analysts were only able to utter the phrase “Tom Brady has never lost a home playoff game” until around the middle of the first quarter as they watched the Ravens jump on a three TD lead. Brady has been an interception machine in the playoffs in recent years and the Ravens made him pay. Ray Rice and Willis McGahee ran wild on the suspect Patriot defense and killed the clock in the fourth quarter. The final score was closer than the actual game.

Dallas – This was almost a carbon copy of the week 17 domination over the Eagles. Tony Romo looked comfortable and the Cowboys defense never allowed McNabb and Co. to get into a groove. Wade Phillips’ challenge early in the game resulted in an overturn of an INT and kept the momentum in the Cowboy’s hands. That may have ended the competitive phase of this game, as they never looked back from that point.

The Bad
Cincinnati – Carson Palmer was just atrocious. His passes were all over the place and mostly above his receivers’ heads. The Bengals were so beat up and looked like the walking wounded out there. This was an impressive year for the Bengal team but it was obvious that they didn’t have anything left in the tank at the end. Perhaps only Cedric Benson prevented this from being in the Ugly.

The Ugly
New England – I think the crowd is still booing in Foxboro. The Pats amassed under 200 yards of total offense and coughed up four turnovers to end their home playoff magic. On defense, they surrendered an 83 yard TD rush on the first offensive play of the game, which was the first of 52 rushes against their defense for 234 yards. A fumble and two interceptions later and the Pats were down 24-0 after only 13-½ minutes. Aside from the huge run, the Ravens needed only 41 additional yards to gain the other 17 points thanks to the turnovers. The Ravens scored 26 points on 5 drives totaling only 111 yards.

Philadelphia – So much for the “big play” Eagles. It looks like they missed their flight to Dallas. The Eagles followed the tried-and-true formula attempting 43 passes out of 56 plays. These numbers were similar to week 17, and so were the results. Philly established next to nothing on either side of the ball. Defensively, they gave up another 426 yards to the Cowboys. In two weeks, this team went from talk of the Super Bowl to flushed out of the wild card round of the playoffs.

Honorable Mention
Cedric Benson – With 169 yards rushing, he was the Cincinnati offense. Unfortunately for the Bengals, he is not twins.
Felix Jones – A 73 yard TD run followed up with 75 more yards in his other 15 carries for the Cowboys.
Jermichael Finley – 159 yards in 6 catches for the Packers tight end, who is still open even as we speak. He may have been carrying pepper spray to keep the Cardinals defenders away.
Shonn Greene – 135 yards and a 6.4 per carry average for the Jets.
Ray Rice – He opened the game with an 83 yard TD run against the Pats and finished with 159 yards in 22 carries. He and the Ravens defense pretty much were the Ravens offense.
Aaron Rodgers – Just an amazing performance for his first playoff game. It’s too bad his defense did not show up.
Sanchize – Good performance by the rookie and a gem of a quote regarding Carroll afterward.
Kurt Warner – A simply great performance.