Divisional Round in Review

Reviewing my picks

My record: 1-3

• Not exactly a great week for me. About the only thing that I nailed was the Patriots winning in convincing fashion. The Ravens were surprising in their win over the Broncos. Flacco delivered an all time great playoff performance with 30, 50, and 70-yard touchdowns. The Falcons showed a ton of resiliency and finally got the play off win monkey off their backs. The 49ers meanwhile, qualified as the biggest surprise upset to me. More on this to come, but never did I imagine they would outplay the Packers by such a wide margin. 
  

Here’s what impressed me

• Colin Kaepernick: It was just impossible not to be impressed with what this young man did this weekend. He started off on the lowest note possible for a young quarterback making his first postseason debut, when he threw an interception that Sam Shields returned for a score. However, Kaepernick showed the oh so important ability to put that behind him and come right back from a terrible mistake. After that all he did was completely dismantle an overwhelmed Packers defense. Of course Kaepernick ran wild for 181 yards and two scores, the most ever for a quarterback ever, but he also made several great throws with pinpoint accuracy. The throw he made to Vernon Davis for 44-yards was one of the best you will ever see. All in all, this was an all time great playoff performance by the second year signal caller, and he more than validated Jim Harbaugh’s decision mid-season to make him the starter. 

• Ravens Receivers: Nothing surprised me more than the big play ability of the Ravens receivers. Torrey Smith got the better of future hall of famer Champ Bailey on at least three occasions, all resulting in long gains or touchdowns. Anquan Boldin still showed a knack for making the catch that was needed to move the chains. Dennis Pitta chipped in as well, particularly with a tremendous first down reception to move them out of the shadow of their own goal line. Of course, Jacoby Jones rightfully stole the show when he got behind the Denver defense for a70 yard touchdown to send the contest into overtime. This rag-tagish group of pass catchers really came up huge on Saturday.

• Young unknown replacement players: In a losing effort, Broncos rookie Ronnie Hillman stood out to me. His final numbers do not look like much with 23 carries for just over eighty yards, but he consistently made defenders miss and was a steady presence after Knowshon Moreno went down with an injury. He looked ready for a big role in the offense with Peyton Manning next season, provided he can improve his pass blocking. Shane Vereen is the forgotten man in the Patriots backfield with the emerging Stevan Ridley and the steady Danny Woodhead. When Woodhead left with an injury the ultra talented Vereen realy showed his stuff. He scored twice and went for over forty yards on the ground and through the air. Many forget he was drafted ahead of Ridley a year ago and he showed that potential against the Texans.
  
• Matt Ryan and his Falcons: You have to feel pretty good for the Falcons finally getting the playoff monkey off their back, and hey, they sure did it in impressive fashion. There was a certain “here we go again” feeling for Atlanta when, despite leading the entire afternoon, the let my guy Russell Wilson impressively recaptured the lead by scoring thirty points in the second half. However, how could anyone doubt that when Ryan went out there with just 31 seconds on the clock that he was going to drive the Falcons to a win? After all whether it was against the Bears his rookie year or against Carolina earlier this year, we have seen Ryan do it before. He finally confirmed he is in fact a top quarterback, who is one of the most clutch players in the league.
  

And what I wasn’t so impressed with

• Some in game coaching decision: One of my biggest pet peeves in watching football is the icing the kicker nonsense coaches go through at the end of games. Seriously, have we ever seen that work? As if it was scripted, we watched Matt Bryant miss his first try at the game winning field goal against Seattle, but right on cue Carroll called a timeout. Even Carroll knew he had screwed the pooch because he tried to play off like he didn’t call a time out. Nice try Pete. Icing the kicker has become more of something coaches are too scared not to do, but they need to just cut it out. It has proven itself to not work. About as bad in my eyes was John Fox’s predictably conservative game management in the two minute drills of Saturday’s loss. Despite the fact he had Peyton Manning at his disposal, Fox opted to not try to score at the end of the first half or before overtime began; he just called kneel downs twice. Typical Fox, his conservatism was a real problem in Carolina and I wondered when Manning was signed whether a conservative coach like Fox would get the most out of him. Note to Coach Fox: you do not have Jake Delhomme as your quarterback anymore. You’re allowed to take chances, because they might actually work out. 
  
• The Packers game plan: In addition to what we just discussed, it is just unbelievable how much bad coaching wnet on this weekend. I am sorry, but for the Packers to get that torched by the read option is just inexcusable. They looked completely unprepared for and unable to stop Colin Kaepernick running read option looks. Seriously you didn’t prepare for that schematic look after all we have seen this year and when you were playing Colin freaking Kaepernick? I like Dom Capers and all, and he has done quite a job building this defense up, but to allow the young Kaepernick and this offense to gain the most yardage ever by a storied franchise like the Niners is almost a fireable offense. We will see what happens in Green Bay, but after watching Clay Matthews get spun around several times like that, I am sick enough to think changes need to be made in some measure on the defensive side of the ball in Green Bay.
  
• Matt Schaub: I don’t know, I am just kind of over this guy. He was getting ripped pretty hard on Twitter late Sunday night, and while it isn’t all his fault, he certainly didn’t help in what was essentially a noncompetitive performance against the Patriots. However, I have come to the conclusion that two things need to happen here. I certainly see the advantage of bringing in some competition for him. However, I cannot get behind what seems to be the standard fan idea these days in “bring in Alex Smith”. Smith and Schaub are about the same player, except Smith is more mobile and probably not as good of a decision maker. Also, Smith will cost you a draft pick, not worth it. Another player needs to be brought in, whether it’s the draft or midlevel free agency, and let that guy, Yates, and Schaub duke it out in camp. Regardless of who wins though, that player needs more power at the line of scrimmage. Gary Kubiak does not allow his signal caller to do much changing or calls at the line of scrimmage and that really holds an offense back. Kubiak needs to take the training wheels off and let go of some control.